The next stop was Lamu. We had discussed the many options of how to get to this ancient Arabic island and the vote in the end was that we should catch the bus from Malindi a little up the coast since there is little to see between Malindi and Lamu and our car would only be a liability to park at the jetty. We raced to make the bus, which was also a much cheaper option, bought our ticket from a funny little shop (KES700) and had a man holding the skull of a Marlin help us find a safe place to park the car, a cheap hotel around the corner run by good-natured indians. We headed off in our overfull bus with people sitting on crates in the middle and being entertained by Bollywood music videos and some excellent music from the 80's like Ace of Base! All the way along the trip whenever we stopped 10's of people would rush to the bus and hold up all sorts of things for us to buy - fruit, camel milk, homemade "chocolate" which was more like sandy toffee and of course…tomatoes! We also fetched two armed guards along the road to protect us from the Somalis which was interesting! This was one of the reasons we decided to go on the bus with the locals - if we had taken our car we would have had to pay separately for the guard and also would have been more conspicuous! We arrived at the jetty to get the ferry across to Lamu and were naturally bombarded with people offering lifts and speed boats. Luckily we were met by one of the staff at the hotel that we had booked into. We jumped onto the local's ferry which was so full we thought we might actually sink. Just when you think the boat is full they load on another 30 people and some chickens!

Our hotel was lovely and the host Arnold, a German man who has settled in Lamu, made our visit there fantastic! The hotel "Jambo House" was delightful - in the centre of Lamu you had to walk up the narrow little streets past the little shops and donkeys to get there. The game of choice among the children seemed to be Marbles which was played in every sandy patch on the street corners. Arnold sat us down and let us know all the interesting details about the island. It is a very conservative Arabic Island - one of the things they have decided on is that they would not have any cars. So the narrow little streets remain as they are - very narrow! Full of beautiful old Arabic houses with huge coral walls and carved wooden doors, Lamu is a cultural feast!

By the time we arrived we only had a day to explore Lamu Island and then had to be on the ferry at 6 the next morning to get the first bus back in time to collect Sarah from Mombasa airport. The result was that we had a busy, but fantastic day exploring! We started off with a walk to the beach which was about an hour away. On the way we enjoyed the little streets, the racing donkeys and the gorgeous thick fresh fruit juices for which Lamu is famous! The beach itself was lovely, but as the rains had only just finished the normally clear water was murky. Never the less we had a good swim and then started the walk back to the hotel.

At the hotel we were met by a guide who was going to give us a tour of Lamu town. He was very popular among the residents there and we had lots of people shouting to us that we had chosen he right guide - you are never quite sure how to take that! He told us many interesting things about Lamu and its people - including showing us a mosque which he said was built in the year 17 - but this is probably the Islamic calendar, making it about 800 AD, still a very impressive history. As we were on our return journey to the hotel we bumped into a man who our guide told us would give us a very good Swahili meal in his home with his family - only R200 for the 2 of us! We had heard about these things - and although we didn't normally go for things like this, we thought that we might as well eat there since we had to eat that night and see what he had to offer!

The man whose house we went to was called "Ali Hippy" b the locals because when the hippies came in the 60's Ali used to get high with them. Before dinner started we had a small family history which ended with a very proud Ali telling us that he was now on his fourth wife who was 26 and expecting a baby! To put the story into perspective Ali was 68! Eish! We enjoyed our meal of floating fish in coconut milk with rice and sugar water and then were entertained by Ali's children, and grandchildren with some Swahili music. It was an interesting experience. The only disappointment is that the mosque offers free food for that night of the year in celebration of Mohamed going back to heaven - and so neither Ali nor his family ate with us but rather waited anxiously for us to leave so that they could go and collect their freebee! Ha - it's always fun to have the locals watching you eat! Ali's catch phrase with which he lured tourists is that his food is "Ali yummy good for tummy" - all very amusing!

Once we got back to Malindi from the bus ride we had about 2 hours to get to the airport for Sarah. The trip apparently took an hour and a half so we were safe! Until….the car didn't start as the fridge had drained the battery! We were very stressed and ended up having to get a mechanic out for a small problem we could have fixed ourselves, but in the stress of trying to get to the airport on time we couldn't think straight! We managed to get it started though and started out to fetch Se arriving an hour late - living up to our reputation I'm afraid! It was so so good to have some family to catch up with and have someone to show off our camping skills to since not many people thought we (especially Joey) could do it! Se also brought supplies of cheese and chocolate - which was awesome! After getting a few supplies from the Nakumaat we went back to the campsite we had stayed at before in Mombasa, but this time we managed to get a room to use for showering so that we could have some fresh water! Se had her first night in the tent she brought and besides from the Cats she was convinced that had rabies, all was good, including a swim on the beach at sunset!