Derniers jours au Kenya

Hello to everyone, I hope this finds you all well. We are back in Nairobi for a couple of days and now VERY ready to get going on our trip south with the group tomorrow.
Since we last wrote we've been sunning ourselves/melting in the heat along the beautiful Kenyan coast. The train Monday night to Mombasa was definitely an experience. The odd cockroach aside, it was fairly clean and cosy and doesn't look like any parts have been changed since the 50's. The food left something to be desired - but eating your breakfast while watching zebras out of the window made up for that!
We found a not-too-expensive guesthouse near the old town with a nice roof terrace for our two nights there, and spent most of our time just wandering around. Mombasa - it's dusty, humid, busy, but most of all friendly and a much nicer atmosphere than Nairobi. It was just hard to walk anywhere without a guide attaching himself to you! The old town is a strange experience - essentially a township in places but with tourist curio shops dotted around the place and maps on the walls. The pigeons here seem to have been replaced by crows and there were a lot of mangy looking stray cats about. We managed to talk our way into the old port, which is still open despite the brand-spanking-new industrial port around the corner. So I guess we stood where Grandad Brian must have been when he came here. It must have changed a lot since... The only shocking bit here was the rubbish - piles of it everywhere and a carpet of it underfoot, but what do you do with it all when no-one comes to collect it on bin day?
We took a matatu to Mtwapa a bit further North one day. We wanted to go and visit these Swahili ruins we'd read about but no-one on the minibus had heard of it despite the fact that there were at one point 19 of us!! We found it eventually and had a good chat with the manager - I think we were the only tourists that day. He taught us a bit of Kiswahili and told us about the site, and then announced that there was a private beach where the ruins met the sea - bliss!
We got a lift on a motorbike back to the bus stop - another first for me. Thank goodness the state of the roads meant we couldn't go very fast!
We left Mombasa in a tuk tuk to go to the train station and after another 15 hours on the train we got back yesterday morning.
Not content with the filling I had last week (its not an exciting enough story) I had a root canal yesterday following toothache all this week so things are going to be fairly calm this weekend while I get over it. On the plus side I was prescribed some pretty awesome painkillers! Anyway, fingers crossed that is now enough dental treatment for a while...
So tomorrow - Arusha in Tanzania with the group and not sure when we will next be on the Internet but we will post when we do. Take care and love to you all!

SW

Bonjour, en esperant que vous soyez tous en forme !
Nous voici de retour a Nairobi, pret pour le depart demain vers le Sud.
Depuis notre dernier article nous nous sommes fait dorer la pillule sur la magnifique cote kenyane. Le train de nuit nous menant a Mombasa fut un vrai periple. Entre les cafards, une nourriture "particuliere" et un cadre des annees 50, le petit dejeuner devant des troupeaux de zebres, giraffes et autre gnous valait tout de meme le detour. Nous avouns passes la majorite du temps a nous balader dans Mombasa, ou la chaleur et l'humidite sont incroyables, mais les gens tellement plus acceuillant. Tellement acceuillant qu'il etait assez difficile de se debarresser du guide voulant absolument nous montrer l'endroit d'ou on venait. The old town est sans contest le point marquant de cette ville : un bidonville recouvrant des batiments historiques aux influences arabes, indiennes, portuguaises (encore eux). Le vieux port, ou le grand pere de Sydnee s'est tenu quelques 50 ans auparavant etait un passage important.
Vous avez dit Important : il semblerait que tous les pigeons et mouettes que l'on s'attend a rencontrer dans une ville cotiere, aient ete remplaces par des corbeaux. Les chats de goutieres sont egalement legion.
Nous avons rejoins le mercredi (20/10) les ruines Swahilis de Jumba la Mtwana, ou le gerant nous a amicalement fait un cours d'histoire et une lecon de Kiswahili en ce jour de fete national ou nous etions les seuls visiteurs. Au bout de ces ruines, nous avons decouverts une plage privee de sable blanc et en avons profite pour prendre notre premier bain dans l'Ocean Indien.
Au niveau des transports nous avions pratiquer le Matatu (record personnel battu : 19 personnes a bord) ; le bus ; le taxi. Nous pouvons ajouter le tuk-tuk (tricycle urbain, tres asiatique en soi), et le taxi moto (sans casque evidemment) sur les pistes et a une allure raisonnable.
Sydnee n'en ayant pas eu assez avec son plombage lundi dernier, s'est fait devitaliser une dent en arrivant hier a Nairobi, douloureux, mais maintenant derriere elle tellement elle se shoot d'anti douleur ! (Annecdote pour TLMVPSP !)
Demain, depart pour Arusha et la Tanzanie, reunion ce soir pour voir la tete de nos compagnons de route.
Ne sachant pas lorsque nous retrouverons un acces Internet, prenez soins de vous, on s'occupe de nous !