Diani beach and Mombasa
January 21-24 ,2020 Day 7-10
Flying from Nairobi to Mombasa only costs $60-$100 USD. Kenya has its own airline Kenya Airways, with them flying within Africa you get two free checked bags and one carry-on bag with economy class. The flight was only one hour, and we got a drink and snack along the way. If you want to see Mt Kilimanjaro make sure to sit on the right side of the plane, you can see it out your window from that side.
Ubers are hard to get at the Mombasa airport luckily we set up for a friend of a friend's to pick us up. From the airport to get to Diani beach it takes one hour if using the ferry to get there. Without the ferry, you will be adding an extra hour to your drive.
English and Swahili
Wasini Snorkeling
Africa is not a place many people think to go snorkeling in, but that's a mistake! We learned that one of the best reefs in the world are on the Kenya shores. We found a tour that included snorkeling and lunch (with a added dolphin tour added in). If you are prone to sea sickness be prepared almost everyone else got sick on the way out.
As the boat slowed down we were greeted with dolphins swimming around the boat. After we spent some time taking pictures and videos of them playing we went to another location to start snorkeling. The first location we went into everyone jumped into the water, my mom and I swam off in a different direction from everyone. I was using my under water camera and fallowing some angel fish around, I called my mom over to see them too. But as she got closer I started to notice an odd shine under the water. Unfortunately we discovered that the shine was actually mini jelly fish. And while I only got a few stings on my legs and some on my arms, my mom had swam right through the swarm of them. We went straight back to the boat and told the guides who got everyone back in to go and find a new location.
At the next spot everyone went out with one of the guides, while my mom and I stayed in the boat. She was hurting from the stings and I was going to wait for her to be ready to go back out but she told me to go out and have some fun with out her. So one of the guides that was left took me out by myself to go and explore. My private tour guides name was Jaffar, and while he was showing me around he was blown away by my water camera. I showed it to him and how to use it and he swam down close to the coral and got a bunch of pictures for me. I can only assume that they would of been really amazing if he hadn't of turned off the camera while trying to take some pictures haha. Once I got the camera back I was able to get some pictures of my own, even being able to catch a octopus hiding under some coal.
Some things I learned during my time alone with our guide is that the men in Kenya are very direct, after we were back in the boat heading to Wasini island to get some lunch. Jaffar told my mom that if she was to leave me there in 9 months she would have a grand daughter, and even offered her 10 camels for me... Joking back with him about this was probably not the best idea, my mom told him she wanted goats instead of camels and he offered her 50. He also told us that he had a cousin that worked with copper and metals and could make me my ring. We had exchanged numbers and after the tour my mom invited him to come back and feed the bush babies with us. (Took a long time to get him to leave) And it took months to get him to stop messaging me, and trying to ask for money during Covid even after I blocked him he kept changing his number and kept trying.
Wasani island has a children's school on it, before leaving shore there are venders going around selling pencils, candies, booklets and other things for the kids. We had already given the pencils and the toothbrushes we brought to donate to our friends, so we bought some candies to hand out while we went there. Right after lunch we went around the town, getting swarmed by the kids as we were handing out candies. We walked on the only path through town that is also the only street, since there are no cars on the island only foot traffic. They are also not connected to any main power grid, so locals are installing privately owned solar panels to their roofs.
Shimoni "Slave" Caves
After snorkeling we went up the road to the Shimoni slave caves in Swahili meaning "the place of caves." For centuries the caves were used as "Kayas" which were once a place of worship and sacred rites with shrines. They were also hiding places where local people would go, to avoid attack by marauding tribes from inland. These caves were made when tectonic plates were forced upwards until what was once a beautiful coral reef is now a dry land. There are several caves now joined together, and believed to extend some 3 to 4 miles inland. Due to siltation, the floor has risen therefore blocking off access to the other caves and leaving only a few entrances in scattered places.
Between 1860 and 1895 over 1 million slaves waited before being shipped to Zanzibar, Tanzania or to Yemen's (that is on the Arabian Peninsula) slave markets. It's believed that the slaves were held here for 2-3 weeks, before being crammed into small ships up to 1000 at a time. This is evidenced by old iron shackles and the metallic studs stuck to the walls with chains dangling from them where slaves who attempted to escape were fastened.
"Arab slave caravans colluded with their African counterparts to capture and drive slaves from the interior before being brought here to awaiting transportation. Many died while being tortured or castrated". Said Ayub Masumbuko, a tour guide operating from the site. When down in the caves you can feel a sad and depressing feeling in the air, this site while sad is one not to miss if you have the opportunity to see it. For tourist its only $4 USD, our tour guide paid for us to get in and we got the locals price of $2 even though its well worth $20 to go and see this piece of history with your own eyes.
Before we left to go to Kenya we learned about a cave thought to be over 180,000 years old that has been converted into a restaurant. This coral cave has a wide opening over head that revels the night sky over head (there are covers that can be drawn during the winter months and bad weather.) This cave was found in the 1980s by George and Jackie Barbour they named it as a play on "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," to keep the natural elements of the cave intact the only modifications made to the cave for modern uses were a kitchen and bathrooms. While they have a international menu their specialty is seafood, you can enjoy freshly caught seafood while being just feet away from where it came from.
We made our reservations months in advance to make sure we could get in on one of our days staying at the coast, it was not until we already booked our reservations and booked our nights at the stilts backpackers hostel that we realized they were right across the road from each other! The out side of the building greats you with a simple white building that once you go inside and descend 33 feet you are inside the belly of the cave. We arrived at 8pm and were greeted with candle light ambiance and a relaxing atmosphere. For dinner I ordered the pan grilled barracuda fish and my mom got the catch of the day creole, both were amazing. It was an amazing dinner and experience being in this unique restaurant!
This is the website to make your reservations at to go, as well as their menu and more!
Dinner Diani | Ali Barbour's Cave Restaurant | Diani Beach (alibarbours.com)
