Warriorbern on the Move

What a relief after the last trip’s crazy delays on Kenya Airways to be back on South African Airways whose flights were all on time. Well actually that is not true – they left on time and both arrived early – always a bonus. Arriving in Tana is a bit of a trying experience. It takes forever to get through immigration and once through immigration you have to run the gauntlet of all the porters trying to take your suitcase to wherever you are going. I got a little cross though because I managed to avoid all the porters and found the driver of the hotel’s bus but when we got to the bus there was a smartly dressed man waiting there who took my suitcase, put it in the bus and then demanded I pay him. All this while the bus driver was grinning his head off! Well I just told the guy to get lost because I never asked him to lift my suitcase up on little step and his shouting at me for a tip was annoying. Eventually he got the message and moved on to another victim. So I started the long...

I am really looking forward to going home tomorrow. Mombasa has been a comfortable last stop in the three-week trip but I am tired now and I miss my family and my pets. Getting to Mombasa from Zanzibar was interesting. While I was still at the hotel in Zanzibar I received a message to say that my second flight, from Nairobi to Mombasa, had been cancelled. There was no need to panic as I was sure Kenya Airways would have made a plan. When I checked in at the Zanzibar airport nothing was said about the cancelled flight but I was given two boarding tickets. I had been moved to a later flight which meant quite a long layover in Nairobi. The flight to Nairobi was good and we even got to see Mount Kilimanjaro just before the descent into Nairobi. I collected my luggage and made my way across to the domestic terminal. When I arrived at the baggage drop counter the person there said that there was a seat on a flight leaving in one hour and would I like to get on that flight. Of course I ...

It is the rainy season in Tanzania now and over the last few days Zanzibar has had its fair share. The roads have been completely flooded. The owner of the Abuso Inn, where I am staying, told me that the problem is that everyone throws their rubbish into the drainage system so the moment it rains everything backs up and the water can’t go anywhere. From my point of view the rain is both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it is not so hot but a curse because I don’t have any rain clothes so the possibility of arriving at working looking like a drowned rat is very real. Furthermore, the rain has meant an increase in mosquitoes. Cloudy, rainy days but still a pretty view These little pests are so clever! I have no idea how they do it but despite mosquito mesh on the windows and a net around the bed; I have woken up every morning with at least three little guests in my sleeping area. Thank goodness I decided to take malaria prophylactics on this trip because other...

I have just left the Comoros after spending a week in Moroni on the island of Grand Comoros. It was my first time back in almost two years. Interestingly not much had changed. I still got a rather rude message on my phone saying “Your SIM card does not allow a connection to this network”, the electricity is off more than on and the Internet connection, while linked to the electricity supply, also has its own temperamental availability. On the positive side the people are as friendly as ever. I was met at the airport by my young friend, Fatouma, who had very diligently organised all the paperwork so that I was given a visa with no fuss at all and I might add, without any fee. She also accompanied me to my hotel and made sure that I was happy with the room before she departed for the night. It was so very refreshing to arrive in a foreign country and have the local coordinator tell me that his role is to support me so whatever I need is provided: sending a text message home on his phon...