On the penultimate day of the trip we had our big match against the Maasai Cricket Warriors.

This wasn’t under conditions we were used to as James found out when he bowled his first ball. Off the long run, he came charging in and as he bounded in to his delivery stride slid about a foot. We were playing on what you would call a dustbowl – good job we were playing soft ball.

CWB won the toss and elected to field which seemed like a good decision from the skipper (surprising, I know), as nearly every bowler took a wicket in their one over spell. We had them six down in no time, but with a strong partnership and helpful buffet bowling from Sellers they reached 72 all out.

Booth and Bauer laid a solid foundation for the chase, but the star performer was Jezza, who showed everybody how it’s done. On only about his 3rd ball he pulled out the switch hit for six and saw us home only two wickets down. A good win for CWB, but I’m sure there will be a rematch next year.

After the match the Massai Warriors did a performance for us all, which involved chanting, pogo jumping and some form of conga line which I was dragged to the front of. We were all challenged to a jump off and Soloman our bus driver turned out to have a surprisingly large leap on him. 

It was off to Nanyuki for lunch, which proved to be a struggle because everything we ordered seemed to not actually be available. That evening we stayed at the Kongoni Camp hotel, the major down side of this was that there were too many British staying there. It was actually too much to handle so we went out for dinner instead. Here we reflected on our best and funniest moments of the trip. The most touching comment for me was when Peter, our coach from Nakuru, said that he found the trip to the One More Day centre most humbling. He said that it made him feel really fortunate for what he has, which compared to what I get playing for England is really not much at all. I think I will remember that for a long time.

The next day we were off to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy on safari. We saw chimpanzees up close and personal and I fed a rhino. It was hard not to compare this to the safaris on our commute to work, but we did manage to see rhinos in the wild. The only thing that was missing from the whole trip, was that we didn’t see a lion. It was such a shame, I guess I will have to see one when I go back.

The drive to Nairobi was pretty long and extremely bumpy, but when we reached the hotel near the airport we were not disappointed. We went to an all you can eat Brazilian steak house, where I tried crocodile and camel for the first time and probably last.

We all boarded the flight, with little hassle over luggage this time and the flight went very quickly. This was probably due to being asleep for 90% of the time, which was also the case for James who adopted the Churchill nodding dog approach to sleeping.

Our flight miraculously landed early, too early for me as I didn’t want the trip to be over. I had one of the most unforgettable experiences out in Kenya and I am so glad I decided to go. We had an awesome team, which made the trip so smoothly run and enjoyable. I would urge anybody about thinking of going, to definitely go! I am most certainly going to stay involved, even if I can’t go on another trip again. So watch this space!