A coast based friend just sent in this article, describing a unique travel experience from Lamu all the way to Wasini and done on budgets of between 30 and 40 US Dollars a day, accommodation, meals and bus tickets included.
WOW … yes, that is affordable, in fact outright cheap … so for anyone travelling on a shoe string budget, Kenya is NOT beyond them … Karibuni !!!
The three of us started our backpacking tour at the northern end of Kenya’s 540 km long coastline with the uncontested jewel off the Kenyan Swahili Coast: magical LAMU.
As all Africa backpackers can only imagine too well, quite a big number of flycatchers gathered right at the steps of the arriving bus – just as our host Arnold, a long-time immigrant from Europe, had told us. To save us from the inherent annoyance, he had sent Mohammed to take us under his wings. He was easy to spot in his long white Kanzu – the long robe Lamu’s muslim men still regularly wear. The boat ride in a quite big motorized wooden boat from the mainland to the island and its main city called…yes, Lamu, took about 20 minutes. The very recommendable Jambo House, a most welcoming and cozy guesthouse, is located right in the old town which stretches from the shoreline about 50 meters land inwards.
Lamu’s Donkeys
Its owner Arnold is obviously fully integrated into the community and he introduced us to some of his local mates who showed us their streets, their beloved city, their eateries (called hotelis), their workshops, their houses, and their dhows – the traditional Arab sailing boats which up to date are not only still commonly used in the Lamu archipelago but also being built here by specialist boat carpenters.
We stayed 2 full days, spent a lot of time in Lamu town which is by the way a World Heritage Site, walked the beaches to visit the village Shela – where presumably a completely stoned Jim Morrison wrote one of his famous songs sometimes back in the 60s – and made a dhow cruise to Manda Island to relicts from a 17th-century Swahili settlement.
Our recommendation: stay longer – or be prepared to live on with the nagging feeling you missed out on a lot here.
Our daily budget: approx. $ 40 per day including amazing local food, entrance fees to a museum, dhow cruise, long-distance bus to Malindi and connecting express-14-seater bus (called matatu) to our second stop.
Our second base was Mida Ecocamp at the MIDA CREEK in close proximity of WATAMUwhich was quite a contrast; a very basic camp with a middle-of-nowhere feeling – three cottages built in different tribal styles. Although it is just a short walk from the main coastal road, the only thing wide and far is a small Giriama settlement – and of course, the Mida Creek. This creek seems to be a top spot for birding and we spent hours in the bird watching hide constructed at the end of a board walk and watched a multitude of wading bird species and other migratory folk…. indeed a very peaceful place! The small information desk set up at the start of the boardwalk and the camp itself offer canoe tours into the mangrove forest which invades the creek, and even a tour up to the Gede ruins.. but we intended to keep our budget low and went instead by matatu.
Flamingos at Mida Creek
Gede Ruins
As two of us are not really big fans of archeological sites, the ruins themselves didn’t overly excite us but the old, wild coastal forest which surrounds them gives all a magical note. We walked a lot between remainders of century old city wall foundations – with quite some resting pauses to keep it all relaxed – and thereby managed to spot several of the rare and most elusive golden-rumped elephant-shrews! Awesome!
We missed out on the nearby Arabuko Sokoke Nature Reserve but paid a short visit to Watamu’s
famous beaches. Very beautiful postcard beach indeed but by far too many flycatchers! Well, one more reason to visit the Watamu Turtle Watch Rehabilitation Center: a highly educative tour and an absolutely worthwhile visit for every wild life lover.
Our recommendation: skip the poorly prepared main dishes at the camp. Plan one or two additional days in if you want to spend more time in Watamu or visit nearby Malindi (if you don’t mind being addressed in Italian).
Our daily budget: approx. $ 30 incl. budget food, entrance fees, transport.
