July 22nd & 23rd - Mangroves and Rain

I was too tired yesterday to write the diary and now I can't remember why.

We went down to windsurf at Satan's again, but he didn't have enough equipment to lend us because it was either out or being repaired, so myself and Rona went swimming for an hour or so.

Satan then agreed to let us have a couple of boards - minus sail - to paddle across to the mangroves on the next island. This took much less time than expected and we returned complete with cut feet from the rock oysters covering the underwater Mangrove stumps.

Then there was tea at the cheap place again with the standard pint's of fresh squeezed juice. A new experience was some lime juice (I don't think they put any sugar in it, unlike the orange!) and Rona decided upon a strawberry milkshake. When this arrive I'm sure it could have lit the town in the event of a power cut! Luminous pink, obviously made from syrup, with an aftertaste like bitter tar. Horrible stuff!

On to the next morning and something in that meal had upset the stomach and bowels to give my first nasty bowel experience of the holiday.

The day started off badly when I was offered breakfast and didn't get any. For various reasons I descended into a bad mood an hopefully this will be gone by tomorrow.

The main event of the day was going to be a fishing dhow trip with associated barbecue on a beach somewhere with the catches of the day.

However the weather turned against us (as did my bowels) and we decided not to fish in the pouring rain in the middle of the sea!

Instead we opted for some juice, obviously and some food, before visiting the Lamu museum.

This was almost interesting, filled with some history of Lamu and some relics found from the ruins on Mamba Island, where we visited on the 20th.

There was a reasonable view from the top of the museum, which was originally a fort, where we could watch part of the main street as well as the ongoings at the seafront.

After this I retired to the roof to bask in my misery till dusk whie the others did something unknown to me.

All thats left now is to feel better, get some food and go to bed.

July 21st - Windsurfing

The day started predictably with fruit already laid on the table when I emerged from my bed; with pancakes close behind. The first mission of the day was to communicate with the world via email. Reliably informed, we set off to the post office in Lamu to find three of their computers down and two long winded German women on the other two. After leaving Miranda to queue I went and fetched Rona, returning to find a longer queue but no progress.
As we sat in wait a middle aged American woman entered trying to get to her emails on one of the broken computers. At one point during her fruitless efforts the phone next to her went & she picked it up as though it was her own work desk. The fact she had been babbling away in a strong American accent, with dreadlocks & henna tattoos didn't stop her speaking to the caller fluently in Swahili, to our amazement; then continuing to fail to check her emails as if nothing had happened.
Finally we got on the computer & I managed to send a message while Miranda & Rona set off to get phonecards instead.
We then decided, over a pint of passion, to take advantage of the windsurf base along the beach between Lamu & Shela. The place was run by Satan, who happily gave me a board & proceeded to teach Rona in the art of windsurfing. Getting frustrated by the strong tide and seeming lack of progress by myself I eventually got back to base at the cost of being able to grip anything, and took over Rona training.
After drifting some way she handed control of the board to me, who attempted to sail it back to base! This was fine till I hit stronger wind when I discovered the board was defective & sail not properly attached, so I was rescued (by Satan).
We then med up with a friend of Miranda's (and some woman he had found) and went for a meal; a new place this time. I got the best curry I have ever had here, let it be known.
A short walk followed down the front to sit and wait for Miranda to phone her other half whereupon we were engaged in conversation with a dhow captain, at the end of which he gave me a flower. Quite random!
Now as I write this, a small lizard has run across my bed, so I'm going to see that it's gone! Then go to bed!