Arrived at last!

 Thank you to every one who's commented on my blog about our move. Thank you too, for the well-wishes and the questions.

It may have seemed sudden yet to us, it wasn't all that unexpected. The company director of Grant's present [new] employ was his project manager way back in 2001-2003 and again in 2005 on the gold mines of Guinea, West Africa. He has been headhunting Grant since May last year; he and his wife ( a good friend of mine) also met up with us in Johannesburg in September while we were travelling back to Kenya and the men spoke business while we caught up on grandchildren and other news.

However, every time whenGrant and I discussed moving, we'd decide against leaving the beautiful valley in Kenya. Then after we returned from our short holiday in December, the man contacted Grant again: this time with an offer he couldn't refuse.

So on Wednesday 1 February at 4.30am,  we left Chebutie Camp in Keirio Valley and headed up the mountain to Eldoret for the last time. We had our suitcases, backpacks, two tin trunks and the cats. Sadly though, Ginger was nowhere to be found when we left so we only checked in with Shadow and Ambrose. (But more about that later)

On Friday at midday we arrived at our destination - Tanzania - on  a diamond mine site in the northern part of the country. More - much more - about this later too!  

I've marked our departure in Kenya (see near Eldoret) with a yellow star and our arrival in Tanzania near Shiyanga with a star. A white line marks our journey made from Kenya to Tanzania

We flew from Eldoret to Nairobi where we waited for a connecting flight to Dar Es Salaam (known as Dar) in Tanzania. The cats were unable to fly on our plane; later that evening they'd board a Boeing which transports live animals and cages.

We spent the night in Dar at a beautiful hotel overlooking the harbour . The next day Grant spent the morning at the company HO dealing with business while I collected the cats [two only!] from the Cargo Terminal at the airport. This is an entire story on its own which I will be telling later!

On Thursday night we flew to Mwanza, the second largest city in Tanzania, with Dar being the largest, and overnighted in a beautiful hotel on the shores of Lake Victoria. We were able to let the cats out of their cages and run around the bungalow-type room we had. They were delighted to sleep on our bed that night!

The next morning travelled down in a company Toyota with the cats on the back seat next to me. Once in our lovely house in the camp, we let them out again - into the house only, they'll not be let outside for while yet - and they've been exploring their new surroundings and choosing special places to sleep, ever since.

Can anyone guess what happened to Ginger? Did we leave him in the valley permanently, where he was born, where he ruled supreme and where he seemed so happy?

The answer to follow...