After a full on four days shadowing a Fairtrade audit at a flower farm near Nairobi, I flew to the coast. Originally I was planning to go with Catharine, but she was picking her keys up to her new apartment over the weekend so couldn't make it. So I decided to come anyway as the Friday was a public holiday (nothing to do with the jubilee celebrations back home). I had already planned to come to Watamu as it's quiet and has a marine park so good to check out dive places when the season opens later in the year. And then I found out one of the guys, Ali, I met in Nairobi has just moved down here.

I got a flight from the small local airport only 10 mins from my place (with no traffic). A very basic affair I remembered from 5 years ago and nothing had changed. The plane was delayed by nearly an hour due to an airport somewhere being shut because the president was doing a rally or something nearby. Apparently if the president moves somewhere in Nairobi in the morning, the knock on effect on traffic can go on into the late afternoon! The plane was a DC8 and stopped en route to Lamu and then a 20 min further flight south down the coast to Malindi.

I sat next to a guy on the plane who grew up in Kenya, but now lived in London and was taking a two week holiday to visit friends and family but was seriously thinking about taking a career break from the NHS. So I obviously convinvced him to do so. He is on the same flight back so will ensure he hasn't changed his mind! He got off the plane at the first stop in Lamu and promised to save me a seat on the way back on Wednesday as his was the first stop.

When I arrived at Tembo Village B&B in Watamu - about 20 mins from Malindi by taxi, the place was desserted. It is only me and two other guests! I know it is low season but I wasn't expeting it to be quite so quiet especially on a bank holiday weekend. However I had planned to read my book club book as I have been making slow progress and also do some serious thinking about what is next for me - update the CV and pull a list of together of who to send it to together - in Kenya to start with, but still trying to keep all options open.

Ali called soon after I arrived and invited me to his friends house who were having a chilled out evening chewing Miraa (Giza variety) as it was a public holiday. Sounded a bit suspect but I had read about this, and apparently it is a very mild stimulant that is legal. So hay this year is all about new things. Ali picked me up and I met Jocelyn and her family (it was her house we were at) and Franko and Irene - his friends. All very relaxed, and a mix of swahili and English spoken. Essentially you take the spindly stems, and strip the outer part and chew. It's easier to take a nibble of bubble gum with it to help bind it all together (see photo - the cigarettes were nothing to do with it!). So I did this for about an hour, and perked up a bit but really all I got was a lot of jaw ache... The others kept it up for hours, and chatted away. Eventually I started dozing to sound of African tunes being played and the other three all speaking in swahili which has quite a lullaby effect - before I knew it, it was 3 in the morning so headed back to the B&B. That put a stop to my run the following morning as I had already asked for breakfast to be served at 8am! So not a very productive first day. But managed to do a bit of FLO Board work and reading.

I ventured to look at the beach, expecting to be inundated with beach boys hastling you for everything, but the pace was desserted including all the hotels along the beach being shut up and no beach boys in sught, just some Ascari (guards). So I had a dip in the sea - warm and biggish waves - lovely and refreshing. After my swim, a couple of beach boys did spot me so I bought a coconut form them - just what the doctor ordered after a swim!

On Sunday, I was invited around for Sunday lunch at Jocelyns (where the chewing took place on Friday). We ate the local delicious food of Ugali (very bland maize but a good staple to use to pick up the rest of the food), bbq'd chicken and greens (Sukuma wiki - means stretch the week) and a salad - eaten in the usual way with our hands (see photo). As the area is full of mzungu Italians for some reason, and the Italians come here on holiday, Jocelyn does not speak any English only Italian - so we struggled a bit communicating. That night with Franko and Ali we went to the local bar just for a quiet drink. Fanko is a motorcycle mechanic and has perfect English. He lives in Nairobi but is trying to set up a business in Watamu. He knows more about current affairs and the world than I do, yet he has never left Kenya but is so well read. So he was keen to chat away to me most of the night. The great thing unlike Nairobi, is if you are with someone else you can walk the streets - so very lovely walking there and back and it still being warm and nearly a full moon.

Monday I hired a Joecelyn's car, and Ali and I went into Malindi to have a look around and drive a short way up the coast. Lots of desserted beaches, beautiful properties mostly shut up and we stopped at portugese monument (see photo) Vasco Dagama built in the late 1400's. On the way back to Watamu we were stopped by the police. A regular occurance where the police pull over cars, ask for documentation and any excuse try and get money from you. Ali was driving and had all his documentation. They then asked me for my passport which was of course locked in the safe in the B&B (I often carry a copy around with me but didn't this time). The policeman tried to make out that there were security concerns on the coast and therefore every visitor should carry their ID (I was pretty sure this was not the case). We suggested he came back to the B&B to look at it and we would drop him back. Clearly that didn't work, he kept wandering off with Ali's documents, and coming back saying he wanted to sort it out in an easy fashion. We were not going to back down so I said that the British High Commission in Nairobi specifically advised those visiting Kenya not to travel with their passports. At that he reluctantly gave Ali the documents back and we drove off. This took about 20 minutes but no money was exchanged!

That evening we were planning to all go dancing in Malindi but not a lot was happening on a Monday night so instead went to the local club in Watamu until the early hours. Before heading to the club we went for a drink in the local bar. The music wasn't great, so we sat in the car listening to my iphone with drinks being bought to the window! Drive in bar is my new money making idea...The club was quiet but good music that allowed us to take to the dance floor!

Tuesday I did some more work as well as swam some lengths (in the rain!). I couldn't go running as my trainers, which were a bit stinky from the fitness weekend had been left outside my room, but that night had been chewed up by the big, but friendly guard dogs. They were then even more stinky, a bit ripped and lacked a shoe lace so a good enough excuse to use the pool only. Two days later I also lost two pairs of knickers, hand washed and put out to dry...but clearly also very tasty to guard dogs! I joined Ali for a late lunch at the local bar again - becoming a regular and being greeted by the staff as an old friend. The thing with Ugali is it tends to swell in your stomach after eating it, making you very full - no wonder it is the local staple food - so a lazy afternoon, especially as the weather was a bit miserable so a quiet afternoon and evening was in order.

Wednesday wrote my CV in the morning, it rained again. I invited Jocelyn and Franko and Ali out for lunch to say goodbye to them and because it was Ali's birthday the next day. Not that he really celebrates it. So back to the same bar, and again cheap delicious food (see photo) before getting my taxi back to the airport.

Austin, the guy I met on the plane on the way out had saved me a seat on the plane so we exchanged stories of our few days at the coast. On arriving back to Nairobi (in rush hour) so a much longer journey that the 10 mins last Friday, more like an hour and it had started raining which is like a switch in Nairobi to cause the traffic to stand still. But Simon, my trustful taxi driver was waiting for me. When I got back I met Ute my new flat mate, a German lady also volunteering and will be staying for a couple of months before she goes travelling. All change from Catharine but seems very nice too, and good to still have company.