Last day in Kenya
Today was September 20th -my last day in Kenya. We had to head back to Nairobi to catch our evening flights. It was a long drive back from the Mara- at least six or seven hours. Joanna had arranged for us to have a day room at the same hotel we had stayed in the first night as our planes left late in the evening. The plan was to get to the city as soon as possible so we weren't able to stop anywhere for too long. As it was it took a full day of travelling (some rough roads in the beginning) to get to Nairobi.
Well I had to ask Peter to stop so I could take a last look at the zebras in the nice morning light.
As we were leaving the park, Peter stopped to put the roof down and I got out of the car to take this photo.
We now drove through a different village and I was back to photographing "drive- by pictures" to document what I was seeing as Peter could not stop the van.
This was a typical scene with a business and the housing next to each other.
This was basically our first stop on the way back to Nairobi. The public washrooms in/near all of the stores where we stopped were pretty basic.
Jeff was showing some pictures from the back of his camera to the guys in the souvenir shop where we stopped.
A colourful display outside the shop.
Soon we were on the road again.
I was already missing the animals when we drove by these cows.
More houses beside the road.
We drove through a lot of villages on the way to Nairobi and they pretty much all looked the same.
Peter did stop for a few minutes so I could take this picture of a church. Just stopping the van and finding a place to park was difficult on this extremely busy road. This tiny church was built by Italian prisoners of war working on constructing the Limuru-Mai Mahiu - Naivasha road in 1942. Thirty-seven thousand Italian POW's captured after defeat in Ethiopia were interned in East Africa. Many of these prisoners were interned in the Rift Valley where this photo was taken. They built the Mai Mahui road which was quite a feat of engineering since the road ascended some 450m up the steep eastern wall of the Great Rift Valley as it climbs up from the dry, hot and dusty Mai Mahui on the valley floor to cool, wet and green Limuru on the high plateau. Today was one of those cool and damp days. Many of these POW's died of malaria and TB in the war camps. The captors were compassionate enough to allow the Italians to build this tiny catholic church.
Our final stop before reaching the city was to see the view overlooking the Great Rift Valley. Unfortunately it was very foggy so I couldn't get a good shot. Still it gives you an idea just what the POW's had to face in order to build this road. We finally made it to the hotel around five thirty in the pouring rain which did not stop for the rest of evening. We had about two hours to rest before heading to the airport.
This was the "lounge" where we waited for our flight to depart for London at midnight. There were no washrooms, no food (they had also run out of free bottled water) and the chairs were not comfortable. If you wanted to use the facilities it meant leaving the tent an going through security again to come back. I took this photo with my I-phone just to show the tent we were in. You can see the doors at the end of the tent where you exited to the plane (and had to walk up all of the stairs to get into the plane in the pouring rain). A few weeks before we left for Kenya, there was a fire in the arrivals lounge at the Nairobi airport- perhaps it affected the departure lounge as well. By the way the young British man in the photo was an engineer working on various projects in Africa so he spent a lot of time in Kenya. The security at this airport was extremely tight. For starters you could not even get into the airport without first going through metal detectors with all of the luggage. After that there were another three or four security checks (before the immigration check) with either X-rays or people inspecting the luggage. They suggest arriving at the airport at least three hours before your flight leaves which is very good advice. The airport was crowded but actually the lineups were not too bad and went fairly quickly. Jeff and Joanna were both travelling on my flight so Jeff helped us with all of the luggage because you pretty much kept it with you through most of the security before being able to check it. The final check was getting into this tent with just our hand luggage. As I lifted up my camera roll on bag (which was very heavy) the attendant said that he didn't think I could get it in the overhead compartment by myself. The airline rule is that you must be able to lift your luggage to the upper compartment by yourself or it has to be checked. My response was of course I could and he didn't say anything else! Of course I couldn't lift the camera bag myself but there was always someone willing to help me. We left Kenya just in time as the following morning more than 60 civilians and six soldiers died at the upscale Westgate mall shooting in Nairobi. After a two-day siege and a series of explosions, Kenyan authorities said they had cleared the mall and killed four attackers. An NYPD report just came out as I was writing this blog. Police commissioner Ray Kelly said investigators didn't know with certainty how many people were involved but they believed there were only four shooters. The report also said that the attackers carried only light weapons, and that there is no evidence any of them tried to take hostages or remaining in the mall after 12.15 on Sept. 22. It also said that the female British jihadi known as the "white Widow" was probably never in the mall, despite tabloid rumours. In conclusion The NYPD report stated that the Kenyan military may not have killed any of the attackers and there was "significant' physical and video evidence" that the Kenyan military had looted the mall.
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Thanks again, Marsha for sharing with us these wonderful photos and stories.