Even though we asked the rangers and various other people which was the best road out of the Masai Mara to Nairobi in an attempt to prevent further damage to our car, the road out was worse than the road we took in! The road consisted of huge lumps of gravel deposited in some dirt as well as corrugations and dips. It was a most unpleasant drive until we finally reached the smooth tar – something we hadn’t seen in quite some time.
We spent 4 nights at Jungle Junction whilst we attended to our list of things to do. First on the list was to clean and reorganise our car. After having had milk spill in the carpet a week or so ago we had not really put things back the way they should be. It took us all day to wash our clothes (which were absolutely putrid), reorganise and clean the ten ton of dust out of our car.
The next day we had our trip to Toyota – what fun. We arrived at our appointment time, explained that we needed at least 1, if not 2, front shocks and a new battery, and told them we needed it back the same day. As usual this was a drama and had to be confirmed with the supervisor etc This took probably an hour before the car was booked in and we went to sit in the lounge. 3 hours later we tried to check on the status of the car and they were only just replacing the shocks! After 5 hours we were told that they didn’t have any batteries, oh and both of them need replacing! I’ve been pretty patient with Africa time, but this time I was NOT impressed! I politely told them that it would have been nice to have been told that several hours ago as then we would have had time to organise a battery ourselves from the heap of spare parts shops literally across the road, especially as the batteries run our fridge which we need to be working! They then decided that we could go with them to their battery supplier 500m down the road and they would fit the new batteries there, thank goodness! So after wasting our entire day at Toyota we left with 2 new shocks, 2 new batteries, the second battery compartment welded so the battery isn’t falling through the engine bay anymore and a clean car.
On our third day we decided to visit the David Sheldrick Trust and the Giraffe Centre. The David Sheldrick centre cares primarily for baby elephants that have been orphaned either through poaching or human\animal conflict. Some of the elephants that arrive at the centre are only a few weeks old whilst others are maybe 2 years old. They are raised at the centre until they are able to be moved to Tsavo National Park where they are continued to be looked after until they are ready to go off into the wild. They also have 2 orphaned rhinos that they care for. You can only visit the trust between 11-12 and it is a worthwhile quick stop if you are spending time in Nairobi. At the Giraffe Centre you are able to hand feed the giraffes and obviously see them extremely closely. They are HUGE animals up close! At the time of our visit there was a baby giraffe only a few weeks old which was very cute.
Whilst at Jungle Junction we met another Aussie couple, Jean and Malcolm who shipped their vehicle over from Aus. They arrived here a few weeks before us, however they are heading up to London and then who knows from there. We spent quite a lot of time chatting to them, sharing route info and talking about the joys of overlanding (such as showers) that other people just don’t get. We also had dinner with them at a local Chinese restaurant, which was quite nice, cheap and a pleasant change. They are hanging around here whilst they wait and see if they can join a convey to Ethiopia.
We are off to Amboseli for a few days and then will return to Nairobi before we head off again.
