Day 243 Kenya 03/07/2011, Whistling Thorns camp-site. Masai, gazelle and zebra.

Neither of us slept very well last night, although we can't blame the noise as yesterday's function ended relatively early.

By 9am we were outside the restaurant and being met by Emmanuel, our Masai guide. We wouldn't describe him as the most talkative of people, but we were soon heading into the savannah in search of wildlife. It wasn't long before we were beckoned over and saw our first gazelle of the trip, sorry no photos they were miles away! Continuing through the short scrub and winding through the thorn-laden trees, we were soon rewarded with a distant glimpse of some zebra. This was to be the first of many zebra that we encountered on our walk, many of them much closer up.

The walk was great and the scenery and animals beautiful. We encountered several Masai farmers, although sadly none of them were dressed in the traditional outfits. Perhaps the dress is now more for tourists and ceremonial occasions. Seeing a zebra foal was a particular highlight. Emmanuel turned out to be an excellent guide, but after nearly three hours of fairly tough walking we were glad to get back to the camp.

Deciding to eat lunch in the restaurant turned out to be a bit of a disappointment as the food was no better than average, but it couldn't take away from what had been a terrific morning.

Later we had a swim in the pool and spent the rest of the day chilling out. We are definitely moving on tomorrow but are glad that we spent another day.

Day 242 Kenya 02/07/2011, Whistling Thorns camp-site. A not so peaceful haven!

We had a good nights sleep in the peaceful surroundings of the camp-site. The camp rules of no music, and no noise whatsoever after 11pm sound a little strict but it certainly kept it quiet. Unfortunately those rules didn't seem to apply to the huge gathering of Nairobi Water employees, who had some kind of function later in the day.

Our day had started well if slowly, the site is home to a myriad of interesting bird life and we were happy to just while the day away. Then the gathering started and any hopes of a peaceful remainder of the day were shattered. Nairobi Water effectively took over the site; the swimming pool was surrounded by men, music blared from car stereos in the car park and people giving talks to their staff droned on for hours.

All of this wasn't really a problem as we were safely camped away from the main function. What did become less pleasant was the fact that the shower and toilet blocks that we were supposed to be using, were also being used by everyone else. Apparently Kenyans don't know which one they are expected to use, have no knowledge of lifting seats or even attempting to aim for the toilet bowls. Debs didn't, understandably, want to use the showers as men often wandered into the wrong toilets and within a few hours both blocks looked like they had been attacked by incontinent children. Better still, Kenyan men being clearly unused to drinking alcohol, appeared to enter into a projectile vomiting competition in the men's toilets. It is possible that at least one of them had made it into the toilet but by early evening it was very hard to tell!

In the end we gave up on showers and after a few drinks in the bar decided to call it a night. In fairness to the staff they opened another toilet and shower just for us and were apologetic about the situation.

Instead of moving on tomorrow, we are going on a walk in the surrounding area with a Masai guide in the hope of seeing some wildlife. Hopefully it will be more peaceful tomorrow.

Day 241 Kenya 01/07/2011, Nairobi – Whistling Thorns camp-site. 25.27miles/40.58km, 2hr54minutes, Av 8.7mph.

Last nights few beers and an early night, became one beer and an even earlier night, when the torrential rain returned complete with the obligatory power-cut. For the first time in its use, the tent leaked a little around the seems. Not enough for us to get wet, but still a little disappointing. With any luck it had more to do with the fact that it had not been refastened properly after the tortoise incident, than the tent itself failing.

The morning brought us dry weather and after breakfast we got packed and headed out into the Nairobi traffic. Cycling in cities is rarely fun, but despite the pollution and heavy traffic, the journey out of the city was easier than expected. What we hadn't considered was just how hilly the road was. The journey was more of a workout than we had been expecting for our first day back in the saddle.

As we rode through the Ngong hills, we passed through several bustling towns and villages. Our first impressions of Africa is that everyone seems to be busy, unlike in the Middle East where all of the men seem generally to be sitting down or asleep!

Stopping at a small pizza restaurant we had a mid morning drink and a welcome hotdog.

The joys of being able to eat whatever you fancy at any time of day, will I am sure be coming back to us the more we cycle!

As we were leaving the restaurant a man commented on one of the stickers on my bike and asked where we were going. One of those small world moments occurred and he told us that he was also going to 'Whistling Thorns', so we would see him later. It was just a shame I didn't ask him how far we had to go.

Back on the road the hills got steeper and the people got friendlier. Fortunately the traffic also got lighter. Before too long we were cycling down into the town of Kiserian and would be soon turning off towards 'Whistling Thorns'. We certainly wouldn't want to complain but this was slightly surprising. According to our research we shouldn't be at the turn off for at least another 10km! Obviously we had taken a steeper but more direct route to our destination. For some reason we had never been able to get Google maps to accept the road we wanted and had to settle for a best guess on the distance.

The 13km stretch along the pipeline road was great, although littered with potholes. We were firmly in Masai territory and were greeted heartily by an elderly Masai woman in a pick-up truck and received generous waves from passers-by. Animals may have been conspicuous by their absence, but riding through the open savannah was a great pleasure.

Climbing one last hill we arrived at our destination approx 2 hours earlier than I had expected.

Getting on to the site proved a little challenging when we were greeted by a closed gate, no guard and a sign that said 'sound horn' for entry. Our bells were a little pathetic so we resorted to shouting hello and eventually got someone's attention. The site is certainly going to be peaceful after Nairobi, as we are the only campers and possibly two of only three guests. The 'no outside food allowed on the premises' sign fortunately only applies to the restaurant, so cooking isn't going to be a problem.

A couple of beers at the restaurant reminded us how tired we were and we settled in for an early night. Tomorrow will be a rest day before we press on to the Tanzanian border. The plentiful camp-sites are breaking us in gently to life back on the road.