Good Ideas

I often wonder if things are a good idea...usually after they've happened, or after it's too late to change my mind, but I spend a lot of time analysing things after they've happened, and wondering if I should have done something differently.

Many of these occasions, well generally the most serious ones, happen while I'm travelling. Like when I decided it would be a good idea to travel overland from Ethiopia to Kenya. Northern Kenya is not known for being the nicest place, and we met a Kenyan in Ethiopia who said he'd sell his house to buy a flight ticket between Addis Ababa and Nairobi, instead of having to travel overland.

Anyway, in the spirit of adventure, and the fact that flights were £600 and overland transport about £30, we went overland. Apart from running out of money, as there aren't any cashpoints in Ethiopia, and the bus men were demanding ridiculous amounts from us, travel through Southern Ethiopia to the Kenyan border went pretty smoothly.

Then, we were so happy to be able to get money out in Kenya and actually eat something, that we didn't really think too much about the next part of the journey. We happily paid the rip off price of about £20 for a bus ticket to Isiolo, only to find out the next morning that there are no buses, as the road is much too dangerous. Instead, we had to travel in a coffee bean truck, complete with armed guards, and we all had to travel in convoy as we were told by the driver, Moustafa, that we had a 50% chance of being shot at.

Brilliant. This would have been a very very good time to change our minds...except that meant another 2 days on Ethiopian buses, and then a flight to Nairobi. Or staying in the truck and hoping people got shot yesterday. Neither option looked good.

As the journey to Isiolo was only supposed to take 17 hours, we stuck with it and hoped for the best. Apart from the fact that there was no real road, so it was like driving over corrugated iron, which then turned into thick mud when it rained, we made it to Isiolo in one piece, all alive, and only about 17 hours late. Score!

The next morning, we took what we thought was the easy part of the journey, which was getting a matatu to Nakuru. We left at 6am, and drove for 5 minutes...before we discovered that the road was closed as there was a blockade - on fire - as someone had been killed during the night, and the police couldn't decide whose area it was in, and so were all ignoring it. After about 6 hours of waiting and waiting, we eventually paid more to drive over someone's land and take a detour but eventually made it to Nakuru. Only 36 hours late, which is not too bad for African timing, and most importantly we were alive!

My latest idea, which made me think of this, was that my house mate lost his keys. On my way home, I went to the locksmiths which is underneath our flat to get some more cut. As I was waiting, I thought, "Is it really the best idea to ask someone who works beneath our flat, and so knows where we live, to cut us some spare keys. What if they made extras and then robbed us when they saw us leave?"

Luckily, I didn't have to decide whether to go through with it or not, as the locksmith seemed utterly confused by my set of keys, and told me he didn't have any of a suitable shape or size to cut me some new ones. Problem solved!