goodbye kenya

thursday arrives.. our final day in kenya. most of us finished the bulk of our packing on wednesday night - shaking the sand out of our clothes and trying to get everything to fit in our over-stuffed bags. a few people leave early in the morning and by lunchtime another handful have gone.. we spend our last hours writing messages in each other's books and making sure for the final time we haven't left anything behind. it's strange and a little sad to realise i won't be seeing these guys for ages, if ever, after living with them for so long.. when our bus finally arrives, bumping down the dirt track, i'm ready to leave and all i can think about is namibia (: i'm glad i've got another adventure ahead of me..

the drive to the airport is pretty standard.. it's weird driving past the familiar places in town for the last time.. we cross the ferry over to mombasa and i'm flooded with memories of our first crossing 3 long months ago. finally we arrive at the airport and everyone except chris and i check in - unfortunately our flight leaves friday morning at 5:30am but camp kenya didn't offer a later airport transfer unless we paid a standard taxi fee (which i don't really have the money to spend on..). within 45 mins everyone's ready to go and chris and i see them off at the terminal gate. the aussie kids i'm alright with leaving given they live close enough to sydney and get-togethers can always be organised.. but once again it's the british (and danish!) to whom it's shitty saying goodbye. a final hug with joe, jasmine and seb.. then they're gone..

~

chris and i now have around 13hrs to kill in probably one of the most boring airport terminals imaginable. its just a rectangle structure with the bag scanning machines, a few metal table things and the check-in desks. and that's pretty much it.. no benches, no cafés, nothing. luckily i notice a sign upstairs advertising a 'visitors lounge' that offers internet, snacks, drinks and comfortable couches. its 1200ksh for a few hours but at this point in time there's no way i'm missing out. it changes everything.. we stuff ourselves with fruit juices and croissants and although everyone's asleep in australia, the british kids are awake and i skype my hours away (: then comes the dreaded closing hour of 9:30pm.. i beg the cleaner to let us sleep inside but surprise, surprise she refuses. the wondrous lounge is no more and we go back downstairs into the now empty terminal.

8hrs to go.. nothing to do. i walk outside for some fresh air but the guard tells me to come back into the building and we get literally locked inside the terminal alongside the cleaners and a handful of overnight guards. great. i'm so grumpy about the lounge being closed.. you'd think it wouldn't make the slightest difference for them to lock us into that couch-filled room as opposed to the big hallway of nothing.. -_- we have a choice between lying on the floor or on the metal tables.. metal tables it is. chris chooses a table, gathers up his bags and curls up to sleep.. i plug in my ipod and attempt to do the same.

the bloody fans are on full blast and the wind corridors and draughts in this place are horrific.. it's really quite awkward lying like a hobo on this metal table, trying to sleep, and opening your eyes every so often to see 3 guards just sitting there staring at you.. the lights overhead are painfully bright and after 2hrs my body is aching everywhere. my hips are digging into the cold metal, my neck crooked and stiff from being propped up on my lumpy backpack, my back killing me.. i change sides to relieve the growing discomfort and after half an hour, waking up from a power-nap, i've lost all feeling in my left leg. i'm generally capable of sleeping in weird places but i can feel a cold building up from the damn fans and time seems to be crawling past..

eventually i hobble over to the bathroom, feeling like an old decrepit man.. and all of a sudden discover what is to be my 5-star hotel until check-in time tomorrow: the baby nappy changing table. now i know that sounds gross but bear in mind how uncomfortable i was at this stage and the sight of a cushioned bench set off hallelujah angels in my head. i immediately went back to my metal table, wheeled my luggage into the bathroom, switched the light off and curled up, praying for sleep. best idea of my life. i was out in a matter of minutes and only woke up when my alarm clock rang.. i can safely say that is the first time i've ever slept in a public toilet and the joy i felt at finding my bed was pretty amusing..

i check in my suitcase and read for the last hour and a half until the flight leaves. the trip from there on is pretty standard.. mombasa --> nairobi, where my next flight is delayed so i go buy a couple of books at the duty free bookstore. chris heads off to his connecting flight and i spend the last hour of my wait watching really strange cartoons on the kenyan cartoon network channel (the most memorable being a perplexing tribe of palm trees making chicken noises, dancing, and flashing different bright colours each time they laid eggs). nairobi --> johannesburg, where i thankfully find internet again during my 5hr wait.. johannesburg --> windhoek, which is a tiny little plane with probably the sweetest air hostesses i've ever flown with.. i sit and talk with them and they give me a couple of local beers to try which makes the flight pass by a lot faster (: