For my back packing friends

This story is specially for the 2 back packing fundis in my life who have had me in stitches many a time on their adventures around Europe, with little more than a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

A couple of days ago 2 girls from Prague arrived here asking if they could pitch their tent on the property for the night. They were happy to pay for the piece of land, however free would be much better. As this isn't your usual camping site, the managers rallied together and eventually offered them a tent for 2, at a single, local rate...with supper.

When they returned the following day to buy bread from the camp kitchen, the two single balloon pilots from down the road were summoned to rescue the two damsels to their tented camp. The pilots were more than delighted and kept thanking us for their "gift"...mmm, that's what happens when you live alone and single in the bush too long. The four of them came bounding in for lunch the next day, hair combed, shirts tucked in, definite spring in the two men's steps to invite us for a Czech dinner.

I wish you could have all been there.

Goulash Soup and kneddlies (dumplings), under the afdak constructed as a garage, pouring rain on the banks of the Mara river, hippos calling 20m away.

The Crowd: Two Czech back backers, who on a whim decided to come to Kenya. The Israeli soldier come businessman come pilot, come businessman. A Union brick layer from Illinois, who decided to become a balloon pilot when he saw a balloon flying over his construction site one day back in Chicago, a 16 year old Swedish intern with an affinity for Tuskers...and his i-phone and the two of us.

The Conversation: Launch of the new 16 man balloon basket, the delicious 'cookies' the starving girls had found on arrival to their first tented camp, the Kneddlies, must be sweeming in seuce, the mysterious Mara murder mystery, and always, how business is going in the Mara.

All in all a very amusing evening in a very unexpected place.