The coral island

A must for bus trips. Mombasa to lamu was one of the most scenic I have ever seen. For 2 hours we weaves down a pothole laden road back and forth back and forth still not able to avoid the potholes and the cars. Then we turned to the dirt road. The soil turned from the deep rich red to the color of a late 60's superbettle The creamy beige.

Palm Trees sprouted from all sides the landscape was even dryer. Small villages and huts dotted the vast landscape. The huts are made out of several different types of supplies. Some were square and some round. The roof's were all made from grass. Some were thatched and some had sticks placed across with a muddy clay like mortar keeping the Walls together. It really could have been from an old film 90 years ago. You see women walking on lathes that spring up from know where carrying some large jug of water grasses or even attacks of wood. They male it look so easy. At one village the locals came out to sell food to the people on the bus. One woman while rocking her baby in a makeshift hammock was selling mangos from the aluminum bowl on her head. She would give the baby a good rock quickly dart to the bus sell a few mangos and return to the baby without missing a swing.

When you are given no other option the kenyans choose to survive. And from what I have seen no running water no HBO, no electricity , in many cases no mode of transportation of there own.. Not that there are not millions of motorbike taxis ,tuk tuk , or matatos very very accessible.

What I mean is in this country you do not work you starve. So they have one option find some kind of work. And they do they really do. Family is first here and education is high on the list but most with such large families cannot afford to send them all. I digress back to lamu.

The ride was hot and dusty I had three seat companions on my trip. Two were larger people quick made for a tight fit. The last was a small Muslim man with a great big smile. I was the only tourist on this bus.


1 hour before or destination I noticed more wildlife. Monkeys and even a small group of baboons. I did see the most amazing small colorful bird but I have no idea what it was. The fields were all burnt everywhere and many cleared but I did not see a purpose and they did not make them into fields.

At this point the sweat was unbearable and my ass was sore as the seats were hard as a rock. We made it to the pier the ferry taxis were waiting.


You could take a jet boat of the regular ferry the jet boat looked like a Mexican panga and of course was a higher cost. I opted for the slow boat with all the locals.


Regulations here mean little. If you over load a matatu the police pull you over. The way this is done is they hand the police officer their drivers license and inside is 50 ksh Really a fair bribe All things considered. Sadly it dose not help the number of fatalities due to poor driving and overloaded matatus.

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Location:Lamu island kenya