17 JULY 2005 ‚ 2215 HOURS ‚ NAIROBI
Practically an eight-hour flight later aboard a monstrous 747-400 and we are here in what I consider our basecamp. Nairobi is the city we'll be coming to and going from throughout the course of our trekkings and trackings. Not much to record other than our gracious and curious driver who told us we have absolutely nothing to worry about here anymore ‚ it's even safe for us Americans to walk the streets at night. But with guards armed with assault rifles at a checkpoint along the route from the airport, a bomb check of our vehicle before being allowed to enter the parking lot of the Intercontinental and even a security officer stationed by the elevators on the floor of our room, I'd say what is one resident's PR version of "okay" is my version of heightened state of alert.

Nevertheless I'm ecstatic that we ‚ and our luggage! ‚ have arrived safely. Being relegated to breathing airport and airplane air for a 26 hour period had me taking deep inhales of the Nairobi night air and man did it smell good ‚ smoky as if from a nearby brushfire, but gooood.

Afraid there's not much rest for the weary. We have to be out in front of the hotel at 7:30 tomorrow morning for a trip back to the airport and our flight to Kigali, Rwanda. Pfft. One hour. Big whoop. It was almost four hours from L.A. to Chicago, somewhere around seven from Chicago to London, and then eight more from London to here. Sixty minutes more ain't nothing. And then we'll be marching around after some mountain gorillas. Yeah, baby!

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