Our third 1-night-stop was the Distant Relatives Eco-Camp at the KILIFI CREEK. Now this is a REAL eco-camp, outside compost toilets and bamboo forest shower included, and all this without lacking luxurious amenities like a pool, a beach volleyball field, a well equipped kitchen, a super generous lounge including the appropriate chilled out music, a well-stocked bar, a very nice food choice…. Now, we felt like being pampered after our more frugal last days! Various types of low footprint houses are dispersed in a big compound where there is also a large area for over-landers and safari tents.
Distant Relatives Eco Camp, Kilifi Creek
Musafir at Distant Relatives Eco Camp
All is made in style, with taste, and with regard to nature. There is a 5 kilometer beach called Bofa a 5-minutes-drive away: a tropical white sand postcard kind of beach without a single beach boy to disturb you! Distant Relatives also have their own small beach just a few hundred meters down a sandy pathway: a great spot to hang out! We met there the crew of the Musafir – a 70 foot dhow nearly finished building by a bunch of friends about to sail away into the world!
But the best thing happened at night, a very unusual and beautiful visual display: bioluminescent plankton making the water shine brighter than the stars! None of us had ever seen something like that before and we hang out there till late in the night. Distant Relatives otherwise offers all kinds of activities such as water sports, diving, boat tours, yoga sessions, eco tours, concerts, perma-culture courses and much more ……ourselves, however, didn’t do anything besides taking full advantage of the nice setting, the good vibes, – and last but not least the fine food and drinks.
Our recommendation: if you like the vibe of a large eco-conscious camp where the average guest has probably traveled
at least three continents and likes to party in a chilled-out way: this is your place to hang out a bit longer.
Our daily budget: approx. $ 40 incl. very good food and extravagant drinks, travel cost to our next stop.
Our fourth stop was the old port city of MOMBASA. We arrived in the late morning and checked into the New Palm Trees Hotel. It is conveniently located at the edge of the Central Business District and in walking distance to the Old Town. The huge house itself must be from colonial times, with a spacious inner patio and rooms on the 2nd floor accessible from a broad inner balcony, i.e. you can relax in front of your room quite peacefully, especially considering you are in Kenya’s second biggest city. On the ground floor is a coffee bar with an Italian coffee machine! and an Ugandan restaurant popular with locals. We had a very interesting lunch at a very decent price there.
Mombasa – View of a Hindu Temple
Mombasa – Three-wheel motorcycle taxi
Then we were a bit too lazy to walk and took one of the three wheeled motorcycle taxis (called tuktuk) to get to Old Town. We spent the afternoon walking through the old streets with the astonishing Swahili architecture with a distinct Arab character. Flycatcher status: quite a few but not from the very intrusive type. Very recommendable resting place is the Jahazi Coffee House next to the Swahili Cultural Centre. We did not visit the Fort Jesus from inside – we deemed the entrance fees exaggerated. We decided to skip the rest of the city and stay only 1 night to get an early take off to our 5th destination.
Our recommendation: if you don’t mind busy and hectic environments, extend your stay a bit and visit also the Central Business District with many houses from the colonial era. Behind the Old Market is also a souk which would perfectly blend in any Arab city – veiled ladies included. Dinner at Tarboush next to the Makadara Grounds, a popular local restaurant with outside area (like in most local restaurants, no alcohol is served.)
Our budget: approx. $ 35 incl. local food and transport to our 5th and final destination.
After crossing on foot and by ferry from Mombasa island to Likoni on the mainland, we took a 40-seater bus (called boxboda) and arrived after 2 ½ hours in Shimoni. From there, we needed to cross to our last destination at the southern end of the Kenyan coast: WASINI ISLAND. Our host picked us up at the bus stop – which saved us once again from the crowd of flycatchers… and the following private boat ride in a small dhow on a mirror like Indian Ocean was already an awesome start into our last adventure. We felt like the circle which had begun with Lamu was about to close – another island, another call from the muezzin, another trip back in time.
