STEALTH ENTRY INTO NAIROBI

Spectacular, is what I would call the nightly approach into Nairobi. First, for a few hours there is nothing but darkness around the plane and it feels like you’re right amidst the starts in the African night sky. Then, after just dipping below the equator, the large round patch of lights that suddenly appears is unmistakeably Nairobi, judging from my study of the city’s shape on Google Maps. The big unlit black patch in the middle is the urban wilderness of Nairobi National Park. At customs, although we are told we are in the wrong queue since we already have visas, we move through quickly and linger around the airport until we catch our flight on to Mombasa. It’s hot on the coast at around 35 Celsius but the sea breeze is cooling. The organised chaos everywhere around is quite comfortable if you can let it slide off of you and after a short sightseeing of Mombasa and a night at a beautiful place near the beach we moved to the area of the project for the coming two weeks.