We had a good night’s rest in the hotel, but I do remember waking up a few times when one of us had to turn on the other side. I was clearly a bit “deurmekaar” as I kept on telling Francois to be careful as he turned as I thought the bed was about to break :o) But it was a good night and soon we heard Mr Machasio and his wife coming up the long deserted hallway with some yummy egg and bread and some more sweet tea. He said to us: “and when you are done we’ll see how God can bless you today!”
Francois then set off to work to remove the flat tyre again. Here you can see him working in the hotel’s lounge area which are currently being completely renovated (the hotel was opened in 1965). This is also the place where our bikes slept for the night.
Soon we both hopped on my bike with Mr Machasio driving ahead of us in his car to show us the way to the garage. I tried something new that I saw along the way… most women when taking the bike taxi sit on the bike in side saddle style so I though I would give it a go. It made my head spin a bit to not look to the front and I had to hold on tightly but luckily the 1km to the garage was not too far. With the coming back I did it again and I held on to the fixed tyre so quickly got the hang of it. It is a pity I could not take a photograph of my lift…
The guy at the garage was very fast with fixing the tyre and soon we discovered that the tube that we used the previous day got a tear in the seam close to the valve. Luckily it could be patched and the pump that they had helped a lot to get it inflated quickly. He only charged us Ksh 100 (about R8) to get the job done! Can you believe it?
Back at the Metropolitan Hotel we took some photos with Mr Machasio and his wife which we have grown quite fond of by now. Mr Machasio is 76 years old and his eldest son was born only three years after my own dad so he became a bit of a grandfather figure :o) We said our goodbyes and then we were back on the road.
Just past Eldoret we quickly stopped for a drink and snack in the hope that we could quickly publish our post from the previous day. But alas no luck, after buying some top up for our Zain sim card that we kindly received from George and Alice that we met in Rwanda we still could not get it going. After trying a while we had to give up and then set of for Nakuru (a few kilometres after where we were aiming to stay for the night) to see if we could catch the cell phone shop open in time.
We both like Kenya very much and the people again are great. Here is a photo of the scenery and some cute kids that came out to say hello.
In Nakuru we drove around a bit trying to locate the Zain shop, but it was very busy and huge so we eventually stopped at the Safaricom shop and bought another sim card and they quickly helped us to get it going. We didn’t have enough time to post as we had another 30km to drive to our camp for the night, Kembu Camp so we hoped that it would work tonight. Eish, no signal tonight so we are very sorry for the delay :o) Tomorrow we promise!
Kembu Camp is really amazing, beautiful lush lawns and a cool lapa where we just enjoyed some yummy pizza (it’s pizza night tonight! Jippey!). The camp is quite full as there is an English couple that is getting married here tomorrow and all their guests are here too. So many people, that I said “dankie!” (thank you in Afrikaans) to the one guy as it felt a bit like being home…
PS: Please also check out our post from yesterday which we also managed to post a few minutes ago :o) We are now heading off to Nairobi for a few days.
Lyk lekker gesellig by die eetplek! Het jou artikel in die Bylae by BURGER geniet gister. Besef nou eers werklik wat jul deurgemaak het in Wes Tanzanië. Rwanda het seker opgemaak vir daai naelbyt ervaring. Voorspoed vorentoe en geniet dit. Die baard kom mooi aan Fr. Tania hoe op aarde kry dit reg om nog so “freshed up” te lyk?
Lekker om weer van julle te hoor via die net! Julle maak my moederhart weer eens warm (nes Villiers en JI op hul trip) as julle met soveel deernis en waardering vertel van die wonderlike mense wat julle oral ontmoet. ‘All smiles and goodwill!! Now, this is (also) Africa’. Wat ‘n voorreg! Voorspoed met die ‘bikes’ se grootdiens en visum-aansoek. Liefde, E NS. Vanoggend gehoor als is wel met die Ungerer tweeling-dogtertjies!
Lekker Vrinne,
Ek het self vrydagaand in die middel van nerens in die bosveld `n papwiel gekry, moes so 40km plaas toe ry, met elke 5km stop en pomp! Ek moes wel R50 betaal vir my patch 🙂
Fran respek vir al jou DIY werk met die bikes!
Ek hou mos nie vaqn sukkel nie!
Jolyt!
Ek is nogsteeds jaloers!
Nice to read about this!Very touching!I can see a photo taken with Mum n’ Dad!at Metropolitan Hotel. All the best