Off road driving…my favourite tee-shirt…books and knickers!!

Thursday 9th September


Thought I wouldn’t have too much to share with you this week, but I do!


Driving here is an experience, the roads are very narrow and windy and you definitely have to watch out for the buses that are frankly a law unto themselves. Anyway, managed to drive around most of the island in the last couple of days without any skirmishes until yesterday evening when I got ran off the road …..I had been to a beautiful café overlooking an equally beautiful beach which I got to by descending down a hill that was probably the steepest I have ever driven down. After filling myself with the tastiest tuna steak ever with lashings of Creole sauce I was then ascending up the said steep hill, only to be faced with maniac driver coming down far too fast. Ended up with two nearside wheels off road in mud (thankfully no immediate sheer drop) and then couldn’t grip on mud and slope too steep to get back onto road. Slid back quite a bit, towards sheer slope and then decided to get help. Traipsed back down to café, and got rescue party who helpfully pushed me out onto road (after lots of advice about which way to turn my steering wheel, what gear to put the car in etc, etc .... they were clearly concerned that I was a woman and wouldn’t know what to do!), and eventually managed to get my little box of a car up hill. Phew!


Did I tell you that I had brought only one bikini out with me, a pink one bought from M & S…so you would expect no problems with it. Well it’s a disaster – the colour keeps running out from it no matter how many times I wash it, and quite a few of my clothes now have pink shading to them. Anyway, Claudette who does the laundry returned most of my clothes yesterday, all in pristine condition, and all the right colour. But, she’s just knocked my door…almost in tears as she’s damaged one of my tee-shirts trying to remove a tiny stain that wasn’t pink but probably from the kitchen at base. Of course it had to be my favourite ‘billabong’ tee-shirt, not one from Primark! She was terrified that I was going to be angry with her, and couldn’t stop hugging me when I told her not to worry (face totally poker at this point). I am now the proud owner of a billabong tee-shirt that is mainly blue but has a wonderful tie-dye bleached pattern on the front and a (tacky) ‘Villa Chez Batista’ tee-shirt which she has insisted I have as a gift from her to me for her mistake….whoopee!!


When I left base on Tuesday I didn’t manage to get to say goodbye to everyone, and posh Joanna was one I didn’t see. Anyway, in toilets in Victoria and who did I bump into but posh J. She was so excited to see me, telling me, (in between hugs) that she had been so upset with not being able to say goodbye to me, she hadn’t yet got me on facebook (which she won’t!), she hadn’t got the link to my blog (which she won’t get!) and then wanted to stay with me the whole day whilst I mooched around Victoria. Top of my list was trying to find a shop to buy more knickers (yes I have packed too frugally – I am expecting everyone at FCA at this point to be snickering after my farewell speech on knickers!). Well we failed to find a single shop that sold knickers, can you believe that – don’t the Seychellois wear any?! I am presuming (and hoping) that knicker shopping in Mombasa will not prove to be so difficult, if not it’s going on the list for my first ‘care parcel’ to be sent out along with more marmite, (and maybe a new billabong tee-shirt?).


My final dilemma is books…..I haven’t really had a chance to read much whilst on the project, so this is my time for reading. I have devoured 4 books in 2 days (thank you Jayne for the two great books you gave me before I left), and had noticed a shelf at hotel with books on, but just gone to choose some more and deposit my 4 there and there’s nothing in English –mostly German or French…aaaghhhh – why didn’t I try harder in my French lessons at school? So have kept my four books, one of which is Harry Potter (and the half blood prince) which I’d taken from the small collection at base, so am now intending to ration my reading, and frankly there are worse things in life than having to read HP again and again.

Just thought of one other thing I won’t miss about base……having to share my marmite! xx