Kenya
Uyombo

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    • Day 26

      Watamu - es geht zu Ende

      August 8 in Kenya ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      Am Morgen nach Lars’ Geburtstagsfeier sah es wild aus bei uns: die Party hatte ohne uns offenbar noch etwas überhand genommen. Überall Reste von Obst - immerhin haben sie gesund gefeiert!
      Lars und Lucia konnten sich an nichts mehr erinnern - war ja klar, Teenager!

      Aber am nächsten Morgen kurz nach 6:00 Uhr wurden wir dann von einem der Gäste nochmal sanft geweckt. Er kam um sich zu entschuldigen. Sehr nett!

      Wir verbringen gerade die letzten Stunden hier im Hotel.
      Wenn alles gut geht (es gibt noch immer die kryptische Meldung von Turkish Airlines und online Check-in ist nicht möglich) und es in Nairobi keine Probleme gibt (für heute sind Massenproteste und die Besetzung der Regierungsgebäude in Nairobi angekündigt), dann sind wir nach nur knapp 26 Stunden Reisezeit wieder zurück in Paderborn.

      Wir freuen uns darauf, euch alle wieder zu sehen, Leitungswasser trinken zu können und auf unsere eigenen Betten! Trotzdem bleibt es die beste Reise, die wir je unternommen haben.

      Danke dass ihr daran teilgenommen habt.
      Unzählige Fotos und Stunden von Videos sowie viele, viele Geschichten haben wir noch nicht geteilt. Das machen wir gerne gemeinsam mit euch in Deutschland.

      Ganz viele Grüße an unsere Guides und Gastgeber: Matthew, Jackson (und Alice Nelly, Christin), Robert, Peter & Moses (und die anderen Guides der Wanderung), Tsunami, Benjamin, Kalmete, Leonard (fürs Bringen und Hohlen unserer Autos), Halima, Manni & Patricia & Linah.

      Ein ganz besonderer Dank an Susi von Charlie’s Travels, die diese Reise schon im Dezember mit uns plante und natürlich Brenda, ohne die wir nicht immer problemlos von A nach B gekommen wären und die dafür gesorgt hat, dass wir uns um nichts sorgen müssen.

      Liebe Grüße
      Lars, Lucia, Phuong, Sven
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    • Day 20–26

      Watamu

      August 2 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

      Letzte Station. Gleichzeitig fängt hier endlich der Entspannungsteil des Urlaubs an!
      Wir sind in einem wirklich sehr feinen, kleinen Hotel (17 Zimmer), dass sehr liebevoll gestaltet und mitten in die Natur gebaut wurde. Für die Kids sehr wichtig: es gibt einen Pool!
      Den ersten Tag und die halbe Nacht hat Sven auf dem Klo verbracht - er hatte eh zu viel gegessen und ein paar Gramm weniger schaden ihm nicht.

      In den nächsten Tagen wollen wir tauchen gehen, wir sind sehr gespannt, für die Kinder ist es das erste Mal.

      Ach ja, Turkish Airlines hat sich mit einer uneindeutigen Nachricht gemeldet: unser Flug wurde aus operativen Gründen geändert. Wir könne den Flug ändern oder stornieren…
      Mal sehen was wird.
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    • Day 152

      Kaleidoskop Festival @ Watamu

      March 3 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

      My travel plans 🗺️ led me to Watamu for the beginning of March and the Kaleidoskop Festival (https://www.kaleidoscope.wtf) was scheduled for that same time. Usually, I am not one of these crazy 🤪 festival goers, but since the time coincided and I was curious what an electro festival in Kenya would look like, it thought that I might as well go.
      As I found out later, the festival was held for the fifth time and at least this year the Temple Point resort in Watamu had been chosen as venue for the event. 🏨 Staying directly at the resort would have been too expensive for me. Instead, I got a good apartment close by in turtle bay for only 3600 KES (approximately 22 EUR) / night. I moved in a day before the festival and that was probably my luck 🍀 because it turned out that the apartment was listed on two websites and was double booked due to the high demand during the festival. Since I was already staying there, the other person had some bad luck. 😕
      The apartment actually had two bed rooms. So at the beginning, there was even the question if that other person could move in 😳 Eventually the person must have found something else since I didn’t hear anything about that anymore. 😅
      On the first day, I went to the festival in the early evening hours. The place filled up slowly but surely. I went to the festival by myself and I didn’t knew anyone there. I only talked to a few people about some superficial stuff and was most of the time on my own. 🙄I visited all 4 stages though: curiosity, life, nature and time. On all nights I liked the performances of the DJs on the time stage the most. 😌
      From security control at the entrance to signs and timetables at the location as well as cashless payments - the event was well organised. I put almost the same amount as the ticket price for the festival as debit on my wristband for cashless payments and had no issues to spend the money. 😅 The resort was definitely oriented towards European standards for the prices of food and drinks. For example, I got two craft beer 🍺 , some king prawns 🍤 as dinner and a Cuba Libre 🍹for a third of my total budget on my first night.
      On the second day I went a little earlier (around 2 pm) to the festival since I wanted to experience the resort and its pool 🏊 during the day a bit. When I arrived it was still pretty quiet. As planned, I jumped into the pool and later attended a „Mindful Movement & Meditation workshop“ 🧘 with Muse (from the US) and Ralph (from the Dominican Republic) - the instructors for the workshop. This is also where I met Patrick (from Mexico) amongst many others attendees. He was working for the UN 🇺🇳 in Nairobi. Apparently, the United Nations Environment Assembly took place in the week before and many of his colleagues were to join.
      On the third and last day, I met most of the people on the festival again and we had a good time. 🥳 I never made it to the sunrise like other though but it was still an interesting event filled with a lot of new engaging music from African DJs as well as a thoughtfully decorated venue (see https://www.instagram.com/kaleidoscopefestivalw… for more impressions).

