Friday 19 Aug
Today we left Tsavo NP and headed for the coast at Watamu. We drove right across the park but didn’t really come across anything interesting. It was more interesting to see how the villages in the flat, hot country near the coast change from those back in the highlands. Near Meru and Aberdare the villages have wooden huts, as well as plenty of cinder-block houses. Down here where there are no woodlands, the huts are made with stick frames but then dried mud to make up the walls. Another reminder of how much of the world works differently: Maureen noticed very quickly that the vast majority of people you see, in the towns and villages along the road, are men. Men do business work, women do house work.
Our resort on the coast at Watamu is Turtle Bay. It’s very different from the safari lodges! The restaurant area is right by the pool and we’re having a late meal at 10pm while on the other side of the pool the beats are banging loud enough to wake the dolphins and everyone is dancing. To awful 90’s dance anthems. That said, our room is the nicest we’ve seen so far, though of course the bathroom is tired. We even have a bath! Albeit with very rusty edges and beautiful amber-coloured water.
Because we are mammal watchers, we went out at 11pm to scout around the grounds with a torch. Eventually a night guard asked what we were doing, and when we explained he went to ask some other staff and then (we had assumed by now this was just a big red herring) he showed us where a small African hedgehog was hiding in a rockery. Smaller and more pale than European hedgehogs, they’re really cute. Unfortunately the guard decided we needed a better look and so used his flipflop and a rock to lift it up and drop it on the path. Poor thing rolled into a ball and wouldn’t unroll until we got the guard to leave (thank you, here’s a tip for your help, thank you, yes go away, bye!) and then waited quietly and patiently by ourselves.
Later we found our own hedgehog, when Maureen nearly stepped on one while trying to dodge a lawn sprinkler!
Oh yeah, so our late meal at 10pm was because we went for a night drive in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Park. This is the biggest chunk of coastal forest left in Kenya and it’s the reason we are here in Watamu.
The night drive was a bit odd. We were joined by local guide Willy, and also by armed park rangers Simon and Steve (unlike the well-protected National Parks we have been visiting, there is more poaching in these less protected local reserves). So it was six of us in the Landcruiser trundling around the forest tracks after dark with torches. We saw… almost nothing. One new type of bushbaby, the Kenyan Coast Galago, which is admittedly a rare endemic that is only found on this small stretch of the Kenyan coast. When we got back to the resort it was clear that the message we had left at the front desk – “we will need a late dinner” – didn’t get through to the kitchen, and so our dinner was some chips. And salad.
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