25th September – Lamu Island.

Absolutely fabulous. It’s much better than we expected. We could have spent a week there instead of less than 2 days. Because it’s only 130 km’s from the Somali border we were advised not to go by road which is extremely bad and should be travelled in convoy with the army. So we went to the airport at Malindi, to enquire about the flight. Nevertheless 1 ½ hours later we were walking the streets of Lamu. Most of the old town originates from the 13th century with 90% of the streets no wider than a meter – yes only wide enough to walk past a donkey, and there are hundreds of them. We stayed at Amu House which was awesome at R280 per day for the 2 of us including breakfast. We got a guide who was born on the island so knew everything including everyone. We had a tour for about 4 hours until we could hardly walk anymore.
Jean Visser would like this part. That evening we went to a local restaurant to eat local food, (ofcourse), we just sat down and who should walk in? Robin and Dianna – the Lichtenstein couple we met in Dar es Salaam who Jean and Hannelie met in Ghana. Strange how these things happen – neither Robin and Dianna had any plans to go to Lamu and at that stage nor did we. However we had a wonderful evening and I gave them the “vissers” regards. Next morning we had a tour of Shella, the rich people’s side of the island. Lots of film people and including Princess Carolina and the CEO of Peugot have places (or should I say palaces) there.