The flight from Dubai was uneventful. The skies were clear and
I used the in seat TV to watch the external camera showing the
view looking straight down. Kind of like Google Maps but for
real. If you want to play along at home, we passed over:
- Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter (big sand dunes),
- Oman (as above with the occasional man-made oasis),
- Yemen (rocky desert and dry river beds. No signs of life
except on the coast), - The Gulf of Aden (water),
- Puntland, Somalia (rocky desert, dusty towns. My imagination
added camel trains and mad mullahs), - Ethiopia (first greenery as the desert gave way to the
fertile highlands), - and finally Kenya. The clouds had moved in by this stage but
Mount Kenya managed to raise its top through. Unlike the last
time I flew by there was no snow at the summit. Global
warming apparently.
Despite my body clock registering about 4 in the morning, I
“forced” down a few drinks to prepare me for dealing with Kenyan
Immigration. Last time I came through Jomo Kenyatta, I spent hours
in the hands of officers who were sure I was a dangerous drug
smuggler, being poked and prodded and made to sit upon a perspex
toilet while a man with rubber gloves eagerly awaited the contents
of my bowels.
Not being a German porn star, I had found the whole process
quite distasteful. This time however, apart from waiting for about
an hour for my bag, everything went smoothly and I was out of the
airport and on the streets of Nairobi for the first time in over
two years.