Tour


	Link to maps page

We arrived in Nairobi in the middle of the night and rested at the Panafric Hotel before catching an internal Air Kenya flight from Wilson Airport to Lamu Island. This flight was in a DeHavilland Dash 7, four engine propeller aircraft with a passenger capacity of 50. The flight lasted 1½ hours and we landed on a dirt strip on the virtually uninhabited neighboring Manda Island. We then had a short walk to the edge of the mangrove where we caught an ancient diesel launch across the straights to Lamu Island. On arrival, we had a good look at the virtually antique Petley's Inn, reputedly the oldest hotel in Africa, before deciding to stay at the more modern sister hotel, the Lamu Palace - shown below.

Lamu Palace Hotel

The two hotels (11 & 22 rooms) are jointly owned and share all their facilities anyway, with all food served at the Lamu Palace and a small bathing pool at Petley's. Both hotels are situated on the waterfront overlooking the straights between the two islands which form a natural shelter for a large number of dhows. It's hot here down on the coast compared with Nairobi (which is around 6000 feet above sea level) but there is always a good breeze here to cool things down and keep the dhows sailing along nicely.

There are no road vehicles on Lamu and land transport is confined to foot or donkey. The alternative is to skip around the islands by water transport in dhows or small launches.

In the morning we joined a Lamu town tour, taking in the museum, donkey sanctuary and the shops along the main street - which is about five or six feet wide for the main part.

In the afternoon, we sped round the island in a long, narrow powerboat to a village called Matondoni where they make and repair the dhows. The ribs are made from shaped pieces carefully selected from the surrounding Mangrove. The hull is then formed from Mahogany planks, which have to be oiled and heated over a fire to form the correct shapes.

In the evening, with the aid of torches, we made our way through town to a villa called Jannat House for a very good Swahili dinner. We were joined by another English couple, Mike and Jaquie from Devon. On the way back, we called in for drinks at the makuti-roofed terrace bar at Petley’s Inn.


The following morning I hired a dhow for the day along with two crew, Hassan and Yaba. We sailed round to the seaward side of Manda Island and did some snorkeling before sailing back into the straights and anchoring at the Manda Island Beach Club to meet Carole. Here we had our lunch and lounged in the shade on suspended beds/hammocks until it was cool enough to sail back to Lamu.



		In the evening, the hotel arranged a Tepenyaki dinner for the guests, including several Japanese who were stuck in the area while their cruise ship was under repair down the coast in Mombassa. The following morning we again went out sailing in the dhow stopping for a long lazy lunch at the Manda Island Beach Club.


We left in the early afternoon to make our way back to the tiny airstrip for our flight back to Nairobi (see baggage claim desk on the right).



		In Nairobi we stayed for one night at the New Stanley, a very smart historic hotel. I had a few beers in the impressive Exchange Bar, chatting to some local businessmen. Carole then joined me and we went in to dinner in the Zen Restaurant.

The meal was rather a mixed success but we enjoyed a bottle of Champagne in anticipation of my 50th birthday the following day - see picture of three lobsters! We rose early on my birthday and were collected from the hotel by James our driver for the next three days.

The drive down to the Maasai Mara National Park took over four hours. Much of this was though areas of farmland, but we started to get close sightings of game well before reaching the reserve. These included zebra, giraffe, impala (left), Thomson's gazelle, Grant's gazelle (below) and Kirk's dik-dik.

We arrived at our tented camp in time for a late lunch before heading into the reserve to discover larger game including lions, elephant and African buffalo.

There was no difficulty in getting close to the animals and we were less than 20 feet from the lions, who were intent on their afternoon siesta.

Back at camp in the evening, we had dinner and the turned in for an early night. The camp uses permanent tents and we were the only clients. We slept with two Maasai warriors guarding the front of the tent all night. The baboons at the adjacent stream made quite a fuss at one point during the night, apparently disturbed by a Leopard. Carole hand fed some vervet monkeys at the campsite in the morning before we set off on our next game drive.


	Cheetah

We managed to get very close to three cheetahs (above) perhaps the same three we had seen only from a distance the previous day. There were some spotted hyenas around too, along with warthog and hartebeest (left).

We drove on down to the border with Tanzania - a small concrete post in the middle of nowhere with K on one side and T on the other. Beyond that is the Serengeti National Park. Nearby, we stopped at a river to watch hippopotamus bathing and also saw crocodile lazing in the sun.

In the afternoon we visited a Maasai village just outside the reserve. First we were treated to a dance by the women folk, followed by another by the warriors. We were given a tour of the village including a visit to one of their huts. These are made of a framework of wooden branches with walls and roof sealed with animal dung. Inside the one we visited were three small sleeping areas, one for grandparents, one the parents and one for the children. Between these is a small area for a fire for cooking and heating.

Maasai dance

On our last morning we traveled back through the Great Rift Valley to Nairobi, again spotting plenty of animals along the way including blue wildebeest (brindled gnu). The first hour was along unsurfaced roads before we finally hit the tarmac. It was still not plain sailing though due to the vast number of potholes and wandering animals.

We stopped twice on the way back for a break and to shop for souvenirs. We then lounged around by the pool at the Panafric and rested in preparation for our overnight flight home.

Later on, we went into the reserve looking for leopard but didn't manage to find any. The nearest we managed was to spot the remains of an impala hanging from a sausage tree. We did manage to add waterbuck to the list of sightings though.

There were plenty of birds about including the crowned crane, ground hornbill, marabou, guinea fowl, eagles, hawks, storks, buzzards and vultures. The flat-topped acacia trees also make a fine site across the Savannah. Due to recent rains, the grass was very green and quite high. Unfortunately this hid many of the smaller animals and others had migrated to the south because they need to be able to spot the carnivores in good time to escape.

We were joined at the campsite by another couple on our second evening. They were from New Zealand and were spending a month in Africa for their honeymoon. After dinner we had a good chat about our various adventures and imbibed a few glasses of Balentines whisky under the light of a hurricane lamp.

What a thoroughly good holiday this was, although it was far too short to do Kenya justice. We would need several weeks to explore further and be fully satisfied. Perhaps we will return soon as so many people do.

Links to useful web sites:

For more Kenya maps on this website, click here
Lamu, Kenya - Africa’s Kathmandu - Time International
Let’s go Travel - safari, accommodation and flight information
JamboKenya - Gateway to East Africa

All pictures taken by Bill & Carole Sykes, in February 2001.

website design by Bill at www.billsykes.com