Out Of Africa (And The Fifth And Last Test)...

Apologies to Karen Blixen (Isac Dinesen) for using the title of her book as the title of this post, but it seemed appropriate. Salim woke us up in plenty of time the next morning and made sure we had a good breakfast. He then took charge of our luggage, and we met our taxi at the back gate, avoiding the long walk to the reception area. The ride back to the main road was just as disturbing going out as coming in. This image of poverty is one of the last I have of our trip to Africa, and something that will always stay with me.

Once back at the main road it was a quick 45 minutes to the airport, where we eventually got checked in and boarded our flight for Nairobi. This was a little more of an adventure than we anticipated. The flight actually stopped in Mombasa (on the coast) first. Everyone was herded off the plane, and then walked as a group to baggage claim, through passport control and customs, and back to drop our baggage before being reboarded on the same plane we had just arrived in. Although the procedure was a little unorthodox (the whole walk must have been at least a kilometer) it seemed like this was a pretty standard procedure and very well organized. In any case, after about an hour on the ground we were back on the airplane, rolling toward takeoff and Nairobi.

The flight to Nairobi was uneventful, and we arrived at Jomo Kenyatta airport in the late afternoon. Once again we had to go through passport control and purchase $20 transfer visas for our brief stay. I had had a funny feeling this would be necessary and had carefully squirreled away $40 just in case. This pretty much depleted our cash, though. I think that after this expenditure we had less than $5 cash between us. That was cutting it a little closer than I would have liked, but tomorrow we would be in Europe using the credit cards and cash machines. The plane would board soon, right? Right?

Well, Africa had one last test for us, although this one was easier than the rest. Our original layover in Nairobi was planned to be three hours (piece of cake after our last pass through here!) but remember - our first flight arrived three hours early, so we were looking at six hours. Sigh...

Once again we had to hang out in the outer terminal on hard, hard chairs for quite some time waiting for the Swissair counter to open. We waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, the counter was manned, and the lines set up, but they didn't take any passengers, so we waited. And waited. And waited. After we had been in the airport a little more than five hours (our layover was six, remember?) they started checking people in. Fortunately, we had first class tickets to Zurich, so we were among the first through the line.

Baggage checked in, we headed upstairs to the transit lounge and gate area. Once up there we discovered that not only was our flight delayed, it wasn't even on the departure board yet. Not that the board could be trusted. Seeking softer chairs, we parlayed our tickets into entrance to the first class lounge. All of the airlines at Nairobi Airport share the same first class lounge - I guess space is at a premium. This was not what you would expect of a first class experience, though. It was a single long and narrow (30 m x 8 m) room crammed with chairs, tables, and couches, with coolers and food at one end and a duty-free at the other. The lights were bright and several TVs showed soccer matches (soccer, not football, dammit) continuously at high volume. Needless to say, this was not a relaxing experience.

We checked the board every 20 minutes or so, but our flight was never posted. The lounge was packed with people from the same flight that were getting increasingly anxious and cranky about the situation as flight after flight departed or was cancelled with no word of our own. Finally, about 8 1/2 hours after we arrived, it was time to take action. We gathered our things and headed out to try and find out what was going on. One of the other passengers passed us and we overheard him say that the flight was getting ready to board! There had been no notice in the lounge at all! We proceeded down the concourse and found the boarding area with the flight called out on the board over the desk. We settled in here and sure enough within a few minutes we were ushered onto the airplane for our ride to Zurich.

Our three hour layover in Nairobi had turned into six hours, and then to nine. I won't say that it was as bad as the 10 hours of our earlier Nairobi layover, but I will say unequivocally that if I ever have the opportunity to make this trip again I will be going through Mombasa or Dar Es Salaam. In any case, We were soon wheels up in first class on our way to Zurich enroute to Barcelona. Africa had finally, reluctantly, let us leave.