A one-day safari to Lake Nakaru was the day's plan, so I went out the hostel gates at 6:45 this morning to wait for my pick-up, in the rain.

By 7:00 they still weren't there and by 7:10 I was starting to get a little worried. And wet.

By 7:20 there was still no sign, and I was beginning to wonder if the whole safari deal had been some kind of scam, like the "escaping Sudanese persecuted Christian" who almost convinced me to give him money yesterday. Or the "plain-clothes policemen" - complete with ID - who told me off sternly for "not obeying the laws of this country" by buying the Sudanese man rice, which I'd done after making him agree to leave me alone if I bought him some. They tried to convince me they needed to explain more about the situation and it couldn't be done in public, so "come sit down over there, we'll talk, and then you'll be free." Uh, no thanks.

Thankfully I escaped both situations unharmed, and there were lots of real policemen and security guards around watching over the passers-by, but it still left me hesitant to trust anyone, and maybe that's a good thing.

So by 7:25 I'm getting worried they'd just taken my money and I wasn't going to get anything. I buy a phonecard and call them. The man who answers explains they're experiencing mechanical difficulties and that a car'll be around at the youth hostel in ten minutes.

But ten minutes later, sure enough, there's no sign of a car.

I call the cellphone numbers on the receipt but not one of the four numbers gets me an answer.

Another ten minutes and I'm thinking right, that's it, I'm going into town to visit their office and demand a refund.

After bussing into town I call them and they explain the others in my group have pulled out due to rains on the road; heaving rain's coming down from Mt Kenya onto the region we'll be visiting they explain at the office. After talking to a couple of passers-by and observing the weather I'm convinced they really are telling the truth. They're not con-men after all - they just have very bad service: they did send a car... at 8:15!

So they try their best to make it up to me, offering me a personal tour of Nairobi and her surrounds. After much negotiation I get it to include the Great Rift Valley, the snake farm, s trip somewhere nice for lunch, the Karen Blixon Museum [of "Out of Africa"] and a visit to the Bombas of Kenya to view different tribal village re-creations and some fantastic tribal dancing - loved the drumming!

So all's well that ends well, and I learnt that though their are some con-men out there, others just have very bad service, and then there are the lovely people who probably outweigh both these categories. Great people like Mary and Joe who invited me to their place last night for a home-cooked meal; like the guy I met at brekkie who stayed on the matatu past his stop so he could get off at mine and take me to the next matatu I needed to catch; like the many other helpful and friendly people I've come across during my brief time here.