An Underwear Crisis

After milling around passport control, and then baggage pick-up for seemingly ages in Mombasa, we finally got on the bus to Pinewood Village. We meandered through the city center to get to the ferry which crosses the Congo River. The line was quite long so we sat for about 20 minutes entertaining and being entertained by the vendors who were selling fried cashews, soapstone bowls with African pictures on them, wire bicycle sculptures, and CDs of African music outside our windows. I was the first one to break down and buy something. Of course, it was something to eat. Finally, we got on the ferry, floated lazily across the river with a mob of people on foot and vehicles, and disembarked. An hour’s drive over bumpy roads, full of interesting things to see wasn’t enough to keep me awake. I dozed on and off opening my eyes only to see massive Baobab trees with what looked like rats hanging from their tails suspended from the branches.  

For once, I followed the pros packing tips, and I put essential items in my carry-on. Those items included my mask, regulator and computer, two books, swimsuit, safari pants with zip-off legs, two hats, pajamas, and one change of underwear. I was good to go if only I could find a hair band. Jukka, unfortunately for him, didn’t follow the experts’ advice, and he wondered why I didn’t tell him to. He had several books, his regulator, and that’s about it, so he was approaching an underwear crisis on the first night.

The hotel gift shop provided us with expensive sunshine cream, some razors, toothpaste, and a swimsuit for Jukka. The dive shop had rental gear, and I was determined to dive whether our stuff made it or not. The others did too, except for Jukka and tour guide Theresa, who decided to stay and wait for the luggage. They both had contact lens issues, so it was a good enough excuse. Good choice on my part too, because I hadn’t been diving for over a year due to ear problems on the last dive trip. Working from home paid off, because I have been healthy and ended up having zero problems equalizing! Yippee!