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Surf’s up!
During
our visit to Kenya, we stayed on the outskirts of
Malindi where we had an amazing and educational time.
There were loads of activities such as surf school,
scuba diving, kayaking, mountain biking and we even
helped out at a local school along the beach. We also
went sea canoeing and took a couple of trips along the
bay on local boats that are used along the southern
coast of Kenya.
Day
1:
We arrived in Mombassa, looking like a group of parched
and sweaty kids who just left their home comforts, all
the time trying to look our best and make a good
impression of our school. After a three hour drive to
our camp (Che Shale) just off the town of Malindi, we
settled into our cabins and got used to our
surroundings. We had a quick welcoming meal in the
evening and a short briefing on what we were going to do
while staying at the coast then, we all crashed for the
night.
Day 2:
We had a late start to the morning but with our energy
restored we were fit enough to go out for a morning swim
before breakfast. We went on a short walk to a community
school just along the beach. There, we noticed that the
school had practically nothing and was desperately in
need for some new supplies for both the children and
teachers. We played a game of football to get to know
the teachers and the children before sitting down in
class to learn their methods of teaching. We helped put
a floor into one of the buildings under construction
which will end up being a staff room for the teachers.
After lunch we headed out to sea for our first surfing
and sea canoeing lesson, and we all got a bit sunburnt.
Day
3:
We woke early for a morning surf although the waves
weren’t any good. After our usual fruity breakfast, we
continued our project for the school. The others had a
fun “cleansing” session cleaning all their dirty
clothes. We chopped wood, drew pictures and painted.
Activities were happening all around the camp for the
school. We didn’t finish the blackboards in time, so we
left them for the next day. We rode a few practise waves
before having a quick break for lunch, then hopping into
the local boats and sailing north towards an even better
surfing spot. There, we had loads of fun and caught some
of the best waves. The teachers even ended up catching
some, though not all of them were all that great. As we
slowly drifted back to camp with the current pushing our
boat closer to shore, some of us were already half
asleep.
Day
4:
We had a last minute surf in the morning, then got back
to work on the school project. Once the paint had
dried, we walked over to the school and handed over
their new supplies. Settling into the new resort (Seaview
Resort) booked for 2 nights, we ate lunch, dropped our
bags off and went out for our last surf.
During the surf, we all agreed that we loved the feeling
when we managed to catch and stand on a wave. The
teachers got some pretty good photos of us standing on
our surfboards. It was hilarious when the teachers fell
off their boards and when they sunk their boards – not
saying any names! When it was time to go, we brought
our boards back and drove back to the hotel where we had
a warm shower before to dinner. Dinner was especially
delicious that night, filled with Kenyan food. Then we
were sent to bed.
Day 5:
We had an early breakfast, then got going to another
resort (Watersports resort) where we began our
activities for the day. Split into two groups, kayaking
and biking and another group for scuba diving.
In the afternoon, the groups switched around with the
biking being hard but fun. We all washed up and we went
into town for dinner at a local restaurant. We even got
to ride tuk tuks back to the hotel.
Almost all of us agreed that the best part of our trip
to Kenya was the surfing. Watching the teachers try and
fail to stand up was funny, but being able to stand up
on a board by ourselves was even better.
Into the Wild!
After four
days of outstanding surfing lessons, we packed our bags
and left our “luxury” hotel and drove towards Tsavo
National Game Park. Even though the journey to the game
park took forever, we got to stop at a small reptile
facility where we got to handle lizards, spitting cobras
and green garden snakes. It was amazing since the snakes
we held where not deadly and the lizards were so tiny
and cute including the really big python. Two
unfortunate people got a little present from the
smallest snake which is sure not going to be easy for
them to forget.
We said our
goodbyes to the snakes and hellos to the game park which
was crawling with animals. We were first greeted by a
heard of gazelles that were grazing but got startled by
our cars and pranced away in grace. Next up we were
surprised by a heard of elephants! They seemed to pose
for our cameras and we were happy to take lots of
pictures of the magnificent mammals. There was even a
little baby elephant that was standing by its mothers
side. It was adorable.
I’ll tell
you one thing… Never EVER eat where there are a lot of
baboons. They steal your food! At least some of us got
to enjoy the sandwiches and chips. After lunch we headed
out again when we were immediately stopped by an
elephant. It was so close to the car, we could almost
touch it but it backed away and started to walk the
other way. We spotted giraffes and they looked so
beautiful! It would have been better if they where
closer though. We got back to our new camp (Camp Tsavo)
and were tired, sandy and sweaty from the safari.
The next day
we had a VERY early start… like around 4:00 am. It was
still a bit dark by the time we got to the game park but
we managed to find lions, hippos, giraffe, elephants and
lots of other wildlife. Our bus ran out of petrol on
the way back to camp and we saw a heard of elephants
move to the other side of the road and keeping a tiny
baby behind them. We couldn’t wait to tell our
adventure to everyone else who missed it. Right after
dinner we went on a night safari which was different as
not so many animals could be spotted and we were all
rather sleepy. Once back we got back to camp we all
crashed for the night.
On the very
last day we did some interesting activities such as
making recycled paper out of elephant dung. It sounded
really gross but looked cool. Hopefully nobody lost
their lunch while making the recycled paper. That would
be very unlucky for them. Later we played a game where
you have to go all around a table without touching the
ground. It was so much fun and in the end Julian (our
instructor) showed us how to go around two tables.
We said
goodbye to the staff at the campground, boarded the bus
and drove for four hours to the airport. We sang Hakuna
Matata and Jambo Bwana till we were all tired from
singing (which was not going to happen). While waiting
in the airport for around an hour or two was
entertaining because we talked about our adventures and
what we would miss. Our memories of this place are
special. Kenya was an amazing trip and anyone who went,
would agree if you asked them.
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