Tues 20th. So, the day had arrived to leave Ethiopia…the day my visa expired as well. I arranged for an early pick up as it was an Intl flight. As it happened there was little road traffic and I sailed through immigration and customs. Nice flight with a tasty lunch and only 2 hours to Mombasa.

The guy at immigration was very helpful and advised me to go to immigration in Mombasa and have my passport stamped with the multiple entry visa so that I didn’t have to carry a separate piece of paper. I checked into the Ocean Crown htl and went immediately up Digo road to the safaricom shop to buy a new SIM. Only cost 50ksh and I was able to keep my existing number. I celebrated by going to Fantasy for a couple of beers and had a nice chicken curry at Crown. Actually there were 2 chicken samosas before that.

Wed 21st. Thought I’d put off buying the new phone until I met Mark and could discuss it with him. Caught a tuk tuk to the ferry. Was quickly in a matatu on the other side and soon on the way to Ukunda. After a tea at Rongai I got a tuk tuk to take me to both Diani Campsite then Diani Reef appartments. The latter is where I stayed last time. Both were full. Got another tuk tuk and he took me to Frangipani…a lodging which was basically a private house with a few rooms. The owner was in the UK and I was the only guest. The place had a pool and was only 2000ksh per day. No bfast, and the shower not very good, but the location was excellent….behind Diani shopping centre and 15 min walk from the beach.

I met up with Fatima and we had drinks and dinner at Piri Piries in the Diani centre. The next day I had a nice walk along the beach and we met up at Amigos…the beach bar. Prior to that I went to safaricom (as I had a problem with it) so they could download the mpesa app for me. Dinner was at the Swahili Pot. Very tasty and good value.

The following day we went down to Soul Breeze…Galu beach I think. I had a swim and we had a pizza for lunch. Lots of kite surfing going on, and generally a nice place to relax. This was the 23rd and we went to Manyatta…had a drink there but I didn’t fancy dinner there and we went to Swahili Pot again. I had visited the chandarana shopping centre…first time in about 10 years. I had a couple of swims in the house pool. A very nice stay in Diani before meeting up with Mark on Saturday.