5am start, why can I never go to bed early pre-flight? Very excited and Sophie drove me to the airport. First flight to Paris, not too bad – then off to Nairobi. 8 hours, luckily I got economy plus so I had plenty of room. Flying over Europe the sky was pretty clear – I spotted Naples and Mount Etna.
After a couple of hours I saw the African coast – a huge expanse of desert disappeared inland. We flew for hours and hours over the vast expanses of the Sahara, desolate and inaccessible. Later clouds formed blocking the view, I slept.
We touched down then got off the plane, in Africa! The airport was very busy, higgldy piggldy and people everywhere. I walked, absorbing. At one point I saw a sign – transfers to the left and transfers to the right, not very helpful!
Lots of people were praying, most shops were closed, there were lots of old people. I kept my head down and tried to walk through unnoticed. I’m 6’8’’ and very white, I must have been visible from miles away!
After crossing the street, dodging racing cars I found the domestic terminal and sat in the waiting room for my next flight. It was like an old bus station. The smoking area was accessed via the departure gate and next to the plane. On the TV the news was is English, talk about recent football elections and the invasion of Somalia.
Important looking people marched through the airport security, staff tried to challenge them but were ignored. Eventually we began to board, on the way to the plane a member of staff gave me a new boarding pass – seat 2c – Business Class – SCORE!
We had an Indian selection of treats as we flew and reached Mombasa in no time – the airport is almost identical to Suva, Fiji.
With 3 flights to Africa I suppose I should have expected my bags to have been lost, after not finding them I found a member of staff who filled in the relevant paperwork and sent me on my way. Gutted! I was tired, hungry and worried that I did not have my malaria tablets. Ah well.
I grabbed a taxi, as soon as we left the airport the road was in a terrible state! Huge holes and cars all over the place. It was about 1am by now and we drove through the city. I was excited about being ‘Under African Skies’, I absorbed all of the sounds, colours and smells. People on the street stood next to motorbikes – keen to get a passenger so they could earn a few shillings, a couple of bars were lively and trucks swerved all over the place.
Arriving eventually at the hotel I grabbed 2 bottles of water and a bottle of beer and headed to bed. My adventure had begun.

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