July 22nd, 2008:
Short: Find out that Betsy is in great condition!, Drive to the Kenya border, Hit terrible roads and traffic outside of Nairobi, Meet friends at Carnivore Steakhouse, Stay the night at a friends
Long: When we dropped Betsy off this morning with PJ we had no idea what to expect. One, while we felt the car was in great shape, we had no idea if something might be found. Two, we had no idea how much a 10K servicing would cost. On both of these accounts, we ended up extremely satisfied. Around noon we drove north out of Meserani towards the Kenya border. We had paid $80 for a full servicing, and no major issues we found with Betsy. PJ’s technicians were even able to fix our front spotlights, which had not been working then entire trip. The spot lights will make a world of difference when driving at night. Before leaving we also came across something of interest to anyone that has ever seen the T.V. show the “A-Team”. There, in northern Tanzania, we found the long lost A-Team van. It even looks to have been upgraded with overland equipment since the show.
We arrived at the Kenya border around 4 pm and quickly worked our way through the Tanzanian side. On the Kenya side of the border we were immediately surrounded by insurance agents. To their dismay, I showed them that we already had Comesa insurance (Remember we bought this at the Tanzania border and it is meant to be good for all Southern and East African countries), and therefore would not need to purchase insurance. Some of the more aggressive agents were undeterred, and tried to tell us Comesa would not work. We were happy to find it worked perfectly, and we were through immigration and customs in less than one hour.
Long: When we dropped Betsy off this morning with PJ we had no idea what to expect. One, while we felt the car was in great shape, we had no idea if something might be found. Two, we had no idea how much a 10K servicing would cost. On both of these accounts, we ended up extremely satisfied. Around noon we drove north out of Meserani towards the Kenya border. We had paid $80 for a full servicing, and no major issues we found with Betsy. PJ’s technicians were even able to fix our front spotlights, which had not been working then entire trip. The spot lights will make a world of difference when driving at night. Before leaving we also came across something of interest to anyone that has ever seen the T.V. show the “A-Team”. There, in northern Tanzania, we found the long lost A-Team van. It even looks to have been upgraded with overland equipment since the show.
We arrived at the Kenya border around 4 pm and quickly worked our way through the Tanzanian side. On the Kenya side of the border we were immediately surrounded by insurance agents. To their dismay, I showed them that we already had Comesa insurance (Remember we bought this at the Tanzania border and it is meant to be good for all Southern and East African countries), and therefore would not need to purchase insurance. Some of the more aggressive agents were undeterred, and tried to tell us Comesa would not work. We were happy to find it worked perfectly, and we were through immigration and customs in less than one hour.
We drove north to Nairobi and were making excellent time, on excellent roads, until approximately twenty miles outside of Nairobi. In Tanzania we were told the road from the port city of Mombasa to Nairobi was terrible, and we saw this firsthand. The road had crumbled from overuse and at one point traffic grinded to a standstill. After a few minutes of waiting we followed another 4x4 into the center divide, only to find a police 4x4 was approaching, and we quickly drove back onto the road. It took us between one and two hours to travel the last twenty kilometers into Nairobi, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel. A day earlier we found out that Melissa, a friend from school, was working in Nairobi for the summer, and we scheduled to meet her for dinner at Carnivores, a famous steakhouse (that at some point was even included in the best 50 restaurants in the world). After a grueling drive we met Melissa and Rohan, a friend of hers, at Carnivores and enjoyed a great dinner, great drinks and great company! During dinner Rohan was kind enough to ask us if we wanted to crash at his apartment for the night, as his roommate was currently traveling. As it was late, we accepted, and we all drove back to their apartment complex together. As luck would have it, we were also able to park our car securely in his apartment’s lot.
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