Ugali forces itself into Team Kenya menu - Bathurst Notebook Day 2
Team Kenya members in a restaurant in Bathurst, Australia.
What you need to know:
- Over 150,000 visitors, many hikers and party goers, pour into this town annually.
- The city has 76 major sporting events annually, with sport contributing significantly to its $1 billion (Sh125 billion) annual Gross Domestic Product figures.
In Bathurst, Australia
Ugali forces itself into Kenya menu
*****
Australian hosts are very considerate. Like Kim Bradbury of Mantra Hotel where Team Kenya is staying. She observed, with concern, the high amount of food left over by athletes but noticed the tray with boiled, yellow maize was being cleared in minutes.
She asked team co-ordinator John Kimetto if her menu was the problem. “Yes,” she was told. So she quickly surfed the net for popular Kenyan cuisine before confronting Kimetto with a checklist of githeri, greens and kachumbari that her chef would easily prepare. But not ugali.
However, team accountant Emmanuel Kimetto took up the ugali-making task. “He safeguards our money but he is not busy right now and is strong enough to cook ugali,” assured Kimetto. Kim was happy with the deal.
Lights go out at 9pm...
*****
Some of us are streetwise. Visiting new places and adapting to local lifestyles is in our DNA. But I didn't think I could starve in any new place until I arrived in Bathurst in the dead of the night, thinking it had downtown, 24-hour eateries. Bathurst is a typical Australian town: Well-organised, clean, laid-back.
The Trip Advisor website, which reviews all small and big places, with rave reviews of far flung places like Mirema Drive, has little to say about this town which locks down from 9:00pm, I realised as I slept hungry.
Bathurst is rich, active
*****
Don't get me wrong!
Bathurst is a rich, active city, the spiritual home of motorsport in Australia with the Mount Panorama 12-hour, non-stop racing, or a 1,000-kilometre-long circuit racing.
Over 150,000 visitors, many hikers and party goers, pour into this town annually.
The city has 76 major sporting events annually, with sport contributing significantly to its $1 billion (Sh125 billion) annual Gross Domestic Product figures.
