AFRICA- Flight to Kenya – 15th Sept 2018 – Day 2

Arrival Jo’burg 30mins late at 5:20am. The airport is easy to get around; we had to change from Terminal A to Terminal B. David bought us into the Emirates lounge for the showers, wifi, and food – not that we needed it.

Egoli or Jozi – the Gold City. The gold is almost all mined out, leaving huge dumps (hills) of the crushed rock and tunnels of water, often acidic as it seeps out to the surface. A sprawling city on the 6000ft (1800m) elevation high-veldt, stretching in an arc of smaller merged cities over a distance of 150km along the outcrop of the gold reef. A city of absolute wealth and absolute poverty. My city – I was born in Springs on the eastern end.

But we didn’t see it today, as we continued our flight to Nairobi, Kenya. This will be my only trip here. The plane was old; paint rubbed off the seats by hands and bags. The toilet also in a poor state, but everything worked and we arrived on time at Nairobi, to be met by the courier.

David bought our Visa’s from the Embassy in Canberra a few weeks back but we didn’t have them, only the prints of the order. After a long wait in the visa queue we were told the documents were ok but we now had to join a different queue.

The airport is several km from the city; the road hedged by varied buildings, warehouses, bus/market stops, trees, and smoky fires; scooters, cars and old variegated mini-buses (many with Christian logos) fill the road. We kept the windows up to prevent snatching in the traffic jams. The place has an air of faded grandeur.

Tonight we met David Lloyd and two of the other three photographers in our group at the Serena Hotel. A very small group so we will only have David as the guide, sharing him in two vehicles. He was very tired after 7 weeks of these safaris, the previous one for a group of 14 Indonesians mostly using phones!  We are to meet at 7 at the pool for breakfast, leaving for the airport about 8.

The hotel is very flash, as it should be at the price ($500/night). It is protected by a single guarded entry. The rear is devoted to a large pool and garden, overlooked by two restaurants and a lounge bar, which is where we had a delicious ‘light’ dinner, serenaded by a chorus of very noisy frogs.

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