50km south of Mombasa is Diani Beach which (until recently at least) was full of package tourists.

30km west of Diani Beach there is Shimba Hills National Reserve - a lovely quiet game reserve on the edge of an escarpment - but 1500 ft up and significantly cooler than the coast. We have enjoyed two nights here, plus early morning (6am) and sundowner game viewing drives, meals cooked on wood fires and paraffin lamps.

Not a huge amount of game visible because the forest is generally pretty dense, but some nice highlights - a couple of sightings of sable and a beautiful Crowned Eagle - sitting on a tree just 30m or so from our banda.

The parallel universes of both Diana Beach and Mombasa can be seen at night twinkling in the distance - and talking of parallel universes - we are here at the invitation of Richard and Melinda.

Richard comes here to spot butterflies - which are also his business. He has agreements with various farmers that they will grow vegetation attractive to exotic butterflies. They then collect the pupae of these butterflies and export thousands of them every week to wholesellers in the USA - who sell them on to agents who display them to paying visitors. However, butterflies don't live for very long, so the supply has to be constantly renewed - by Richard and his Kenyan farmers.