The Adventure Begins...

Last year I spent a few weeks in Africa. I kept a journal. Much of it was written while travelling along dusty goat and pot hole filled roads. Occasionally, I was completely thrown into the air, right off the seat if the pothole had leveled up to crater status. Since this trip, my car just seems to attract goats in Ireland these days. They like throwing themselves in front of it. It's taken me a year to get around to typing this journal up. The dates are slightly out for this blog - they're mainly there just to keep it nicely organised.

I went to the airport at 7 AM. My flight was at 10. Heathrow Terminal 5 can only be described as a maze with the addition of giant escalators which rise up over five floors at a time. My last breakfast in the concrete jungle consisted of porridge smothered in strawberries, which I ate at the aptly named Giraffe restaurant. After I passed through security I stocked up on even more mosquito defence.

Sitting in the waiting area before boarding my flight, the announcements of departures to exotic locations echo out. A black Labrador sniffs it's way through the queue to the departure gate. It misses my rucksack full of bodies and drugs.

Next, I'm on the plane. Free stuff!. A blanket, headphones and more. I gaze out through the window. My first glimpse of Africa showed it to be a rather green continent. Soon, the panorama changes to the Libyan desert. Sand dunes and deep ridges reach far out to the horizon 37,000 feet below. It takes hours for the plane to break free of it. I spy through my binoculars for potential nomads, but the hostile environment is all I see. It's vastness is mesmerizing. The patterns and contours of the wind swept sands are beautiful.

As we pass over Sudan, I see the Darfur mountains in the distance. I'm glad there aren't any Janjaweed this high in the air. *hopefully*. Darkness has fallen when we get close to Nairobi. A black void appears in between thousands of tiny lights. It's the national park. Soon the plane lands. I'm really in Africa. The land my grand aunt lived in for roughly thirty years and inspired me about it since I was little. Even though Nairobi is 5,500 feet high in altitude, the night air is a wall of heat as I emerge into the African summer. I eventually get through the VISA queue (seriously - never sit at the back of the plane if you don't have a VISA!!). However, time queuing was worth it for this rather last minute trip to Africa. I get a Taxi to the Hotel Milimani.