Congratulations to Lisa and Steve on your wedding day, 22nd Nov, we were thinking of you. Send us a mail when you get back... After our last posting, we got up nice and early the next day to get a matatu to Malindi, on the coast north of Mombasa. As far as matatu rides go this one was exceptionally comfortable, i did not scream once. We then got a tutu (a mini matatu, just as insane) into the town where we found Ozzis guest house. A lovelly view from the balcony overlooking the blue sea and the golden sand, but unfortunately slap bang next to a Mosque. We are getting used to the mosques, and as long as you're not too close, the songs are quite pleasant when the sun is setting, albeit a pain in the rectum when the sun is rising. We went to a nice part of the beach, only to be ushered back off it by security. Ruddy posh hotel, with their buckets of money, not wanting their views spoilt by a pair of scruffy urchins (probably where R.Redfords character in Out of Africa stayed, mum). We found a nice bar next to the sea, showing the football, which Jo made me watch! They had some amazing King Fish Steaks. After a couple too many beers, we retreated to the roof top, and stared at the stars, and a rather bright Mars. Thats was a week ago, and its still prominent in the sky. The next day we got a tutu to Lamu, in a cool little plane from Malindi airport to Manda Island airport, where we got a boat taxi to Lamu town. Joey and I have mastered the bartering now, using the good ole good cop bad cop method. It started by accident as I have to wait outside with the bags in the soaring heat while Jo checks out the rooms. While Jo is checking out the rooms, checking fans, nets, water pressure etc, she will slowly with her charm haggle of about a third of the price, however not including breakfast. On returning downstairs, where I am now in a rightfully poor mood, Jo will recant the tale, and I will try to knock a few more percent off, bluffing that we are prepared to find elsewhere (which in truth would never happen, as its too ruddy hot), they usually knock some more off and throw breakfast in. Everything is negotiable here, i dont know if I said, but we also managed to haggle currency rates in a bank! So we managed to get a nice place in Lamu for a very reasonable price. (Joey here now..) In all we spent 6 nights on Lamu Island, the first 4 in Lamu Town followed by 2 at Shella. In hindsight it would have been the other way round, but it was still great. Lamu is a very interesting place - the sea front path extend all the way along the town edge and onto Shella further south, interrupted by the odd sea wall, beach or rocky patch which you have to clamber over. As you walk back away from the sea you pass through lots of narrow sandy/dusty streets with little food/clothes/curio etc shops. Apparently backpackers have been visiting for many years so this has influenced the market, but probably not as much as you might expect. And the place is full of wonderful, hard working donkeys. There is also a donkey sanctury on the sea front, so I'm not sure if they take it in turns for a rest or if some are very hard done by - as they seemed to be all ages so it wasn't just for the old ones. But in general they seemed healthy well fed donkeys carrying potato sacks holding coral rock bricks (which I was told was taken from a licenced site, like a quarry and wasn't upsetting any fish!) or sand. There seems to be a lot of building work going on. However we didn't see any wearing nappies. This, I have been informed by my Mum, was written in a guide about Kenya in 1988 and was prompted by complaints of too much donkey poo on the streets by tourists! We arranged a trip out on a dhow, with Captain Happy, to go fishing and snorkling the next day (smudge, they work well, but with a few refinements i think we could win the yearly regatta they have there - Dave). A few young blokes took us and some other Muzungus over to Manda Island (Mushy - this is the word used to describe foreigners, mainly whites, and seems a friendly term although I don't think it has always been) where Dave caught 2 yellow snapper (probably on the IUCN endangered list, will have to check when we get home!) more than the other Muzungus. I gave up after about a minute. These would later become lunch. We then snorkelled over what we were expecting to be a nice reef but because of the sediment was extremely difficult to see. I managed to dive down and see some fish, but the others didn't and it was quite dissapointing. We had 4 casualties in all. I was the first, after checking with the captain that it was deep enough to jump, dived in (shallowly just to sure) and still managed to scrape my arm along the coral. It's just about healing now but I have been swimming every day since then so it's taking longer! The others got cuts on feet and one got a sea urching spine in his foot, after which at least 2 knives were taken out and people start cutting his feet up. I can't believe he let them. A bad thing about Lamu was the unique putrid smell carried on the wind in certain parts long the seafront. Really gross. I think it's the litter and open sewage, although I quite like the smell of open sewers and this smell is really unbearable. Litter is quite a problem in Africa, we saw a poor donkey eat a plastic bag and it probably happens a lot, should think it also has quite an impact on the marine life. Being a muslim island there were only 2 places to get alcohol. The cheapest of which, surprise surprise, was the police canteen. Whilst there Dave became seriously addicted to lime juice which was absolutely delicious. All the juices were, but Dave stuck to his lime. The next day, we managed to get a posh pool all to ourselves in an expensive hotel - I don't know where all the residents were! It was great. On Wednesday 23rd we checked out Shella Beach, really magnificent sand dunes, stretching for 12 kms, and found a place to stay, a 90 dollar ensuite with veranda that we got for 14). So the next day we found a boat to take our bags and walked along to meet them. We explored the town, smaller, less smelly, quieter, not as much rubbish, all in all very nice, and found another posh hotel. Sorry to dissapoint Em, but we're not exactly roughing it at the moment! And bearing this in mind we decided to splash out on our last night in Lamu on a huge slap up meal in the posh gaff in town Peponi's Hotel. Lovely, overlooking the harbour, candlelit tables outside for drinks then into the restaurant. The meal was so huge and becuase Dave's tummy has shrink so much, he was full after the starter, but needless to say he managed to perservere. Dave's explanation for his weight loss is that he's basting in the heat - the fat is just sliding off the sides...... Unfortunately the same is not happening to me.... That night Dave caught a dose of the Shella Shits or Shella Pringles (sorry Nan) as Dave likes to call them - once you've popped you just can't stop! Poor Dave, but he's been a very good boy and after several expulsions and a couple of imodium we caught our boat to Manda Island airport to fly back to Malindi. From there we caught a couple of matatus to Watamu, south of Malindi but north of Mombassa. Tonight will be our second night in the very comfortable Villa Veronica a shgort walk from the beach. We encountered a disproportionate number of Italians in a local bar last night - very raucous. Tomorrow we are going snorkelling over the reef within the Watamu Marine National Park. However, our captain who is currently studying Marine Biology explained that a lot of the coral is dead due to El Nino a few years ago, but also due to people damaging it, so we'll see. Should be a good day anyway. Smudger - our photos are most definitely not postcards!! I took the lion one and Dave took the elephants good eh? Everyone can vote on which one you prefer if you like!! Gem, the 'horses' are something very intellectual that Dave knows about - look it up on google! Lucky for Dave he wasn't on safari when his case of the Pringles hit, like you were in 1990!!! Lucky lions must have had a great view and luckily must have eaten shortly beforehand. Michie and Ross have a great time travelling in South America - if you have webiste let us know! Dave is going to attempt to add another link to a site of Andy and Cheryls who are on their way to Norway from Cape Town in their 4x4 (mentioned earlier). He will also try and add some more photos, so here goes...