S/V Indian Summer 1

Our daughters flew into the tiny island of Manda where we were able to pick them up by dinghy!! Just walked up the jetty and met them from the little plane.  I think that will probably be the first and last time we will ever be able to do that…  straight back to Indian Summer where Ian was like a kid in a candy store with all the spare parts they had brought over and I was thrilled to get my supply of licorice. It’s the only thing you just can’t get anywhere and I love it! That evening we went over to the Majlis for a drink and pizza which we reckon is the best pizza in Kenya. We talked late into the night and polished off a few bottles of wine – a wonderful day.

The next day we visited Lamu walking along the waterfront to show them the slow pace of life here.  We had a juice at the tree house and spent a few hours exploring the town.  We met a guy who invited us up to the roof of a house that had a great view of Lamu – it was really beautiful as we could see right across to the other islands and see the whole town.  We showed them the carved doors famous for Lamu and wandered around the market.  It’s an adorable town but marred by the fact that a couple of guys wouldn’t leave us alone and followed us most of the day.

The next few days were spent on the beach, drinking coffees at Peponis,  eating big lazy lunches and long afternoons at various beach bars!  We had dinner at the floating restaurant which a couple of weeks ago broke its mooring and a group of diners found themselves heading out to sea. Luckily a fisherman noticed and brought them back as without motors they were helpless. We kept a close eye on the shore in case it changed…

After a few days we decided to head round to Kizingoni on the other side of Lamu. This village is so different from Lamu and is one of the most peaceful places I have ever stayed. We went back to the Cabanas and caught up with Anna and Shawn again, walked miles down the beach and went swimming as it would be the last time the girls could enjoy the water as we were heading back to Kilifi.

We did an overnighter back to Kilifi but Emily was sick all the way so by the time we arrived she was exhausted but really glad to get onto land. We caught up with Tom and Lilly from Tiger Lilly and Phil from Paseafique and a couple of new people at the Sandbar that night. It really didn’t seem 6 weeks since we were last here. The following day we went down to see Nick and Cynthia in Mtwapa meeting them in Mombasa first as I need to get my computer fixed. They have told me it cannot be fixed but they can save my hard drive so I need to come back to sort that out later. We had lunch and spent the afternoon with them and then came back to await the arrival of a good friend from Australia who was going to crew for Phil.     Mike was not due to arrive until midnight but managed to get an earlier flight so it was an unexpected arrival at 9pm when the dinghy brought him over to our boat.  We sat up late into the night catching up – we will only get to see him for one day sadly as the girls need to get back to Nairobi.

The next morning Will arrived from Watamu and so we had a very full boat with 6 of us on board. We spent our last day at Distant Relatives lazing by the pool and that night had our last evening at the sandbar with the girls . The next morning we all piled into the car, leaving Mike to babysit Indian Summer, and headed off for the 8 hour trip to Nairobi.  On the way we stopped at a lovely restaurant for lunch, which was situated on a lake.  When we got nearer Nairobi we hit the traffic and sat there for hours, in fact it took 12 hours door to door – and I thought Australian traffic was bad!  Our last night with our girls was spent eating, drinking and being merry and unusually for me, I was the first to go to bed.  Will, his flatmate Mark and the girls set off early the next day for a safari in the Masaai Mara and Ian and I set off for the 24hour bus ride to Rwanda.

The past couple of weeks with our girls had flown by – we had had such fun but as we were leaving for Rwanda the day we said our goodbyes and it didn’t seem so sad somehow. I still hate it when my kids leave the boat but new adventures await.