Mombasa is hot, hot, hot!
We left Malindi on - I'm gonna have to think hard now as I've been completely losing track of the days! - Saturday? I think? Got a tuk tuk from the guesthouse to the matatu park, a matatu to Mombasa, a tuk tuk to the ferry port, a ferry across to Diani, a matatu to the nearest bus stop in Ukunda, and then a tuk tuk until we found a place to camp and hire a tent down near the beach. Phew!
Diani Beach was a lot more developed than Malindi, but equally as expensive, if not more so because we couldn't find any street food. We stayed at Diani Beach Camping and Cottages. Jo and Annabelle had their own tent, and Kate and I hired one for the two nights we stayed. It was so close to the beach we could hear the sea at night. :) We have definitely all made up for 6 weeks of not tanning over the last few days in Malindi and Diani, since we're all pretty lobstery at the moment! I've managed to get really patchy burn on my stomach (especially just where my hip strap goes on my backpack), thigh, and just underneath my bikini top, and also unfortunately just about where my backpack shoulder straps fit. Not great. Ah well, at least the bum burn has about tanned now, ha ha!
Although it was a lot more than we would usually pay for food, we ate dinner both nights at a lovely restaurant on the beach, called Forty Thieves, which also had amazing ice cream. :) I love how we generally tend to judge places on their toilets and food! This, by the way, also had lovely toilets, so a win win situation! :) The beach was a beautiful white sand beach, but on the first day we walked along from the other side and had to wade through a deep pile of seaweed to get past. Eurgh. It was so postcard perfect though, down the end that we spent the rest of the time at. Perfect blue sea, white sand, bit of live music with a Redd's cider, lying on the beach reading. :) Perfect. And the sea was so warm. I'd like to think going in the sea counts as a wash, since the showers at the campsite were salt water anyway. Cannot wait for a shower in Jinja when we arrive tomorrow evening... it will have been a while! :P
We arrived in Mombasa this morning, not knowing whether we were staying the night or not, and went straight to the booking office of Akamba buses. After searching for other coaches going to Uganda, we were limited to a choice of two. Akamba it is. We'll have to go on the shitty bus to Nairobi, the one we used to get from Mbale to Nakuru, with no air conditioning and broken seats etc, but from Nairobi we're transfering to the Akamba Royal. =D We should arrive in Nairobi by 5.30am, get our breakfast at wherever their bus place is with our included meal vouchers, and then be on the bus to Kampala by 7am, which will stop in Jinja. The plan is to spend a couple of days in Jinja and nip up to the next project about half an hour from there to say bye to Tom and Carla, since they never made it to Jinja to meet us thanks to their new truck breaking down straight away. Went for a look round Fort Jesus this morning too, so we could feel cultural. :P
About to look into whether it's possible for us to go into Cairo during our 8 hour transfer on Sunday without it being too expensive. That or 8 hours sleeping,r eading and eating (don't worry Mum and Dad, I will be careful of food poisoning!). Not long to go. :(
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