Just short of 2 hours later we arrived in Kericho, the heart of tea growing country. This area has the most fertile land and the best climate in Kenya. Most of the land was retained by the British upon independence or given to their Kenyan friends and supporters. There's kind of a sharecropper or company town aspect to tea growing with Kenyans providing labor, living in plantation-owned houses, and shopping in company stores. But the area is gorgeous.
The low greenery starting at the tree line are tea bushes.
Donkeys provide the primary means of transporting tea from the farm to the processor. 
We then proceeded on the road, stopping at 1 p.m. at a gas station restaurant. This is a very common type of eating establishment.
Another stop, which helped break up the long drive, was at Lake Elementaita, where one can see flamingos, although their numbers appear to be decreasing. The lesser flamingos, the pink ones, were not around, but we did see some greater flamingos which are white. There were also a number of pelicans who tend to congregate with flamingos. This site is a community-based development effort with a small fee for going in which also gives the group a naturalist guide.
It was a long, hot, dusty, walk to get down to the water where the birds were located -- pretty far away so binoculars were helpful. Pictures weren't great, but these are flamingos.
Children sell flowers and earrings made of flamingo feathers (the pink ones) they have found on the ground. This brings in a little additional income for the community.
As we continued on to Nairobi, we frequently saw zebras along the road. So we are getting a bit of wildlife viewing.
Finally arrived in Nairobi at the guesthouse where we'd be staying about 6 p.m. The guesthouse is run by a group of nuns, originally a German order, the Sisters of the Precious Blood. It's not luxurious but does have beds with mosquito netting, flush toilets, and a shower stall (which in our room never had hot water). The central courtyard has lovely plantings, and there are some gorgeous flowers. Like most other accommodations in Africa, breakfast is included with the room price.
After unloading suitcases, we piled back in the bus for a several block drive to the Vineyard restaurant where we had a lovely meal sitting outside. Last night I had really wanted ice cream for desert at the Imperial Hotel. Mary, acting as group leader/mother, said it would be a really bad idea. So tonight she presented me with an ice cream desert; unfortunately tonight I was full and didn't really want ice cream. But it was passed around and enjoyed by many.
My stomach seems back to normal, although I'm still a bit tired.
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