Friday 24th October
So then it was Friday and time to drive up to Kitale where the reunion was happening. This meant an early start since it would take 8 hours as I was told. I drove behind my cousin to the Limuru road. She knew the shortcut because the morning traffic is terrible. The Limuru road joins the Nakuru road just before the escarpment. I was advised to take the road that goes down past the old Italian church to the base of Longonot. Things were not too clear for me; the countryside was different so I ended up taking the highlands road to Nakuru. This road is pretty good except for the approach to the town of Nakuru. Then it turns into a traffic battle again. After Nakuru I was supposed to turn off towards Baringo to take an alternative route up to Timburua. But again I missed the turn off because of extremely heavy traffic. This mistake left me with no option but to take the Jolly Farmer hill up towards Molo. Without a word of a lie this has to be the worst main road in any country in the world. Eventually the road improved close to the Equator crossing at Timburua, and then it turned into a ‘rail’ road. The trucks had indented the soft road due to their weight. The result was deep track marks known as ‘tramlines’. This proved difficult for the Toyota Carina. The width of the tracks was wider than the track of the car. Driving through Eldoret was not a problem, and I easily found the Kitale turning 15 miles the other side of the town. The Kitale road then turned nasty with frequent potholes, but nothing like the Jolly farmer hill that I had earlier negotiated. I arrived at the Kitale Club after about 7 hours of driving non-stop from Nairobi. A bit exhausted but enthusiastic to start discovering the area and a bit apprehensive about meeting the 80 strong army of old Kitale School students. I was booked into the Karibuni Lodge in the ‘nicer’ area of Kitale town. Well it didn’t sound too good because nobody knew where it was. Eventually while driving into the area in which I guessed it was, I asked a local person on a bike for directions. He figured he knew where it was, left his bike by the road and came with me. Unfortunately he took me to a house where it used to be. By the way the roads were heavily gullied and we often scraped the bottom of the car. Sorry Budget. Second attempt, this time with a Bibi and Toto (mother and child) on board we found the place in an old settler’s house. I got my room which was very basic with dirty stone floors. The shower and loo were outside somewhere in the grounds of the lodge, the loo I found out later was actually a ‘long drop’. i.e. a hole in the ground with a box loo seat above it. Friday evening was the first dinner party. I went to the club bar and just introduced myself at one of the tables, From then on the meeting and greeting was easy. Everyone was there to have fun. Dinner went well then the rain came down hard and I had to find my way back to the lodge. This was a problem since it was dark and I was afraid the Toyota wouldn’t make it. It came to a point where I figured the risk of driving down swamped gullied roads was too much so I went back to the club and followed a Land Rover to the lodge. The night continued with pouring rain.