The next morning, the car rental agent Peterson from Porto Car Hire came back to the hotel to bring our rental car a Toyota RAV4 4WD. According to his own statement, he had forgotten to bring the contract in a hurry, but that was no problem – he trusted us and we could do the whole thing without a contract. No sooner said than done. The money for the 8 days changed hands on the back seat. We started our tour towards our first destination. Left-hand traffic was a bit unusual at the beginning, but the first kilometers were done quickly. Even a suddenly jumping on the road concrete bollard of a construction site could not stop Mel in her drive and so there was only a small smooch for the left front tire, which remained without consequences.

We quickly made acquaintance with the notorious Mombasa Road. Trucks everywhere and apparently there seems to be no kind of traffic regulations in Kenya. It is driven, as it just fits, overtaken is left and right and constantly somewhere is blinked. Well, maybe there will be some time later to write about the road traffic. As soon as we were out of the greater Nairobi area, we were stopped by the police. Our car rental company had already instructed us and so we did our best not to understand and speak English anymore and talked to the officer in German. Playing dumb was not so easy for us. We were accused to have overtaken in the overtaking ban – this could not really be checked, traffic signs are scarce in Kenya anyway. The nice officer demanded 5000 Shillings from us – about 40€. After 10 minutes of talking German, she found us very nice despite our non-existent English skills and Andrea’s constant gesticulating and showing his empty trouser pockets, the lady was satisfied with the offered 1000 shillings (8€) and wished us a good onward journey.

Mel wanted to make up for the lost time and stepped properly on the gas pedal. Thus we reached nevertheless quite briskly the national park Tsavo west. At the gate we “quickly” paid the 30$ per person and the fee for the car and we could drive in. The whole process took a little longer in real and so someone became more and more impatient. The gas pedal was felt already by the floor plate stepped and thus the animals of the park flew formally on the left and on the right past us. A main goal of us was on this day the Rhino Sanctuary situated in the park – quasi a park in the park. To see the rhinos was our goal, since these belong to the African Big Five and are, next to the leopards, the most difficult animals to find.

The paths in the park were of course not the best and very dusty. So at some point it became too much off-road for Mel and it was going to be a very special day. The person, who is in possession of a driver’s license, but has not driven a car for 20 years and can look back on maybe 300km of driving experience after driving school (if at all), got behind the wheel of the Toyota. As if he had never done anything else, Andreas steered the vehicle confidently over the gravel and sand roads and so we finally reached the Rhino Sanctuary.

  • Evidence photo

Unfortunately, the park in the park has its own opening hours and the time was really tight. When we had to deny the question of the guard at the gate, whether we would spend the night in the park, he waved us off and showed us the shortest way to the main gate. The park closes at 6pm and you have to be at the gate by then or you’re out of luck. We had a few kilometers ahead of us and the speed limit of 40km/h Andreas laid out a little more generous. So we reached the gate at 18:20 and a padlock blocked the exit. A 20-minute discussion with a ranger (now dressed in civilian clothes) broke out and finally she opened the gate for us. Mel drove the last scarce hour again on-road on public roads and we reached exhausted our accommodation – the Africa Safari Lodge in Voi. Well fortified and entertained by our waiter Matthew, who had suggested his (very good) favorite beer Tusker Lager, we sank into our comfortable bed.