Home to Canada

We just got back after an epic journey.

Our day started early at Masa Mara where we left at 0730 after breakfast. I was dreading the 60 km of rough roads however we took two of the hotel staff out with us as they were going off for 10 days and they knew a more direct route that wasn't that bad and also passed through some villages. After an hour we hit the highway and proceeded east to Nairobi, stopping the drop off the staff and also for a trip to the carving shop where we actually bought something.

Before Nairobi Peter left the highway and we drove through the outskirts of Nairobi past some markets, some nice areas and as Peter pointed out in the distance, Nairobi's large slums.

As we were not leaving until late in the evening we had a hotel room at the Ole Sereni. We used the time to freshen up, have a swim and catch up on our emails. At 1930 we were picked up to go to the airport. Nairobi is a very busy and confusing airport. Unlike in Canada, it is necessary to line up and X-ray all your baggage just in order to get in, so the sidewalks are a mixture of people being dropped off and people standing in line to get in. Very crowded and confusing. After getting in we checked in, and checked our baggage. It was then off to passport control. We only had to fill out one form this time; the agent I dealt with felt it necessary to both photograph and fingerprint me.

We hung around the departure lounge for almost three hours. This was busy with people coming and going. It was very hot. Our gate was not posted until quite close to when we were supposed to board. Instead of having your hand luggage X-rayed before entering the departures area, the hand luggage is X-rayed just before you board the plane making for a long line-up (especially when you have been doing nothing for 3 hours).

Our plane took off about an hour late. I had decided to sleep on the overnight flight to Brussels and with some Imovane slept as well as one can in an airline seat. I woke around 0600 and had breakfast before we landed in Brussels.

It was necessary to have our passports checked and our luggage X-rayed again in the Brussels airport (three times now if you're counting). After a three hour layover we were on the way to Toronto in quite a large jet. We were more or less awake and were able to watch 3 movies on the way over. We actually arrived in Toronto 30 minutes early, got through Customs in reasonable time and picked up our luggage to be rechecked. We were also able to get onto an earlier flight to Edmonton and I was even able to get upgraded to business class.

Arriving in Edmonton we were seriously staring to fade. We got our luggage and headed for the taxi. As it happened our taxi driver was from Zambia. Edmonton was lush and green. We were relieved that our house was relatively clean. We opened a mountain of mail and read the Saturday paper as well as starting on a huge load of laundry.