Bad Gas in Nairobi

It wasn't the beans...

Our faithful steed, Battlecat, has not been so faithful over the last two months. In fact, we have renamed it "Cringer" (those of you who grew up with late 1980s cartoons will understand this reference). It started out back in January when the clutch had to be replaced. Shortly after the clutch was fixed the Kenyan roads rattled our muffler off and the complete exhaust system had to be replaced. Fortunately, big fixes such as these are significantly cheaper than they are back home, but one does have to worry about the quality of the repair. We're lucky that we have a fairly reputable mechanic here who usually gets the job done -- and if they don't quite get it done, we can bring it back in for completion at no extra cost. This would be a pain back home, but hey, this is Africa. The clutch repair went great, the muffler repair is still pending (the Kenyan roads have since rattled our new exhaust manifold loose twice), but now we have a new problem. A big dirty problem. About a month ago we filled up at a gas station that wasn't a Shell or BP. It was a gas station that looked quite reputable, but boy were we wrong.

A few days after the fill-up the engine starting hesitating -- jumpy as it accelerated -- and backfiring regularly. Locals would duck, no doubt fearful of gunfire, as we drove by. We brought the car in to our mechanic who discovered water in the fuel filter and informed us that we must have got bad gas. This was a new concept to me that I really should have been more aware of. Call me a naive Canadian. An Australian colleague was quite familiar with the problem, and refered to it as "Kangaroo Gas". Anyhow, the mechanic cleaned out the carburetor, changed the filters, and sent us on our way.

In one week we were back with the exact same problem. This time he told us that in addition to the water, there was also dirt (DIRT!) in the bad fuel that we got. He said that the fuel probably came from the bottom of the reservoir from the gas station. Another free cleaning and filter change, and we were on our way. The car worked great for about 100 km, but soon it was back to coughing and sputtering and frightening the locals. Yesterday we took it back to the mechanic where the gas tank and fuel line are being completely removed for cleaning.

So, in the end I suppose it was a valuable lesson to be learned. While in East Africa, only fill up at internationally recognized gas stations such as "Shell", "Caltex", or "BP".

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Not too much else to report on from here in Nairobi. Jessica & I have a bit more than 2 weeks until we depart on our "end-of-trip trip". We are still hoping to go to Madagascar, but right now it is depending on how much money we get for our car when we sell it. We've posted ads, and received calls to view it, but as mentioned above it's not quite ready for viewing yet.

We still haven't heard anything about the proposal yet, so continue to keep your fingers crossed for us. I will post once we find out if we got the 'yay' or 'nay'. I have a great backup job lined up if the proposal falls through, so either way the summer should be a great one.

The situation here in Nairobi has gotten much worse with regards to crime recently (I'll save the horror stories for you when I get back): one reason why Jessica & I are definitely looking forward to getting home. We really feel very lucky that we ended up at ILRI however; not just because of the great work experience we're getting here, but also because of how safe the site is.

Hope everyone is doing well! Only 6 weeks until we see those of you in Victoria.