Back to Kenya

11 December, Saturday; Eldoret, Kenya. Today we said goodbye to Uganda, a country that really left an impression on me. I hadn’t given it too much thought before the trip, as I was mostly focused on the gorilla trek in Rwanda. The country is fantastically lush, green and beautiful. The people are friendly and welcoming. I can’t imagine not coming back here, but it was still sad to leave today. We had a semi-early morning with breakfast at 7am and set our sights on the Uganda/Kenya border. On our way into Uganda at the beginning of our trip, we met Musa, whom we promised to bring a football (soccer ball) on our way back. As we pulled into the border area, we were disappointed that he wasn’t there today, but when we asked about him, one of the boys quickly responded that he’d left directions to leave the ball with one of the other boys. I bought some bananas from our old friend, Abu and then were off into Kenya.


Getting mobbed	Bananas!

Lunch was at a truck parking lot along the highway and we were all glad that it’s the last time we had to unpack, help prep, clean and repack the truck. There was a group of about 8 boys that were hanging around politely while we ate and we gave them our leftovers. They devoured them and it was difficult to decide if they were extremely starving or just growing boys.


Pesh keeping the boys in check	Chapati – yum!

Our destination today was the campsite outside of Eldoret that we visited on our way to Uganda. In the city, we made a stop at a cheese factory. I didn’t dare explore much, as I didn’t want to spoil my enjoyment of the cheese. When I think about a dairy, the first impression that comes to mind is a clean, sterile environment and everyone wearing white boots, coats and hair nets. This place did have white(ish) boots and white(ish) coats. I say –ish because a lot of the work was done outside and it was very dusty. We split a small block of hard cheddar-like cheese and a ball of mozzarella and some ice cream for the road.

Tonight’s dinner was fantastic. We splashed out and ate at their restaurant and it was fantastic. And I’m not just saying that because we didn’t have to do dishes! We had our farewell speeches and sat around telling stories for a while. Ben and I were in bed before 9pm!

In the past few days, I’ve been reflecting on our overland trip which is ending tomorrow. As with many trips, it seems that we just left a few days ago, but then some times it feels like our first border crossing was weeks and weeks ago. I’m said that this part of our journey is ending, but looking forward to the rest of our trip in Tanzania.