New Wheels!

I came back to Kenya with the intention of replacing my RAV4. Having served me well over the past 5 years over many miles of potholes, murram roads, mud tracks, and very occasionally, decent tarmac (!), it was time for a change. One of my requirements was a 5-door rather than a 3-door vehicle, this being more for the benefit of passengers than the driver! More space for luggage was also up there, allowing easier travel when visitors come over. Well, there aren’t car showrooms as such here, but there are a large number of car lots at the side of the road, generally selling recently imported second-hand vehicles from Japan. The number of ‘new’ cars on the roads of Nairobi each month is staggering. Seeing the way that the registration numbers have zipped through the KBA xxxA to KBA xxxZ sequence shows this. We’re already on KBBs which means that in the past few months, there are an additional 26,000 vehicles on the roads, and most of them in Nairobi. And the roads aren’t any wider, nor are new ones being built. Anyhow, I had my eye on a particular model – Pajero io. With no sales warranties available, prices fairly high, and most of the vehicles being sold at least 8 years old, it’s a bit daunting to start the process. Thankfully, I have an excellent mechanic, and he took it upon himself to help me in finding a vehicle that would serve me well. So, on Wednesday, having parted with both my RAV and a sum of money, I drove away with a white automatic Pajero io! Not a car I’d ever think of driving in the UK where fuel consumption is uppermost in consideration (mind you, it is here too given that the price of petrol has gone up nearly 30% in the last year). Here, clearance to deal with uneven surfaces, potholes etc; 4 wheel drive for off road situations; and being high enough off the road not to be dwarfed by matatus, are factors well worth considering! Now I just need to visitors to justify all the extra space!

Kenya’s Tourism

After the drive on Easter Sunday, I continued another 7.5 hours down Mombasa Road to the coast, and had 6 days of relaxing, reading, walking, kayaking, swimming, snorkelling, …… It was wonderful! It’s quite a bit warmer than Nairobi (which sits at a lofty 5,200ft elevation), and the perfect place for some R ‘n’ R. Whilst it was great for us that we had been able to book at fairly short notice, this was not good news for many of the locals. The lack of tourists was very noticeable at a time that should have been pretty busy with the Easter holidays. A number of hotels have had to close, and there’s a huge impact on all the small businesses, such as people selling kikoys on the beach, that rely on tourism. The effects of the violence at the beginning of the year are still very evident, though here it’s not in burnt-out buildings and cars as it is in western Kenya, but in the decimation of one of Kenya’s main industries. In both cases, those who suffer most are those completely uninvolved in the violence, and the issues that led to it.

For anyone thinking of a holiday in Kenya, it really is a beautiful country and well worth a visit!

Rally Drivers R Us!

You’d think I was a rally driver given the state of my vehicle on Easter Sunday. In actual fact, I’d just driven about an hour on one of the main roads from Nairobi to see friends. Mombasa Road is the road that links the capital (and indeed western Kenya and Uganda) with the sea port of Mombasa. Work is currently going on to repair what had become an incredibly broken up stretch of road. However, the diversions (or ‘deviations’ as they’re called here) are less than desirable. It’s either very dusty or very muddy depending on the weather, but always very, very bumpy. I was glad that my windows were shut the number of times that a passing lorry caused a tidal wave of mud to completely engulf my windscreen! The current conditions will hopefully be worth it once the new road is opened. It’s just a question of how long that’ll be – and how many shock absorbers are wrecked in the meantime!!!