Archive - August 2024

VANGA

Then, our trip continued to Kenya’s southernmost fishing village, just 24km east of the border with Tanzania. Most of the fish consumed in Diani is caught here in Vanga. The village has played a significant role in both local and global history. In WWI, the border between British...

SLAVE CAVES

We still had some time, so we drove south to Shimoni. There, we found a complex of caves (🎟️400 KES) where slaves were supposedly kept before being loaded onto boats and shipped to the main auction in Zanzibar. A local guide (200 KES) took us around the dank caverns to illustrate this...

BORA BORA WILDLIFE

It was hard to imagine that a range of wildlife also calls Diani Beach its home. Opened in 2016, Bora Bora Wildlife Camp is the largest wildlife sanctuary in all of Diani and offers a unique taste of safari less than 500m from the Indian Ocean. It is home to everything from peacocks to...

DIANI

Again, we had bad news in Mombasa: Our cargo was still with customs and would not be cleared in the coming days. So we decided to go to the famous Diani Beach. With a flawless, long stretch of white sand beach hugged by lush forest and kissed by surfable waves, it’s no wonder Diani...

LAMU ISLAND

Lamu is a town, port, and island in the Indian Ocean off the East African coast, 240 km northeast of Mombasa. A former Persian, then Zanzibari, colony, Lamu Island rivaled Mombasa until the late 19th century as an entrepôt for gold, spices, and enslaved people. The town of Lamu, the...

MARAFA DEPRESSION

We were supposed to stop at Camp Gedeng on the Sabaki River to spot majestic rhinos, but we did not find the correct road there, and nobody answered our call, so we are unsure if the place still exists. After that, we continued our trip to the more intriguing sight inland from the north...

MALINDI

Our expedition arrived in Malindi just a few centuries after Vasco da Gama’s fleet landed here in 1498. The town has had its fair share of fortune hunters ever since. It’s a bustling town that doesn’t quite have the architecture of Lamu or the easy-going charm of Watamu...

WATAMU

We spent day and night in Watamu, a small coastal town with a relaxed village atmosphere. It’s known for Watamu Marine National Park, which covers three bays: Watamu, Blue Lagoon, and Turtle – and they’re all white-sand, aquamarine, coconut palm-lined natural beauty. Seabirds...

ARABUKO SOKOKE RESERVE

In the morning, we arrived at the main gate and office of the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve (🎟️721 KES) to check the options and reserve our guide (2400 KES) for the afternoon. This 420-sq-km tract of natural forest – the most significant indigenous coastal forest remaining in East Africa...

SNAKE FARM & LABORATORY

We also spent some time in this humble-looking place (🎟️500 KES), one of the world’s most renowned snake research centers. Bio-Ken specializes in antivenin research and acts as an emergency service for snakebite victims throughout the region. A passionate guide led an excellent 30...