Friday 11th February 2011
It was a bit of a hectic start to the day today, I couldn’t book our flights online as it was within 15 hours of travel so I had to get over to the travel agent at 8am to try and book some flights. The flight that I wanted to get in the early afternoon was a little expensive so I decided to go for the 11.10am which meant we’d have to leave the hotel by 9am – I was really hoping the girls were up and packed! Luckily they were and when I got back to the hotel at 8.40am they were having breakfast and all set to go.
Just before we left I wanted to go and find one of the street boys that we’ve been chatting to all week to give him something. We heard from one of the security guards at the club (who had seen him walking with us) that he got rushed to hospital yesterday as he was ill but fortunately he was ok and when we saw him yesterday evening I went into the supermarket and bought him some food and water (I think he wanted the money more but at least he had some good food!). I found him this morning outside the supermarket and gave him Beth’s broken racket. He was so happy and had such a genuine smile on his face. As I walked away I turned and saw him swinging the racket around in front of a friend having a laugh – something that we all take for granted has hopefully made his day. When I got back to the hotel and told the girls Devan raced straight back to them and gave the other boy her tennis shoes and said they were both over the moon with their new presents!
The flight to Nairobi was smooth and the highlight was definitely seeing the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro through the clouds:
The peak of Mount Kilimanjaro through the clouds
We got to The Nairobi Club around 2.30pm and this will be our tournament site as well as our hotel for the next week. It’s an amazing club built in 1901 and has Winston Churchill listed as a “Member’s Guest” in 1905. Unfortunately the courts look as though they haven’t been relayed since 1901 and they are kind of a mix of clay, soil and stones! As we arrived they were laying the lines of the court with the same machine that they paint the lines on the grass at Wimbledon. Some might not see a problem with that but when the clay moves or you slide across the line it gets rubbed out!! Could be some interesting line calls this week.
The Courts at The Nairobi Club
We trained for 1 hour and 45 minutes just to try and get the travelling out of our system and to get used to the courts as well as the altitude. It was eventful and we had a rule at the start of the session that the first one to fall over bought the drinks at dinner . . . that would be Beth then:
Unforced Error!
Devan was moved up into the main draw as the Special Exempts weren’t used so she now plays on Monday but Alicia Barnett, who won the doubles this morning in Mombasa, had to make sign in and now plays in qualies tomorrow.
We ended a tough day by having a great dinner on the veranda of the club cooked in front of us by the Head Chef:
