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Published: December 8th 2010
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To get to the southern Kenya coast we have to drive through the city of Mombasa, East Africa's largest port and we're expecting this to present some obstacles. However, after only a brief battle with the traffic and some fortuitous guess work on the directions we're happily through and on the car ferry to Likoni.
We are staying at Tiwi Beach with it's palm trees, white sand and beautiful warm water. The air temperature hovers around the mid 30's (Celsius) so we are toasty, even in our lightest clothes. Although the tide is low we still manage to find a couple of nice reef pools to snorkel in. Immediately we realise we've swapped lions on the plains for Lion Fish in the water. Funnily enough these pretty red and white striped fish are also potentially deadly. There are quite a few of them so we manoeuvre carefully.
The dip whets our appetites so next on the list is a trip to Kisite Mpunguti Marine Reserve close to the Tanzanian border. It takes us forty minutes in a wooden dhow to get to the offshore reserve where we do a drift snorkel. Although there are some interesting fish that we
haven't seen before, the fish life seems depleted and the coral reef bears some heavy scars. We have a lovely seafood lunch on Wasini Island and afterwards follow a boardwalk through a mangrove forest and coral garden. The boardwalk has been set up by a local women's collective to help finance village initiatives. It's great to be able to support these community projects, but we are not so impressed by the large quantities of precious shells on sale in other parts of the village. It's another example of the continuing conflict between conservation and exploitation that we have witnessed throughout our travels.
North of Mombasa we make our way to Watamu, a popular Italian tourist destination that still retains a timeless fishing village feel. Dhows are anchored in the sheltered bay, fishermen mend their sails and caulk the boats with wads of cotton, while young boys play soccer behind the beach. It's a tranquil scene, surprising not marred by the pesky beach boy touts that we have encountered at other beaches.
Just north of the coastal resort town of Malindi we turn inland onto a bumpy dirt road. We make our way towards a point marked on our
map with the curious name of Hell's Kitchen. Only stopping to ask for directions a couple of times we pass cashew nut trees, fields of agave with the now familiar baobab trees scattered here and there and women and children walking the roadsides carrying loads of water from the wells. We have a laugh with a group of men constructing speed bumps on the road through their village. Everyone is guiding us over the steep, rocky bump in Kiswahili and pointing in different directions, prompting confusion and much entertainment.
Hell's Kitchen is a fascinating geological feature of multi-coloured soft rock. Millennia of erosion by wind and rain have carved this area into a multitude of different textures and shapes. It's a beautiful effect.
We get a guided tour from one of the village collective members along the rim and down into the 'kitchen' itself. It's midday and the heat is definately on in the oven. Tessa's face looks like she has been playing tennis for six hours and Keith's is that colour anyway. We all certainly need a drink by the end of it. It's an amazing feature and has been well worth the drive.
It's almost
time to return our rental car so from here it's a long but fairly uneventful drive back to Nairobi. We have just a couple of days to organise ourselves for our next leg, Madagascar.
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