Sat 24th. Left Frangipani, Diani relatively early. Stopped at Rongai…just had a tea, as no fresh mandazi. Went across the road and it wasn’t long before we were underway to the ferry. There was a massive number of people queueing down the gangway. Part of the ferry wasn’t working properly initially and we did a couple of 180° turns in mid stream before we landed. Took a tuk tuk directly to Ocean Crown htl.
Mark was downstairs to greet me. After all the texts between us over about 7 months, we finally met. We hit it off immediately. I checked into my room and went up the road to buy a new phone. The safaricom store were very helpful but I knew I had to buy and had decided on the brand. I went for a Redmi 7T , costing about 115GBP. I had found a short cut to Fantasy, previously, so I introduced Mark to my favourite bar in Mombasa. Had dinner at Taleh restaurant a few doors away from Crown.
Sun 25th We were invited to the oldest pub in Mombasa…the Kilindini Bar near the old railway station. Maura and Clarence were great hosts. We had a lovely lunch..just paying for the drinks. I like to think that Dad drank at that bar in the 50s when he came up from Tanga on his motorbike. I know he used to go to the Castle htl and Fontanella restaurant which weren’t that far away. As we had had lunch we just had a snack at Taleh. There was a possibility of meeting up with Bonny but he was too busy.
Mon 26th Had hoped to see Bonny but again he was busy. At least I found out why….he was moving flat so was busy packing etc in Ann’s absence. I walked over to Immigration and had a multiple entry visa stamped in my passport rather than having to carry the printout everywhere. The process took 5 mins and didn’t cost anything.
Met Mark at Queen’s cafeteria for a tea… basically to meet the owners of the guesthouse where we will be staying on Lamu. I went for a walk around the Old town..near Fort Jesus…and decided to see the Lotus htl where I stayed a couple of years ago. As their beers were the cheapest yet in Mombasa, I stayed for a couple.
We didn’t do much else. I think we went to Fantasy again. I had done some washing and hung my clothes on the hotel roof. We visited the old Mombasa fruit and vegetables and spices market. Had a delicious chicken biryani at Taleh.
Tues 27th. We had bought shuttle tickets to Kilifi, thinking we would be leaving from outside the hotel. It turned out we had to pay for a tuk tuk to the matatu stage at Buxton…not far though. I think we paid a bit over the odds and service wasn’t quite a shuttle as it stopped a lot and took probably twice as long… Otherwise it was a good trip to Kilifi. Went straight to Titanic and checked in. I introduced Mark to the Kilifi Club and its lovely views across the Creek. Dinner was at Village Dishes.
Wed 28th. After b’fast at village dishes…in fact we always had b’fast at village dishes…we went to Saltys. Nice and laid back but very windy and I didn’t fancy a swim. Maina and Nyambura joined us and we spent a nice afternoon with them. Then back to village dishes for dinner.
Thurs 29th. The days in Kilifi were pretty chilled… doing practical things like drawing money or buying water. Forgot to say, that the evenings always ended up with a night cap at de Coffee bar across the road from Titanic. But today we went to the Beach bar at B10. Very nice, but I was a bit surprised that the beers cost the same as at Saltys. Dinner was at Nunus…a delicious Shawarma…but we needed to have an extra piece of chicken as we were both very hungry. We had a very nice fruit juice there earlier. My Mango was very tasty. Oh, and in the morning we walked across the bridge so Mark could take same nice photos. Of course I was taking pics as well.
Fri 30th . No beach trip that day. Mid afternoon we went back to Kilifi club. The tide was out and I walked down to the coral and bit of sand. Had never been down there before. Maina came over and joined us. That was it for our last day. We treated ourselves to Curry’s at the Ocean restaurant and didn’t go to de Coffee as we were leaving for Malindi the next day. Very pleasant and relaxing visit to Kilifi.