      I spent yet a few days before and after the festival in Malindi and Watamu but this is a story for another blog post. 😌
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    • Day 14

      Mida Creek

      September 29, 2019 in Kenya ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

      Heading north up the coast to Mida Creek. To get there, we get a matatu from Mombasa, in which a woman places her baby into Chris' arms, and tells him that the father is dead. There's always something interesting happening in a matatu.

      Mida Creek is deserted- we are the only ones staying there until a South African girl shows up. It's very much off-grid- there are very few lights and Chris is forced to eat some chapattis under phone-light as no-one is around to cook anything.

      The creek is nice, though- an expansive, mangrove-fringed body of water, cut into the coastline. We hire a guide to take us out on his canoe, and he paddles around, showing us all the weird and wonderful creatures. He points out mudskippers- fish with legs which is almost like evolution in the making. He tells us all about the many birds that inhabit the creek. He also paddles the canoe directly below the giant web of a golden orb spider, a huge yellow monstrosity that is uncomfortably close to our faces. We also watch the private boat belonging to the nearby luxury hotel- Hemingways. This boat is too big to do anything else but sit in the middle of the creek, and it can't navigate the mangrove channels and peer at their curious residents. Our guide tells us he'd much rather be in a small canoe with the mudskippers than on that big boat with their sundowners, and we can't help but agree.

      The next day, we head to the Crab Shack, a small seafood restaurant located in one of the mangrove forests. We've avoided motorbike taxis (boda-boda as they are called in Kenya) so far, just because KT is a bit scared of them, but now we have no choice but to hire the services of one. The guy who offers to take us to the Crab Shack from town walks us to a motorbike, which we soon suspect may not be his. As we're heading down a sandy side-street, he skids violently, veers off the road and we almost crash into a tree. A nearby group of children yell "Pole-Pole!" (Slowly-slowly!) at our embarrassed driver. As we arrive into the crab shack car-park, a stretch of deep sand, he engages the rear brake rather than the front one, sending us skidding again, almost into a group of revellers heading into the restaurant. We hurriedly get off the bike and push the fare into his hands and bid him (sincerely) safe travels.

      The Crab Shack is nice enough, with the sun setting over the mangrove forests, but it's nothing special. It's also slightly ruined by a raucous Italian family next to us who seem to be constantly yelling at each other. We try some palm-wine. It's made from the palm trees, and it must be an acquired taste- to us it tastes unfortunately like vomit.

      On the way back, we hire the services of a different boda-boda driver, who, en-route, introduces himself as "CRAZY JACKSON". And he is crazy. He frequently takes his hands off the handlebars, turns around to us and insists on talking about Liverpool. The motorbike would drift across the road until we're almost in a ditch, before he snatches at the handlebars and steers back into the road. We arrive at the guesthouse safely and watch Crazy Jackson ride off into the night with the sky illuminated by millions of stars.
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    • Day 80

      Chillen in Watamu

      September 18, 2021 in Kenya ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

      Heute lasse ich es ruhig angehen und gönne mir einen Chilltag. Außer lesen, journaln und chillen steht gar nichts an. Mittags gehe ich einmal in die Town und esse dort einen Salat mit Meerblick. Nach einem Stopp im Supermarkt geht es zuru ins Hotel. Der Tag geht super schnell rum und war so ziemlich der unproduktivste Tag der Reise. Muss aber auch mal sein, ich war nämlich ganz schön durch von den vielen kurzen Nächten und kurzen Stopps. Morgen wird wieder getaucht, dann ist zumindest der halbe Tag mit Action gefüllt.Read more

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