Woke to pouring rain at 6am. Apparently its not the rainy season, yet, this is just a precursor. Said goodbye to Rich and Debs who start their Mount Kilimanjaro climb today -- together with the flight back to Jo'burg it's costing them the best part of US$2500 for both. Let's hope the private medical practice rakes in the cash. [We received word that they made it on the 3rd November -- congratulations! Though the tale puts me in no hurry to try it myself.]
Then a pretty nasty road north from Arusha to Nairobi. I'm guessing the Tanzanians don't want people to leave (or come in, I guess) as the road is pretty poorly maintained. We stopped at the airport for lunch and to exchange money and confirm flights. Heiko (shorter), also on Emirates, was told to check [confirm] in the office in town. We tried at a different office round the corner (with Heiko in tow) that turned out to be the other end of the office that Heiko had tried. This time, no problem, all the flights were confirmed.
Sadly the Barclays cashpoint in the other building was out of money so we're having to eat into our cash pile for the Maldives. At some point we're going to have to work out how to get more money whilst abroad (travellers cheques etc., rather than cash from a cashpoint!).
Finally, to Heron Court Hotel to spend the afternoon winding down ready to do nothing tommorow in preparation for the flight on Friday at 6.20pm.
Heron Court Hotel, Nairobi S1.28925
E36.80719 Elev. 1705m. Less than 1.3 degrees from the Equator! 
We think Georgie has taken to his bed with malaria. He says he gets it every three months. His cure is nine pills over three days and plenty of rest. Our FedEx parcel doesn't appear to have gone anywhere so there's a couple of anxious calls and use of the Internet. It magically appears [on the website] whilst we search but we'll get Paul to pop into Arusha on his way home and see what they have to say.
We have a final own expense meal in the hotel restaurant [own expense wrt the Drifters tour, obviously it's all own expense from now on!]. The usual African thing of the orders getting mixed up and some people finishing before others have been served ["pole pole," slowly, slowly]. An Indian woman who purports to be the owner keeps asking if everything is OK. Nobody says a thing.
We lounge around after the meal expecting Paul to go to bed early (he's leaving at 5am tomorrow to drive back [the 7000km] to Jo'burg in 4 days (3 if he's quick) then 3 days off [before he starts the next tour, to Botswana]!) but he's supping a couple of beers so we fall back into funny stories from the trip (a few Herman moments included). Paul says that there's nothing to be done about the Serengeti guides. Drifters are using the last one on the list having been through the lot. Only Tanzanian citizens can become guides and the qualification is a driving licence. Paul, himself, was on one safari where he had to start telling people what was going on around them. And the journey back [with the Serengeti guides] always takes half the time [of the outward trip]! Finally, at 11, my eyelids drooping, Paul's off. We thank him and stuff his pockets with tips.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.