Off to the beach… again

But first some tragic and sad news. A small part of me died when Joanna decided it was high time my hair was cut, thus ending my attempt to emulate Bjorn Andersson (or the other bloke in ABBA, I can never remember his name… Or indeed tell them apart).

And what, I hear you ask, made losing so much hair worthwhile? A trip to a beach, just South of Mombasa named Diani with the right reverend James E May Jr and two of his kids, Maggie and Tristan.

The trip down was uneventful (just wait until the trip back home…), an eight hour car journey, the only excitements being loomy stops, catching a glimpse of Kilimanjaro and getting stuck in traffic in Mombasa.

I am not actually being quite fair. The best (quickest?) way to the beach is by ferry over a small river. It was quite an experience, but I am afraid I took no photos, too scared - but the following links should give you an idea of the ferry, a death trap if ever I saw one with the ramps dangling in the water. 
http://nairobichronicle.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/impending-disaster-at-likoni-ferry/ ,
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/travel/InsidePage.php?id=2000001402&cid=453&story=Traffic%20nightmare%20at%20Likoni%20ferry

Fortunately brand spanking new ferries arrived yesterday, just too late for us.

Nonetheless we eventually made it across and found our way to our cottage. Time now for a quick geography lesson. The road between Mombasa and Dar-es-salaam travels parallel to the coast. Parallel to this is a small road which serves the beach. As we are finding, the best place to start a charity is somewhere nice and Diani is no exception, with the Colobus Trust set up to help monkeys. They have set up ladders over the beach road so that monkeys can cross with impunity. This road is very quiet (maybe because it is low season).  The only danger for the monkeys (and anyone anywhere near the road) being James driving at 120k in an attempt to get back before the ice cream completely melted. And yes, I did bang my head on the windscreen when he belatedly saw a speed bump. On the road to Dar, the busy road… Nothing. The monkeys have to take their chances. Well done Colobus Trust. Lets be honest though, if I worked there I would be spending my time on the beach too.

A fun time was had, swimming in our own private pool (and boy did we behave badly), camel rides and snorkelling in the sea – not to mention being pampered by having our own cook and maid. Edd did disgrace himself however, by cheating in the shoulder ride fight. Maggie was not impressed. And for once, the coast wasn’t too hot – it being rainy season and all. This meant that it was also tourist free. Bliss (but not for the lobster, crab and snapper that we enjoyed). Plus we almost had the whole  white sandy beach to ourselves.

But the highlight must be the trip back, when we went back country to avoid the ferry. James, of course, drove far too fast – hitting one bump hard enough to set off the car alarm! Comical story of the week – two chaps washing their motorbike in the middle of a ford when James drove past. One of them fled on our approach, but the other got very wet. Much to our, and his friends satisfaction. But the country inland of the cast was beautiful and the road a lot of fun to drive really, really fast on.