The second day of Matt’s adventure was probably just as stressful for me as it was for him. Despite the triple-checking of all necessary luggage etc., Matt had forgotten to take his proof of yellow fever vaccination. This was  an incredibly important document, as you could not enter Uganda without it. The first thing I knew of the problem was a phone call from Mrs. Wood, a teacher at Matt’s school. As you can imagine, on answering the telephone to one of Matt’s teachers whilst he was away on a school trip (a neurotic mother always expects the worst  – plane crash, broken bones, a plague of locusts descending only to leave the whole party bereft of all belongings – you get the picture!) was not what I wanted, and at least ten new grey hairs immediately popped on to my head. Fortunately, she was calm enough for both of us. Even more fortunately, after I had raced home from work (thanks Mark for the lift) I was able to put my hand straight on to the certificate. After another race up to school I was able to put the certificate into Mrs. Wood’s capable hands so that it could be taken with the second group to be passed to Matt whilst still in Kenya.  How we had not packed it in the first place I shall never know!

Day 2 – July 17th

“If I had realised the day I was about to have, I never would have wished for more excitement. From the discovery that I had left my proof of vaccination for yellow fever back in England, to a bottle of sunscreen exploding in my back-pack, I had a very stressful morning. Thankfully disaster seems to have been averted thanks to team brainstorming and resourcefulness. For a large part of the day I was pre-occupied as a result, but that didn’t detract from my awe at seeing a group of monkeys walking down the side of the main road, bold as brass. We have also seen a small herd of zebras, and a giraffe (although Christian was unimpressed with how tall it was).

We stopped by a viewing station for the Great Rift Valley, and I took what may well be my only pictures for the trip as for the second time my camera battery spontaneously discharged all its stored energy as heat. We learned how to prepare traditional Kenyan food, and how to chase off multiple waves of relentless monkeys from our campsite.

I have had very little sleep for the best part of forty hours, so I am going to turn in.”