Watamu

My last post from Kenya!

Staying at Kasiunia and Marejka’s house in Watamu has been a wonderful experience, and I feel very lucky to have been able to park off at the beach for a few days.

My days involved swimming, playing a lot of cards and avoiding the bugs. There were also mosquitoes everywhere so sleeping under mosquito nets was required which is not something I've done before.

Sunday was very relaxing, we explored the area a little - walked on the beach, swam etc. As you may gather, this part of the trip wasn't exactly a taxing experience.

Monday it rained all day - HOORAY. But it was actually good because (if you have not seen the news recently) the weather has gone bananas in this part of the world and they really needed rain. However, because of the rain, all the little crabs came out to play at night. We were sitting outside after dinner (probably drinking tea) and I heard a little scratch on the ground. When I looked over there were not one, not two, but EIGHT ghost crabs scuttling about. I don't particularly like crabs, so I stayed put in my chair and was vaguely amused watching them scurry about. I was less amused when I was woken at 3am because one had gotten into my room and was scampering back and forth across the base of my fan. A more sensible person would've shooed the crab away and gone back to sleep. I was too frightened (crabs look like aliens) and so I read for a few hours until the crab went to sleep (?) or went away. I didn't do Gryffindor proud that night.

On Tuesday, I went on an actual expedition that involved putting on real clothes and getting in a car. Marejka took me to a protected wetland area called Mida Creek. See mom! I listen and care about the things that you do*. Although it isn't a RAMSAR protected area, Mida Creek is a protected wetland and it's very beautiful.

Our guide, Dixon, was very knowledgeable about the different mangroves (there are quite a few different species but we mainly saw red, black, and white mangroves). There was also a beautiful bird watching area, and a lovely rickety path that led to said bird watching area. When we got onto the walkway, Dixon warned us that the boardwalk would "dance" under our feet - I loved that description. And it's true - it was a tad wobbly.

Here I am having an intense moment with a tree.

The area was very well looked after, and it's a cool project that inspire the local population to take pride in preserving their beautiful surroundings. There are also so many species of crab running about the mangroves, ranging from teeny tiny little crabs to what you imagine a crab to look like. Getting out of the car was quite amazing because from a distance, it looks like the ground is covered in ants, but they are tiny little crabs. I filmed quite a bit in Mida Creek which you can see here.

On Wednesday morning, I packed up all my stuff and we made our way to Malindi - the closest city to Watamu. Malindi is so very different from Nairobi - it's quite a bit smaller, not as built up - but has that similar vibe of a place that is just overflowing with life, people and growth. Kasiunia and Marejka had various errands to run and things to buy so we trotted from shop to shop ticking off items on their to-do list. Towards the end of the morning, Marejka sent me over to a farm stall to buy some fresh spinach. I was standing at the stall trying to figure out how much spinach to buy and agonising over potentially getting it wrong, when this man walked up to me. He politely introduced himself as Mohammed and asked for my name. Now, please don’t judge me. I use fake names in this kind of situation because it just makes me more comfortable. I resorted to my trusty fake name Anna**. He said hello and asked me how my day was going. Then said “Anna, I am in love with you. Please marry me and live here in Malindi.” I was a little taken aback and had to inform him that I was not in fact looking for a husband at that particular moment, and I was also about to depart for Johannesburg and never seeing each other again was not a good way to start a marriage. He asked for my number and I again said my boyfriend would probably not appreciate me giving it to him. He said that he would be back tomorrow and hopefully I would give him my number then, staunchly ignoring the protests I made that I really was leaving.

After this unforeseen proposal, Marejka took me to the airport and I flew out of the tiniest airport I have ever been to. The gate was an actual wooden gate about waist height and the seating area was open plan with a great view of the runway. My trip back to Nairobi took a total of 45 minutes…so all in all as good as the drive down was, I’m glad I didn’t have to drive back up. I stayed overnight with Peter, Marejka’s son, before departing on a flight to Joburg.

***Insert picture of airport here, except I didn't take a picture because I'm a numpty***

Thus concluded my trip to Kenya. I don’t think I have really processed this crazy whirlwind of a week yet. I got to see a lot of Nairobi but also of the coast (which I wasn’t expecting so that was a great bonus). I learnt a bit more about my family and had fun listening to Kasiunia and Marejka’s stories from when they were young. I don’t know if I was expecting to feel some deep attachment to this country because of my family’s past or if it was enough just to see and experience it. I don’t think I can answer those questions honestly as of right now. I do know that now when people ask if I’ve been to Kenya after I tell them my mother was born there, I can say “yes” and I think that’s enough for the time being.

See you in Joburg xx

*My mother works for RAMSAR– an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources (that was not copy and pasted from their website...but it's super cool, you should check it out!).

**I use Anna because it works in most countries – it exists in a lot of languages, so one isn’t stuck in Rome realising that Rosie isn’t a name that really translates to Italian very well. There is a travel tip for you.

#Kenya #Watamu #Thoughts #wetlands