After much ado (about nothing), we landed at a hotel in Voi whose main attraction was it was family-friendly (yay?) and offered daylong safaris. The three Texans planned to head to Mombasa to see a friend, who would be home in a couple of days. We thought I would recover for a day and then rejoin the walk.

That was not to happen and little did we know, cousin Robin was advocating that we not return because the cost was high and the benefits low. In any case, I did not feel well enough, so we decided to join the Texans for another uneventful day in Voi and then take the fast (?) train to Mombasa where we would then get a driver to take us to Malindi for a bit of time with just the two of us. Why Malindi, you ask? Because that was where we would meet up with the group to head to Lamu Island.

The best parts of the Voi Wildlife Lodge were the pool, which didn’t get as hot as bathwater until the afternoon, and air conditioning in the bedroom, but when Alex called to arrange for us to meet up with the group, we told him we weren’t coming back. I was still too sick. That left the four who would go on to finish the trip.

The train gave us a different view of Kenya as we slowly made our way southwest to Mombasa. The hotel had packed a boxed lunch for us. It was strange: one boiled potato, one piece each of carrot and cucumber, a plain chicken sandwich, juice box, water, chips, sponge cake, croissant, apple, orange and a hard-boiled egg. OK.

Wildlife roams on the far side of the train tracks amid mud huts that I’m sure existed before the new train and stations were built (with help from Chinese money). Dirt paths connected I’m not sure what, villages? stores? Arriving in Mombasa the scene changes completely to one of organized chaos. The train station is crowded, the parking lot has one pay station with many lanes feeding into it.

We had booked a driver to take us north along the coast to Malindi. He was a nice enough man, but an overly cautious driver. The car was uncomfortable and had no AC. I had prepared by not eating and I was very glad because there was nowhere on the 2 1/2 hour drive I would have wanted to stop. Maybe a gas station rest area, but even that …

In a way, it was good that we walked off the tour since we got to see a lot more of Kenya than we would have otherwise. Towns along the way were chaotic, crowded and rundown with shopkeepers sitting outside their tiny stores within “shopping centers” that looked like oblong boxes with wall dividers. Traveling markets were strewn about the street as women with babies on their backs picked through piles of used clothes and household goods. The streets are teeming with motorbikes, TukTuks, buses, trucks, cars and pedestrians.

We finally made it to the Ocean Beach Resort in Malindi where a bathroom and a cool drink were much appreciated. Our room was lovely and air conditioned and it seemed we were the only ones there. We were close to the beach and had the pool to ourselves, but after getting over our drive and the fact that we were the only ones in the dining room, we knew we had to wander the next day, so we got a taxi into the town of Malindi and walked up and down the main drag. We decided to walk to what is one of few tourist destinations in Malindi: the Vasco da Gama Pillar. It was very hot and when we got there, it was not free. We used our last cash to walk out onto a spit of land that contained the pillar. It didn’t even have a plaque. Definitely not worth the walk in the heat, although it was breezy out there. Doubly not worth having to walk back because we didn’t have enough money for a ride. Oh well.

From there, we stopped at the grocery story to get water (you can never have enough water) and snacks and decided to brave a TukTuk back. They don’t move very quickly and the pot-holed dirt road that led to the hotel was a bouncy experience, but the are fun and way cheaper than a cab. The pool was fabulous after that.

It’s tough for us to sit still for too long, so we went back into town the next day looking for a T-shirt shop we had stopped in, but somehow didn’t find it. Malindi has a large Italian populations because they built a satellite launch facility there in the 1960s and many people stayed or enticed others to come too. We went to an Italian restaurant, Bar Bar, for a drink to cool off and decided we would return the next day for lunch. Believe it or not, we had very good pizza in Kenya. One thing about Kenya: If you don’t finish your food, the staff is worried that you didn’t like and will ask several times if you were happy.

Our last full day in Malindi, we went for a walk on the beach, which was almost deserted except for a couple of people searching for shells to sell. I don’t have to tell you that we stuck out and, therefore, were hounded by someone trying to sell us a tour or something. I guess the method of not taking no for an answer works, and I do understand people are just trying to make a living, but it was frustrating. We kept walking until he got the hint. By then we were back in town. This time we found the T-shirt shop and Steven became the proud owner of a Tusker beer shirt.

We spent the afternoon and the next morning at the pool before we headed to the Malindi airport to meet up with the group (except for Robin) and fly to Lamu. I’ll save that adventure for our last Kenya installment.