Tomorrow the Camara volunteers fly back to Ireland. They all boarded the Mombasa Nairobi train yesterday evening and had expected to arrive in Nairobi this morning at about 10.00am. I have remained on in Mombasa to put some final finishing touches on the Mombasa digital hub project and to take a break.
As I write this the volunteers are still on the train! Apparently the train moved for about ten minutes out of the station and then stopped for a couple of hours - a pattern that was maintained over the entire 700 km journey to Nairobi!
They will kill me when I get home as I recommended the journey given that it is one of those famous train journeys that everyone should do in their life. The Nairobi-Mombasa railway line passes through Tsavo national park - the home of the most famous man eating lions in history. Two male lions (unusual in itself as male lions are very solitary, territorial animals) killed over 100 people building the railway line and were incredibly difficult to hunt down. The Masaai translation of their names was the 'Ghost' and the 'Darkness' (one of the lions was albino if I remember correctly) and a film was made about them about ten years ago. The lions stuffed bodies are in the Mombasa museum - they are truly colossal creatures...
Anyway, the volunteers went on the train by night so they were not even able to see Tsavo!
I will miss them - they are all, to a person, fantastic people, but I am also looking forward to the free time ahead over the next few days!
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