Thursday, April 9, 2009

Kenya's Ocean Playground

This week is Spring Break for Rosslyn Academy and a time for families to get away. Diani Beach is a beautiful spot on the east coast of Kenya and just south of Mombasa. It is a very popular tourist area and access to the Indian Ocean. Mombasa is the port city for Kenya and most of East Africa.Mombasa is 500 km from Nairobi and took us 11 hours to drive – really! The “Trans Kenya” Highway looks a bit like a gravel pit. The speed traveled is between 20 and 100 km/h depending on the size of pot holes, the cows, zebras, or goats crossing the road, and the number of trucks you get behind. The dust can be as thick as Nova Scotia fog. It is two lanes, not divided, no lines. At times there were four vehicles going our way on those two lanes. I am not sure where a vehicle coming the other direction would go. I saw the article in the Chronicle Herald this week complaining about pot holes on Nova Scotia roads -- that makes me laugh!

We enjoyed the adventure of the drive. We saw giraffe, camels, donkeys, gazelle wandering along the side of the highway. We saw termite mounds taller than us. We saw Mount Kilimanjaro in the distance. We nearly hit a group of baboons: the grandfathers were on the road so Tim honked; the babies got scared and ran on the road; the mothers started chasing the babies; how did we miss them?
And when we arrived in Mombasa the thermometer said 42 degrees Celsius. The beach was a much cooler 35 degrees and at night time an even cooler 30 degrees. Do I need to tell you how little we slept? No air conditioning in our rustic cottage, of course.
We spent the days playing in the Indian Ocean (which looks like Nova Scotia beaches but is as warm as hot bath water). The boys enjoyed looking for shells and crabs and coral. We went snorkelling and played with zebra fish swarming around our faces. We touched beautiful big starfish and were amazed at ther long spines on the sea urchins. We took a dhow to the reef. We wore SPF40 the whole time. We ate at a different restaurant each evening. We took anti-malaria medication.
Was it a relaxing holiday? Not a chance. But it was a change from our every day and we have memories to last a life time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love ever so much looking at your blogs. They are wonderful.Did you ever think 2 years ago that you would be swiming in the Indian ocean like you did. What a truly amazing experience it must be. As I write this my heart is leaping to wonder how Heaven will also be so wonderful that our minds can't comprehend. All the wonderful and different animals and countries and people that our God has created will be there to enjoy over and over forever and ever.
Prayers are with you and I hope you get rain soon. Love you Barb. W.

Anonymous said...

I see Rebecca and Andy in the picture, Did you "vacation" with a number of families?
It looks wonderful - sorry it was not excatly relaxing!
Carla