To Nairobi!

Wow, one week down and we've already managed to squeeze in 2,650 kms (including three days of over 700kms a day), a trip to a farm in Zambia, Christmas on the beach in Tanzania, the first oil change on the cars in Kenya and a glorious afternoon with Chris Stephenson, an old mate from Uni, pouring over maps of Ethiopia. If we were to sustain this pace (which thankfully we have no intention of doing!), we'd be in Oslo by mid Jan, and probably approaching the outer reaches the Nebulon galaxy by March. Definitely time to SLOW DOWN!

On Saturday we had a glorious but gruelling drive from the coast all the way to Nairobi. We passed Kili en route, scene of an earlier triumph this year for Mands (a triumph truly put into perspective by the awesome sight of this humungous mountain!). However, having slightly underestimated the distance to Nairobi, we broke our own golden rule (for the second time within a week!) and ended up driving long after dark, finally arriving at after 9pm.

We're now taking brief respite in the home of our wonderfully thoughtful (though conspicuously absent!) friends Matthew and Alice, who left us not only with four pages of detailed instructions covering everything from operating the walkie-talkies to finding the best camping shop in Nairobi, but even blagged us an invite to go round to their neighbours (who we've never met) for drinks. Where else but Africa do you get invited into the homes of complete strangers and treated like old friends!

Tomorrow we begin the journey up one of my favourite roads in Africa - the epic one that leads through the Chalbi Desert, past Marsabit mountain and terminates in the Ethiopian border town of Moyale, generally acknowledged to be one of the world's least lovable tourist destinations. But, as we all know, it ain't the destination, it's the journey that counts. And this particular road never fails to deliver on that score. Personally, I can't wait!