Lamu

July 24, 2007 – Kenya

I woke up early, after a night of unsettled sleep and discovered a new row of mosquito bites on my arm. To pass the time, I pulled out my book and read until the boys were up, and then we organized laundry and put together a backpack for the day. Seid and Mohamed made us a magnificent breakfast—a combination of American-style eggs and Swahili-style samosas.

Today, we ventured over to Shela, the main beach near Lamu. Most tourists take a motor boat or a dhow over, but we decided to walk. It was high tide and much of the path was covered in water, but we just hiked up our pants and continued onwards. We walked past Lamu’s power plant—a huge diesel generator surrounded by blackened earth and empty diesel cans that lay strewn about. It was painful to look at.

Farther along the path, we walked past the Ministry of Land Management, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Wildlife. So many ministries…they are all housed in the most lavish buildings on the island, but I’m not too clear on what policies they're implimenting.

We arrived at Shela just as our many layers of conservative clothes were soaked through and through with sweat. My awe at Muslim women and their many veils grew as we walked over. How can they take the heat? At the first restaurant, we stopped for a refreshing lime juice.

On the sandy shores of Shela, we explored what was around the bend…and the next bend…and the next. Shela beach stretches for twelve kilometers around the headland and there’s always another bend to explore. Among other oddities, Alex and I found a huge castle, said to be built by an Italian entrepreneur (with lots of money and interesting taste).

Over lunch, we struck a deal with a man named Abu who set us up with a sunset dhow ride. We set sail in mid afternoon and caught a strong wind out to the other side of the channel. Thick mangroves created a fortress along the shore. When a mangrove tree grows to its full size it begins producing offshoots that simply fall into the ground beside it and start growing into new mangrove trees, until there is an impassable net of mangrove roots and branches.

As we took down the sail and drifted close to the beautiful mangroves, a low “mooooo” drifted over the tops of their branches, reminding us that farmers still live on these isolated islands (despite inadequate water supplies).

A rain cloud moved in and we caught a refreshing drizzle before the sun set in between one cloud and another. On our way back to the Lamu dock, we fetched up an exhausted baby turtle that was floating on the surface to bring to the Shela turtle sanctuary. Turtles are illegal to eat here, but locals can get a small reward for bringing exhausted turtles to the sanctuary.

We had dinner at a restaurant with lights, but when we got back to the apartment, the electricity was out. We used kerosene lamps and L.E.D.s to make our way to bed.