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Published: November 12th 2021
Greetings from the coastal city of Mombasa!
Yesterday was a long travel day to Mombasa. We had another delicious breakfast in the camp, said goodbye to the other group who are now going on to Egypt, and headed out about 7:30. We did a mini game drive on our way out of the Maasai Mara National Park, and we had an excellent giraffe sighting! We hadn’t seen too many Maasai giraffes, so that made me very happy to see several more. We also saw zebras, cape buffalo, eland, and Thompson’s gazelles.
It was a very scenic drive back to Nairobi (on paved roads, once we were out of the park). We drove though the Rift Valley escarpment, and stopped at the viewpoint to admire the panoramic view (see pano above). We passed by tiny roadside stands selling roasted maize (the truck drivers who buy the maize toss the cobs out of the window when they are done, and so there are baboons along the road eating the leftovers).
The road is two lanes except for the occasional passing lane when there is a steep hill, and it is amazing to watch the trucks and other vehicles pass other
vehicles, around corners and up hills. Drivers seem quite patient with each other here, and always seem to let vehicles in when they need to come back in their own lane.
We passed dusty roadside towns with the usual teeny shops with the entertaining names, and many pretty vistas. We stopped at a roadside cafe for a bathroom break and to pick up a take out lunch that Stanley had arranged for us. We had delicious samosas (beef for the others and vegetarian for me) and fries. The samosa was spicy and excellent.
We soon were in the sprawling outskirts of Nairobi. We passed our driver Stanley’s village - which looked quite nice. The landscape is very green and pretty in this area and there are lots of small areas under cultivation.
We passed by Kibera, which is the second largest slum in Africa, behind Soweto. Over 800,000 people live in Kibera. It looks to consist of corrugated tin shacks, tightly packed together. Shortly after we passed by the enormous Nairobi National Park (we were on the edge of the park when we visited the Elephant Orphanage). Not long after we arrived the Nairobi airport, where Stanley
dropped us off. We said good-bye to our excellent driver, checked into our flight, and found a place to get a Tusker before our flight. I topped up my M-Pesa account, and used it to buy a beer (it was the first time I’d used the M-Pesa account to make a purchase, other than buying the train tickets from Mombasa to Nairobi online). M-Pesa is extremely widely used in Kenya, every shop has a M-Pesa number, and you can make purchases using the app, from your M-Pesa account. It is associated with a cell phone number (everybody has cell phones here and they have good cellular coverage). Since we got a Kenyan SIM card for our phones, I was able to get a M-Pesa account. It’s the only way to buy train tickets online.
Our flight was just under an hour, and soon we landed in Mombasa. We got a taxi (a van for the 6 of us), and it was a long slow ride to our resort (Voyager Beach Resort), because of construction and traffic. It was a very hot and humid evening, and I was glad when we arrived about 7:30. The resort main areas looked very
nice, and we were looking forward to a nice room, but the rooms here really need some updating and maintenance. We asked about an upgrade to an ocean view room, but none were available. We had to switch rooms because the first one wasn’t acceptable, so we trooped around seeing a couple of other rooms, and settled on one on on the second floor (the others were on the ground floor). This room had its problems too (flickering fluorescent light in the bathroom, broken fridge) but they were eventually remedied. But the resort really needs to do some work on the rooms. All the staff here seem very nice and helpful, except the manager at reception, who was distinctly unhelpful.
By this point it was getting late and we were extremely hot and sticky (it was a very humid evening). We went to the restaurant for a quick light dinner (soup and salad), and then it was back to the room. All in all, our arrival was a bit of a letdown, especially after coming from the fantastic safari camps. I guess our expectations were too high.
Today though, everything was much better. We both slept well, woke
up to a beautiful sunny day, and had a very nice breakfast at the buffet. I love all the different fresh fruit. They have a buffet here, but you indicate what you want and they serve you. Masks are mandatory in the resort generally, and at the restaurant and buffet line up, unless you are at your table. Kenya takes Covid restrictions very seriously.
We walked around the resort to orient ourselves. There are three pools here, numerous bars, a main buffet restaurant and two a la carte restaurants. The resort is located right on on the Indian Ocean. We visited their excellent gift shop and made some purchases, including a sarong for me for the beach. Then we found the others at the adult infinity pool, and after going back to the room to change, we joined them. We found two loungers in the shade (it’s way too hot to be in the sun). We had a pleasant morning by the pool. I caught upon the blog, and we cooled off in the pool and admired the view of the Indian Ocean. Susan and I signed up for a boat ride and snorkelling for later in the afternoon,
Close up of the markings
They are so different from the Reticulated and the Rothchilds and we had lunch at the snack bar (I had a really good veggie burger).
Our boat left at 2:30 from the beach, and we had a great 3 hour excursion to the marine park. The boat had a small glass bottom area through which we could view fish and the coral reef. Later we snorkelled off the boat. It was a little bit murky but we saw lots of pretty fish and had a good time. After snorkelling we came to the starfish garden, an area with lots of starfish. One of the guides brought up numerous starfish for us to see and touch, after which they were carefully returned to the ocean. It was really interesting to see all the different starfish up close. And it was just very nice being out on the boat, admiring the coastline. We then continued to an exposed sand bar, where we were able to get out of the boat and walk on the sand bar, although we were far from shore. This was also very interesting as we saw lots of marine creatures including sea spiders (which I like a lot more than land spiders!), water worms, sea cucumbers, crabs,
and lots of other things.
We then headed back to shore, and back to the room to shower and change, and met the others at the Lookout bar for drinks before dinner. It is in a lovely spot overlooking the ocean. We enjoyed the buffet for dinner, and are having a fairly early night as we have an early morning tomorrow. We are all going deep sea fishing. I’m not keen on the fishing part, but being out on the boat way out in the ocean will be fun.
We had some very sad news this evening after we returned to the room, as we got a message that a dear friend had passed away. We will raise a glass in his honour tomorrow. Rest in peace my friend.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
My favorite
I love giraffes.