1. Somewhat Moose
Life on the road
08.06.2011
13th July
Life on the road is good. My new home is a big yellow truck that we’ve affectionately named the ‘somewhat moose’ meaning big yellow banana in a mixture of Swahili and Ethiopian. There’s 24 passengers, one tour leader – also known as ‘Chief’ - and one driver. The truck is fully equipped with a kitchen, twelve tents and carries treated water for several days. The sides roll up so that we can see out but when you’re traveling along at 80k’s an hour it’s freezing in the back so most of us spend the day in our thermals, wrapped up in a thick blanket or tucked up in our sleeping bags. Not what you’d expect in Africa!
We're often awake, packed up and on the road before the sun rises. As soon as the alarm goes, we get dressed, pack up the sleeping bags, and take down the tent. We just have time to eat breakfast and clean our teeth before we’re back on the road.
Breakfast and dinner are prepared by an allocated cook group so that we each cook once every six days. We have some amusing routines like flapping the dishes – a technique that involves waving our plates and cutlery around in the air until it dries. The locals think it's hilarious!
Seventeen of us started out from Nairobi five weeks ago for Uganda and Rwanda. On our return, four left us and eleven joined us to head down to Malawi. We have a second drop off/pick up point there. The group is great – everyone’s roughly the same age and similarly minded. I’ve made some great friends and it’s great fun. It’s a very different type of travel to what I’m used to.
After nearly five weeks on the road its amazing what things you start to get excited about: waking up when its light; running water; a toilet; toilet paper; not being on the cook group and eating something other than pasta or rice. Whatever way you look at it though, life is good on the road and you really can’t beat it!
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Posted by Jayne Breckon 06:07 Archived in Kenya Tagged oasistownoverlandtocapetrucksnairobioverlanding
