9 February 2013 - Southwest Serengeti to Nairobi, Kenya

Up at 6.30, breakfast at 7, off in the jeep to the airstrip at 8. We went with a different driver and another couple of guests, as our jeep was needed to replace a broken jeep for another guest. So we said a fond farewell to Baraka and Sibul before heading off.

It takes about 2-3 hours to get to the Ndutu airstrip. The other guests in the jeep were a father/son from Amsterdam, Karl and Charlie. We had a great chat along the way; there weren't a lot of animals about. It was very hot. We did see some lions again sleeping under the shade of a tree. It seemed appropriate that lions were the last animal we saw given they were the first animal we saw way back in the Kalhari Desert when we first arrived at Tau Pan Camp in Botswana on Jan 18.

The usual pose for lions

Airstrip in Ndutu

Our plane, a 12 seater cessna was early and as everyone getting on this flight was there it took off early.

We had 3 stops before we got to Kilimanjaro. The whole flight took a bit over an hour. We then boarded a different small plane in Kilimanjaro to get to Nairobi in Kenya. The flight took about an hour. We had to overnight in Nairobi before we could connect to another flight to The Seychelles. In hindsight we should have flown back to Jo'burg, stayed overnight in Jo'burg and got a direct flight from there to The Seychelles. Anything to avoid Nairobi!

Even though we were only staying 18 hours in Nairobi we had to pay for a transit visa, US$20 each, which we did in this little tin shed, their immigration centre for light aircraft arriving in Nairobi. There was a driver waiting to take us to our hotel, The Fairview, which was a 20 minute drive. This hotel was recommended by our travel agent as the safest hotel in Nairobi as it's next door to the Israeli embassy. 

Driving along the freeway you could see either barbed wire or shards of glass along all the tops of the fences and gates surrounding all buildings and houses. The fortification around the Israeli embassy was very heavy. There was a guard on the gate to our hotel, he checked the boot, under the car, around the car etc before we were let in. Our luggage had to be put through a scanner and we walked through a scanner before we got into the lobby. The hotel was very nice, beautiful gardens, a pool and open terraces. Our room was fine.

We were meeting up with an English couple, Jan and Jo, whom we'd met at our last camp, for a meal at a restaurant called the Tamarind recommended by Alex and Billie. Alex and Billie hadn't been there but had heard good reports about the food.

Jan and Jo picked us up in a taxi around 8 and we organised for the same taxi to come back and pick us up at 10.30. The restaurant was lovely, white tablecloths & silver service. The food (mainly seafood), service and wine was lovely. When we asked for the bill, the "fun" began. We'd agreed to split 50/50 and each gave a card. The waiter came back with Jan's card and said there was a problem with the machine and this card so Jan tried another card, same problem. Pam tried her card, same problem. The waiter asked if we could pay in cash, we said no. They said they'd drive us to an ATM for cash, we said no, they offered to take us back to our hotel to get money from the hotel and put the cost on our rooms, we said no. It was obviously a scam to get cash, avoid taxes or merchant fees etc. About 45 minutes had passed, we got up to say we were going, as our taxi driver was waiting and we'd leave our credit card information for them to process once their machine was working. We took photos of the bill and other information we were leaving to have some security that they wouldn't take more than they should. Jo then tried to use her card and voila it worked.. I tried my card again and it worked so it was all just a scam. But what a crazy thing for them to do. We loved the food, service and wine but they totally destroyed any chance of us 

recommending them to anyone else...

Dinner with Jan and Jo in Nairobi

Jan and Jo dropped us back at the Fairview, we may catch up next time we're in London, they live just outside of London. They're off to Jo'burg tomorrow to a golf resort somewhere in the country to play a few rounds of golf before heading back to London.

We fell into bed around midnight.