July 4-6: Kenyan South Coast

First, blog business. I mentioned at the beginning of this year’s blog that I would respond to comments via email directly to the person commenting. However, I realized just recently that my replies via email are not going to that person but instead have been going back to me without notice – argh! So, that means that many if not all of my replies have gone unnoticed. Sorry about that. I think I am going to have to reply to comments in the blog itself, which means to see my reply you will have to go to that post again and see the comments and replies at the bottom. Sorry, best I can do for now. In most cases, my reply isn’t that informative since no questions were asked of me, so there is probably no need to search for it. However, if you are asking questions about something in my post, then your answer will be found in the replies to comments section.

Next, a few followers have asked “what happened to my hat after that monkey took it of my head” as the video cuts out rather abruptly. Well, I posted a short clip of the scene that Caitlin took, but we have a longer and more complete clip of that scene where we sing happy birthday to Skylar (July 5th birthday; she’s now 4 years old) which we didn’t think the larger community would be interested in, so am going to include that in the composite video below for this post.

OK, back to our travels. After returning to Mombassa from Zanzibar, we recovered the Green Dragon and exited the city as quickly as possible – no more one-night stands in the city for us. Our return flight from Zanzibar was pushed back by 5 hours so we didn’t arrive in Mombasa until early evening. Our original plan was to head south down the coast to the coastal town of Shimoni as a base for exploring the Kisite Marine National Park offshore, but the darkness incentivized us to find place somewhere in between (note, I try to avoid driving after dark at all costs because of the crazy unmarked speed bumps and erratically wondering livestock). So, what do I do when I am looking for an off-the-beaten path, and largely unadvertised, camping spot? I turn to the iOverlander app and see what’s nearby. There were several beachside campgrounds listed, so we took the closest one near the village of Tiwi, which probably doesn’t even show up on most maps. After driving down some barely used tracks, we ended up at the Twiga Lodge and Campground. And, as is often the case with these off-the-beaten path places, it was an absolutely beautiful setting right on the palm tree-lined beach, as shown here (but also see the video):

With a little sadness, we left our beautiful beachside campsite at Twiga and headed further south to our original destination of Shimoni.

We stayed at the National Park campground located just outside the village of Shimoni on the mainland adjacent to Wasini Island and Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park. The campground was pretty basic. It had some really nice shade, an enclosed cooking area, and a water tap. The ablutions left a lot to be desired though. However, we were a stones throw away from the beach, even though we didn’ really have a view, and had the place to ourselves, which is always worthy compensation for below-standard facilities. Here’s our campsite:

We took a day trip to the Marine National Park for snorkeling and then lunch on Wasini Island before returning to Shimoni. The snorkling was spectacular: healthy coral reef with an incredible diversity of corals, dozens of different fish and mollusk species, and super clear water. Sorry doodlebug, if your reading this, but this was an amazing snorkle and you would have gone nuts photographing the colorful reef and fish in the super clear waters. Next time? We took a small motor boat out to the reef, passing the inhabited Wasini Island and then a couple of uninhabited islands within the Marine Park before getting out to Kasini Island for snorkling. Here are a few shots, but see the video for action footage of the boat ride and our brief walk on the sand bar of Kisite Island:

Sean and Derek, in case you are watching, here’s a photo I thought you might appreciate, just in case you were thinking about a career in the Kenyan coast guard:

Here’s a composite video of our night camping beachside at Twiga Lodge and Campround and our boat ride to and from Kisite Island for snorkling in Kisite-Mpunguti Marine National Park:

Kenyan south coast composite video (12 minutes)

OK, we are off to Tanzania. Good-bye Kenya!

From the Wildside:

New species:

• Lesser crested tern
• Roseate tern