in Unicycling

First Day in Nairobi

Central Park StructureI made it to Nairobi! It took awhile, thanks to Kenya Airways canceling a flight for the final leg of my journey. I ended up checking into a hotel at 4:30 in the morning, after they finally shuttled us over there, only to return to the airport at 8am to hunt down one of my bags (which had gone missing when they unloaded all of our luggage). Total door-to-door travel time ended up being just over 48 hours!

I met up with the other unicyclists for dinner after arriving (I was the last to arrive). Today I assembled my unicycle–everything arrived intact–and we went for a brief ride around Nairobi Central Park in the morning. The traffic on the roads here is a little bit too dangerous for a longer, more exploratory ride, but the short ride felt good. We got some funny stares, but for the most part people’s response to the unis was fairly reserved.

The weather is fantastic! Slightly humid, but today was in the mid 70s with just a few clouds. The forecast for the rest of the tour is looking good. It should be clear skies and cool nights all the way through.

There’s a surprising dearth of wireless access points. In Vietnam we had free, open wireless available almost every single night. No one on the trip has found a single open point, yet, and the hotel’s wired connection is pretty sluggish. Geoff (my roommate from Saigon) decided to take things into his own hands, and purchased a 3G modem and 4GB of download credits. He’s sharing the connection with everyone else via wireless. As long as we’re in range of a cell tower I should be able to keep the flow of photos going, which is awesome!

I just uploaded a few photos from today to my Flickr account. Here’s the link to the Flickr set; keep an eye on it.

The tour officially begins tomorrow at 5pm for dinner, where we’ll meet the local support staff and the three bikers brought in to fill cancellations. I’m not sure what I’ll do until then, since Nairobi doesn’t have a whole lot to do (the Lonely Planet East Africa guidebook literally mentions “taking in a movie” in their list of things to do while in Nairobi).

Riding begins on Sunday. I can’t wait!

Write a Comment

Comment

  1. Hope you can see if the ice cream cones are as delicious as I remember (or maybe it just seemed so after a month on the road in various African countries).
    Enjoy!
    Love, Mom

  2. Does that custom-setup unicycle have a built-in beverage dispenser also?

    Sounds like you have hit the right climatic conditions for your tour. Enjoy the ride and keep us informed of your adventures.

    Best, Dad