Island Paradise… well sort of
We just arrived safe and sound from a relaxing and adventurous three day sailing trip to the island of Kiwayuu. After leaving early Sunday morning, we set off in our chartered dhow for the four hour sail to the tropical paradise. Instead of sailing however, we spent a lot of time using our 25 horsepower motor which created a dull buzzing sound for the entirety of the trip, that is until we ran out of fuel and had to tack into the island, passing our destination several times before finally being able to dock on the shore. We had little idea what to expect for the island. When asking what to pack, our director told us to pack our “shark shoes” (we still aren’t sure what he meant), swimming costumes, skin screen (sun tan lotion) and some spending money if we were faced with the opportunity to buy cokes (warm) or artifacts (still questionable). We were told that it was an attractive tourist destination and perhaps he was pulling our leg when he said that there was a nice hotel there. Mind you I don’t think tourists would ever spend too much time there due to its proximity to Somalia, about 20 miles away, and the lack of any amenities including the infamous hotel or the warm coke. The sail into the island was enjoyable and all the girls relished in our ability to lay undisturbed on the front of the boat soaking up the rays. Despite applying copious amounts of skin screen however, our bodies turned tomato red and hated us the next morning… let us not forget that aloe was not on the recommended packing list. We arrived on the sandy beach and walked up to where we were staying. The accomodations were as follows: imagine a long lean-to made of bamboo and mangrove poles lined with five full sized mattresses each of which was accompanied by a blue mosquito net. There being eight of us, five boys and three girls, this little arrangement surely had its downfalls. While we were figuring out the little situation, our assistant director moved into his private bungalow about 50 feet down the beach and our director sat down in a chair to admire the view. He asked us if we wanted to trade rooms and told us to go look at his tree house style room above the bungalow. The girls quickly picked up their bags and relocated to the tree house which was equipped with two decent beds and a spectacular view. I have now slept in an African tree top house overlooking the Indian Ocean on the island of Kiwayuu. After settled in and regaining our land legs, we decided to cross the island to play on the beach on the other side. The boys will grab any opportunity to play soccer and the long beach provided the ideal field for them. We all trekked across and enjoyed the refreshing ocean water, body surfing in the crashing waves. Before we began to prune the girls decided to get out of the water and instead of watching the boys play their game, started up the beach to explore. If only we had known that this little adventure would be one of the greatest stories of the entire trip. We set off down the beach, gossiping and admiring the hundred of crabs that were scattered across the sand. Our plan was to walk around the entire island following the beach until we returned back at our campsite. We had been told that the island was only 2 kilometers so we thought nothing of trying to make it around before dinner. After walking for about half an hour we turned a corner in the beach and found that it continued on forever. While most people would turn back and follow the beach to where we knew we could cross, we made our first mistake of the afternoon and decided to climb the sand dunes and trek across the unknown part of the island. At first we were enjoying the little adventure and we even found a message in a bottle that had been sitting half-buried in the sand for a long time. Whoever thinks that is any form of emergency contact is crazy but the concept is cool and we laughed about it, bringing it along as an artifact that we didn’t have to pay for. Once on top of the dunes we were able to see the entire island, the vast expanse of lush areas covered in palm trees and the deserted barren grass areas that looked dry and ominous. We pressed forward, thinking that eventually we would make it to the other side. We crawled under brush, the entire time worried that we were disturbing the surrounding wildlife including potential snakes and other creepy crawlers. The hike was a test of teamwork and bushwacking skills as we trudged through cactus-like areas, having to stop at times to pull thorns out of our legs. For those of you reading this and thinking that we are crazy, we are and yet, we are here to live the tale and have learned our lesson about exploring. As if the cacti weren’t enough we found ourselves stuck in a herd of cattle that began charging at us so we had to take shelter at the edge of a mangrove forest that housed a group of screaming monkeys. We tried to follow the cows, as they were larger than many of the crawl spaces we had previously found ourselves, and ended up on a dirt path that led us to yet another mangrove forest. Mangroves grow on the edge of the sea so I thought that by hiking through we might be able to atleast see how far our boat was and estimate how much farther we would have to hike. For anyone who has seen the Lord of the Rings (LOTR), this was like entering Fangorn Forest. I saw a tarantula and our feet sunk into calf deep mud as we quickly walked towards the light of the ocean. We saw nothing and ran out, deciding that cows were much safer than the mysterious winding root systems of the seaside forest. We finally saw a man herding a cow and were relieved to recognize the landing strip that we had passed with the boys hours earlier. Although this may not seem terrifying on paper, or blog page as the case may be, it was and no one at camp even appreciated the story of our adventure. Regardless, we made it back before dinner, in time to take a quick bucket shower and attend to our cactus wounds. After a quick dinner of spaghetti we hiked up into our tree house and promptly passed out. The next morning we were woken up by Ali yelling below us “GIRLS! MORNING HAS BROKEN ITS TIME TO GET UP!!!!” So much for a relaxing vacation complete with a little sleeping in. We dressed, descended the tree and joined the boys for a quick breakfast. Although one would imagine a pleasantly quite oceanside breakfast, ours was accompanied by loud hammering as the crew of our dhow tried to mend the cracks in the bottom of our boat that had required constant bailing out during the sail in on the previous day. While in America leaks in the bottom of a boat would usually be repaired by metal sheets or other sturdy materials, out boat was being plugged up with pieces of cotton. While this tactic might be one of Kenya’s more inventive, it does not work and we had several near flooding episodes on our sail home. After breakfast we boarded another boat that took us around the island to go snorkeling over some of the reefs. The fish were diverse but we are still holding out for what is said to be world class snorkeling off the coast of Zanzibar in a couple of weeks. We returned back to camp to a lunch of tuna and shark meat, both of which were delicious. If only I had known that the shark fishing and snorkeling were all located in the same region I might have reconsidered my exploration of the offshore waters. The afternoon was spent relaxing. I stayed in the tree house napping and reading, two things I don’t get to do back at home, and enjoying the spectacular view. I descended again for dinner and then joined the rest of the group around the bonfire for a couple hours as we sang songs, chatted and laughed about the day. We all went to bed in preparation for a long day of sailing back today. Luckily we were able to get another boat to deliver fuel to the island or else we would have never made it back. The sail to our dhow was significantly disproportionate in size to the actual boat and was more of a decoration than an effective transportation method. The sail today was over nine hours long, hot and all we could think about was the refreshing shower awaiting us in Lamu. Although many of us are getting a little bored of island life, seeing Lamu in the distance was very exciting after hours on the open ocean. In the time at sea I managed to read almost an entire novel, thanks to kindle, and undo my corn-rows which resulted in an untamed and uncontrollable afro. We entertained ourselves by reenacting the Titanic and listening to a mix of Nsync, Taylor Swift, Beyonce and B’witched. A highlight was spotting a huge dolphin off the side of the boat before we entered back into the channel of the archipelago.
We are now settled back into Pepo house for our last week on Lamu (we leave next Sunday for three weeks in Mombasa). Maulidi, the annual pilgrimmage and festival marking the birth of Mohammed, started today and the streets are already flooded with tourists and muslim pilgrims mostly from the coastal region. It will be weird to not be the only “mzungus” walking the streets, but I guess we can use our swahili to stand out. Within the next week there will be dhow and donkey races, henna competitions and swimming races (for men only). I will keep you updated on the festivities and the sudden excitement on the relativley quite island of Lamu. Hope all is well at home!