View of Wasini Island
Private Jetty at Blue Monkey Beach Cottages
We disembarked directly at the quaint looking boat jetty of the Blue Monkey Beach Cottages, our base for the last 3 days of our tour. We couldn’t have arranged the sequence of our trip any better: this was the perfect place to refresh our mind and souls in depth. The cottages are built by hand with uncut stones, shells and palm shingles. The gardens are super wild and all this gives the place a most harmonic flair. On our first day we spent hours lazing alone on the private cliff top beach watching the wonders of the wild nature unravel around us…kingfishers and blue monkeys at almost arm’s length inclusive. On our second day we hiked through the island, neither a single signpost nor a single flycatcher around! Eventually, some kids helped us to find the “Coral Gardens”, a creek-like area with huge fossilized corals sticking up to 3 meters out of the muddy marsh soil, all this equipped with a (quite lapidated) boardwalk to access the surrounding mangrove forest – all in all a great conservation project. Then snorkeling between corals just in front of the cottages – a most mind-appeasing thing to do.
View from Blue Monkey Beach Cottages
Fishermen off Wasini Island
Our 3rd day was spent almost exclusively at sea – we joined a group of snorkelers and sailed with Wasini Boat Operators to Kenya’s most beautiful Marine Park called Kisite Mpunguti National Park. Although our most expensive activity of the tour, we felt it was more than worthwhile. Besides snorkeling in shoals of colorful reef fishes, we spent a long time with a pod of bottlenose dolphins – well, there is not much that can beat such an experience! And we don’t want to start raving about the home-cooked Swahili delicacies we had which finally could also fully cater for our vegan group member … as said, an appropriate ending to a very interesting, educative, horizon-widening, body-refreshing and mind-appeasing holiday.
Our budget: $ 40 including excellent food, entrance fees and boat cruise.
Our sustainability assessment:
Jambo House, Lamu: although this guesthouse probably wouldn’t win a golden eco label, we definitely rank it as a sustainable tourism venture. The house is a well renovated old town house with separate plumbing for rainwater for the flushing of the toilets. All the staff is from the island. All were genuinely friendly and happy chaps – nothing you find in case of exploitation. We were well introduced to the local community and hence could also arrange activities which bear a charge directly with the locals.
Short: highly beneficial to the locals, definitely a sustainable tourism venture.
Mida Ecocamp, Mida Creek: a community project initiated by a European couple. All benefits go exclusively to the local community who also operate the camp. Mostly local material used for the construction of the premises, equipped with a solar installation (although it did not work but oil lamps were ok with us).
Short: full benefit to the locals, relatively green premises, a good example of sustainable tourism.
Distant Relatives Ecocamp, Kilifi Creek: we all agreed – this camp deserves the daisy-chain eco-crown! Green ouses, solar power, compost toilets! Although the camp seems to be owned by a group of friends of foreign world travelers, local people are highly present – as guests and staff alike. In fact, some guys we first met in the pool served us later some awesome pizzas. Obviously, no race-related hierarchy detectable over here! Tree-planting activities at schools and other conservation efforts probably even partly set off the carbon footprints guests left with their journey there…
New Palm Tree Hotel, Mombasa: an old colonial building, hardly renovated, with no apparent concern for any environmental aspect (well, besides signs on the doors asking you to shut off the AC/fan upon leaving the room). An aspect of sustainability is the full local ownership, management and operation of the locality. We guess expectations mustn’t be too high in a major African city.
Blue Monkey Beach Cottages, Wasini Island: we definitely give them a very good eco-rating! Only local materials used for construction (besides the very sparsely used cement from Mombasa), fully electrified with solar power. Although owned and managed by a mixed race couple, funds are almost entirely spent locally and all involved people, in the construction and operation of the premises as well as in the activities, are from the island, i.e. we deem it a highly sustainable tourism venture.
Helpful Links:
www.museums.or.ke/content/blogcategory/22/28/
