Flying on a Cessna

Imagine taking a ride on your favorite roller coaster at Six Flags. Then imagine the ride never ending. That's what it was like for me on my flight from Nairobi to Nanyuki (pronounced nan-YOU-key), which is the region I will be spending most of my visit. The picture above is the of the single prop, 12 passenger Cessna. Very different from the planes I had enjoyed on my trans-Atlantic flight. My stop was the last of four to drop off small groups of "safari-ers" to remote dirt airstrips throughout the region. So four takeoffs, four landings, and two hours later I finally arrived. I'm trying to also upload a video of one of our takeoffs. Tammy, you would have loved it! Not.

Population Correction

I double checked my driver's facts and it looks like he was a little off. The population of Kenya was about 32 million. There are about 3 million people living in Nairobi. There you have it.

Tiptoe through the tulips

Could Tiny Tim have imagined tiptoeing in these pointy clunkers? Probably not. I arrived in Africa via the most unlikely route...in my mind anyway. My first 8+ hour flight brought me to halfway point -- land of tulips and wooden shoes -- Amsterdam. While there wasn't much to see outdoors on my 3-1/2 hour layover -- just thick, foggy and drizzly grayness -- the inside the airport was a delight to tourists. From Swiss watches to chocolates to assorted dried fishes in vacuum-sealed foil pouches to, yes, even tulip bulbs. 

I met a couple of interesting travelers en route. On the first flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam I sat next to a Scottish chap who was the CFO for a professional Scottish football (soccer) team called the Hibernian (Hibs for short). http://www.hibs.co.uk/ His wife is American and lives in the states, and they only see each other a few times a year. He was in Atlanta interviewing with the Atlanta Falcons for a controller position, and also has talked with the San Francisco 49ers. If anyone has a job lead let me know.

The other traveler was a young Chinese-American woman I met on the flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi. I noticed her with her trekking poles and found out that she is traveling in Africa for five weeks (!!) to hike both Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro, the two highest points in Africa. My trip will last two weeks, and I know I'd be uncomfortable being alone for five weeks. Not to mention homesick! I will be within striking distance of Mount Kenya later this week so I'll plan to post some pics.

One note of trivia from my driver: The population of Kenya is around five million. Four million live in Nairobi.