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Published: January 30th 2007
Well, its been yet another whirlwind weekend of fun here, just got back from Lamu a few hours ago, had a cold shower and went to get some photos on cd which i will try and upload asap!
I hardly know where to start really, seems like so much more than 3 or 4 days ago we got the bus here!
Long bus journey there anyway, nearly 8 hours on the bumpiest road ever known to man (if it was a road, i think we might of just gone through dusty fields?) Yeah and most of the way with sweaty guys practically sitting on me becuase they had people standing on the bus too, so illegal it was funny, but actually it wasn't! So, as soon as we got off the bus, must have 3 or 4 o clock i guess, we jump straight onto a small boat to be driven across to Lamu island, pretty wettening, lucky i didnt try to take photos of this part, would have wrecked the camera!
Weather was pretty overcast all day to be honest which suited everyone, made the bus journey Minorly less sweaty!
Lamu is possibly the most untouched place i've ever seen, it could easily be 300 years ago or more if it wasn't for the abundance of Marley t shirts. It reminded me a lot of French Towns the crew used to go to (often reluctantly), with cobbled roads, nnarrow streets and market stalls everywhere.If Mombasa is chilled, out, Lamu is positivley horizontal, the Steffan Turner of Towns one may say. Life seems to move so slowly, apparently theres one Motorized vehicle on the whole island, i Don't know if there was roads but im guessing not. Donkeys are main transport, carrying bricks and food and all sorts of things along the seafront harbour. The boats are a lot of small motor boats and loads of Dhows, old sailing boats.
So we got our accomodation via some American guys who denise and aron met in Fontanellas in Mombasa, who were in the army US Base which is based in Lamu. They told us to go this place run by a guy called Shatan and everyone calls him Satan, we met him after popping by Lamu town to rebook journey back home. He's this cool Rasta guy and our accomodation was possibly the Best thing we could have imagined, a house all to ourselves, peaceful and 2 minutes walk from the shore and the Bar which is run by Satan for talking Trees (name of our accomodation).
We marvelled at how lucky we were to get this stunning accomodation for 7 quid a night and dumped our stuff after a shower and headed to town after some tuskers for a meal.
We ended up at an Italian/sea food resteraunt which was rpetty nice, and had some random dude playing guitar, i gave him 50 bob in change just for playing take my hand which reminded me and the Vetch haha!
Nice meal anyway and we tottered back to Talking Trees about 10, about a 15 minute walk in pitch dark but Lamu is so safe it's unreal so Satan said so we felt pretty safe. By the time we got back, Grace and Hanah were fairly tipsy and Satan was fairly intoxicated by several Manner of potions and there looked like was disco getting started, although it was only a tiny little outside bar and a few tables. I had a few tuskers but if i am being Honest i only managed to live up my ever growing reputation and promptly fell asleep, leaving myself open to many stupid photos from the girls.
Grace and Hannah stayed up till 2 or 3, We saw satan next day and he stayed up till 7.
So our first full day, we went for Brekkie at about 11 at some nice place just up the white sand and then we split up, me , grace ,aron and Hannah went into Lamu and the others to Shella, a small town 15 minutes the opposite direction from our accomodation from where Lamu town is. We spent most of the day just shopping at a leisurely pace, just browsing the many craft shops, selling mainly jewellery that sort of stuff and we went in quite a few linen shops, managed to buy a cool Rasta/kenyan style shirt thing, a sort of baggy one for evenings, managed to barter the guy down to 600 shillings, quite a bargain but everything is really compared to Western Prices. We then ate lunch at Whispers, a really cool cafe just off the main square which John and Simon had recommended after the came here.
After a hard days Light shopping and ambling around Lamu, we walked back in smaller groups and got ready, came back to town to Bush Gardens, a sea Food resteraunt. Very good seafood here, expensive for Kenyan prices, but fresh so you cant complain, i had grilled calamari, very nice , following the red Snapper i'd had the day before, nice to have some variation in food after Chapati and rice stuff since i got here.
Yesterday was my favourite day defintely, we met the guys who gave su the boat ride here and managed to get them to give us a day long dhow ride, fishing and sunset sail included for 500 shillings. I dont think they would have unless we had seen this other guy who offered us that, there was bit of hoo-haa cos we chanegd our minds on him, although to be fair he didn't tell us that where we going would take 4-5 hours! So we set off at like half ten, headed for wherever the wind decided she wanted to take us, the open ocean. It was okay for the first half hourm, but ocne we got out of the cul-de-sac of enclosed water the sea started to get rough especially when we slowed down for fishing. 4 girls were sick overboard, which me and ashlee found quite funny for most of thetime but i did feel sorry for them, i felt a bit queasy at times too. Didn't catch any fish myself, although a large bit of seaweed did excite everyone due to its large size.Grace caught a nice chickenfish and soon we headed to Manda island as everyone was a bit queasy. Manda was just across from Lamu, we got there at around 1ish, a stretch of sand to ourselves, and crystal clear water.
We were cooked the fish we caught just one of, a few red snappers and bigger chickenfish, was absolutely stunning, and passionfruit for afters, unbelieveable we paid 500 shillings and go waited on like kings.
So after several hours at the beach, and a short boa ride which me and grace ventured out on and after making a sandcastle like a sadact, we headed back out for the final bit of the trip, the sunset sail and managed to capture some stunning shots( which my computer is contriving to not allow me to show you!!) and some great ones coming into Lamu in the dark.
And to top the trip off, we all got merry again with satan and his awesome collection of choons, fairly late at 1.30 espeically with this mronings 5.00 start but it was worth it to hear Don't Look Back Into the Sun, such a brilliantly appropriate track.
I guess this is all for now dudes, i will uplaod photos asap, im off back to the house for drikns as Grace goes home tomorrow.
Ciao for Now
Lloyd
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Jill & Gareth
non-member comment
Sounds as if you had a good time in Lamu. Really good to keep up with what you are doing - hope the mossy bites are getting better. The nurse is right by the way! Its better to smell sweaty and have no bites!!!! Take care.