kenya!!!!!

Hello followers of Arabia to Africa!

We lefts you last time as we headed towards Nairobi and then onwards to the fantastic pristine beaches of East Kenya!

After spending an incredible couple of days at lake naivasha at Simba lodges we drove through thick heavy raindrops into the bustling metropolis that is Nairobi, Kenya’s capital city.

Again the guidebooks have it wrong. You might have heard warnings about Nairobi being full of beggars and thieves ready to rob you at knifepoint at nay corner, darkened alleyways and grimy dirty streets. As we approached the capital, I could feel martin tense beside me as we readied ourselves for the Nairobi crime onslaught. Nothing happened. The streets were clean, well lit and beggar free! Nairobi had definitely cleaned itself up since I last visited 15 years ago! It was a lovely surprise! The only down side is the driving- the roads are jam packed with CRAZY drivers who think the colour of a traffic light is mood lighting and stopping is optional. Frazzled from avoiding countless accidents we pulled our bright yellow Nissan xterra into Dt DOBIE the Nissan dealer and fantastic service garage in Nairobi. After leaving the cars for a couple of days with them to give our xterra some tender loving care we headed back into the car armed with our jvc pro hd camera and got some city footage!

Driving to Mombasa on the coast was a breeze with our serviced xterra purring like a kitten! Mombasa is Kenya’s 2^nd largest city and is actually an island on the coast connected by bridges to the main land. It’s a bustling hectic vibrant place with hundreds of budget places to stay. We felt a bit overwhelmed with al the people and the lack of space so headed northwards up the coast to Watamu, to the ocean sports hotel that has a campsite behind it.

If you’re looking for a quick escape and some very friendly colonials then watamu is THE place in Kenya. The beaches are white sand, the diving and snorkeling is amazing and the atmosphere exudes Kenyan hospitality. We stayed 3 nights in our icon tent popped open on the top our the car dealing with mosquitoes and monkeys in the stiflingly humid heat while martin snapped pictures of stars on the canon 5d.

We’d arrived in paradise.

We honestly had to force ourselves to leave and sullenly drove through the Italian colony of Malindi- full of aging mafia men and there leather weather beaten wives to lamu island.

To get to the Lamu archipelago we had to say goodbye to Roxy the Nissan at the port and ushered hurriedly by 10 opportunistic Kenya’s, known as beach boys onto an outrageously expensive speedboat. We discovered later that the beach boys had completely fleeced us and there was a far cheaper ferry we could’ve taken such is life. Lamu is very similar to Zanzibar- the island is largely Muslim and we happened to arrive over Eid so the call to prayer echoed through the tiny narrow streets and as lovely as it wad, kept us awake all night. Lamu is a quaint character filled island lovely to head to for a weekend of dhow cruising, fishing or snorkeling. We managed to get ourselves onto a sunset dhow cruise with promise dhow tours. Sarah (a Belgian lady who had recently converted to Islam) took us out for a tour of the islands. Riding on a dhow is not for the faint hearted as whenever the wind changes the large sail tilts the boat until you feel like it might capsize. We never did and martin and I grappled to hold onto the jvc and canon cameras as Sarah told us about the history of the company easily over the breeze thanks to the sennheiser mike we’d attached to her abaya.

After a couple of days we were united with Roxy and are now headed down the coast towards Tanzania! I’ve just finished edited the latest article and webisode on the apple mac so check our arabiatafrica.blogspot.com to see our first footage of KENYA!

See you on the road.