If you are wondering, why we have been so quiet for the past 8 weeks on our blog, well, it doesn’t have anything to do with us not experiencing anything interesting. On the contrary, during the last weeks we were slowly getting to know and adjusting to Africa, or Kenya at least, which came with a lot of new, fascinating and sometimes challenging impressions, however, they all happened without our Defender. Currently we are still waiting for our baby to finally arrive and to really start into our adventure we’ve been dreaming of - overlanding Africa. But one of the many lessons we have learned so far on this trip over the past 4 months is, that barely anything goes according to plans. Very often, this has lead us to amazing experiences like unexpected beautiful places and people we met. And on the other hand, it has led to a few situations where our patience was tested. In Kenya, they will tell you “pole, pole” wherever you go, which means “slowly, slowly”, and trust me, this is not just a saying here (just like “pumzika-tu” which translates to “just rest” and “hakuna matata” which means “no worries”). So here we are at the moment, after 7 weeks since our arrival in Kenya, sitting on a beach and still waiting desperately to receive the message that we can finally go and pick up our beloved home on wheels. We have definitely had our moments when we were bored out of our minds and just wanted to take off and hit the road (we even considered to buy a Tuk-Tuk and start a small roadtrip on 3 wheels - but everyone here advised strongly against it :D ). Good news so far: the ship with our container has arrived at Mombasa Port, now we just have to wait for the costum clearance (which may easily take another week), but we are optimistic that we will be reunited very soon with our Defender. And in the meantime, I’m taking the time to tell you about what we have been up to during the past weeks.
We arrived in Mombasa on 3rd December and embraced the hot weather after the cooler ad sometimes freezing days in Europe. On the plane, we met Claus, an expat from Germany who has been living in Kenya for over a decade. He offered to share a taxi and gave us many helpful tips for our upcoming weeks in Kenya, like where to get a local simcard, what apps to use for payments, where to go eat and so on. He also agreed to store a big box we have brought with us to put on top of the Defender (since we placed the spare wheel on the back, we gained some space on top for light things, like for example our two big blankets which we definitely won’t need for the start). Claus kept the box at his place not too far from Mombasa, so we wouldn’t have to take it everywhere we went until the car would arrive.
Our first stop was Mombasa City for a few nights. It is a very busy city, a bit overwhelming and we soon had enough of it. After a trip to a mall to get a sim card and a bit of sight seeing, we headed up north to Watamu, where we found a beautiful place on AirBnb close to the beach, where we decided to spend a week. The villa belonged to an Italian couple, like many other places there. Watamu turned out to be quite the “Italian hotspot”, a lot of restaurants serve great Pizza and Pasta and many locals were fluent in Italian. Steven was the guy picking us up from Mombasa and he showed us a few nice places to eat and also introduced us to an old friend he grew up with who now lives in Switzerland (his mother was Swiss). Eventhough we started getting to know locals we struggled with fighting off souvenir sellers and tourist guides and people who just asked for money whenever we left the house and were walking around. Of course, we knew we were in a touristy place and of course as a Muzungu (white person) we couldn’t hide that we were most likely not local, but it was tiring us out at times when we just wanted to get some groceries or go for a walk on the beach without explaining to everyone we were not interested in buying anything and we also could not just give our money to everyone who asked for it. We also learned that it was essential to always always always agree on a price for anything beforehand, even if it is a “friend” or the brother of the friend taking you to a place. One example was, when we went from Watamu to Malindi (a 20 minutes drive) and Steven offered to take us - he then asked us for almost the same amount we payed him a few days before when we picked us up from Mombasa (2,5 hours drive). He said he wouldn’t charge anything for the ride but he needed some money for the fuel (the amount he asked for was enough to fill up his car twice). On the other hand, Steven showed us some nice restaurants and told us places to check out that we probably wouldn’t have found on our own. We did learn quickly, however, that there’s no such thing as a free lunch and that everyone was trying to make a business with us, which didn’t mean they were bad people, it was just a fact we had to accept and be aware of.
In Malindi, we only stayed for two nights since there was literally nothing going on. We were walking down the beach to find a restaurant the first evening and we just passed one closed hotel after the other - Covid also hit tourism in Kenya very hard. From Malindi we took the plane to Lamu, an island up north the coast. There, we were meeting our friends Jenny and Céleste a few days later, who came to visit us. We were very much looking forward to having our friends come visit and Lamu was a beautiful place to spend some time together and celebrate Christmas. We rented a small villa together (Shela Garden House), which (like most houses you can rent in Kenya) came with a chef (Enouch) and a housekeeper (Abu). The two were amazing hosts and Enouch spoiled us with lovely local dishes and a lot of fresh seafood. If you ever visit Kenya, we can highly recommend to visit Lamu - make sure to stay in Shela, the town closer to the longest beach I have ever seen. Tom and I actually walked to the end of the beach one day, which took us 4 hours and resulted in a bad sunburn (we did pick the worst time of the day to do so, I can only recommend this walk if you start very early in the morning).
In Shela, there are no cars, the only means of transport are donkeys who carry everything around the island. There is a very layed back vibe to this place, which lets you relax and just enjoy your time. We went to yoga classes at Banana House, enjoyed nice cocktails on the terrace of Peponi’s, went on a sunset cruise on a traditional dhow (sailing boat), visited Lamu town, where we got some nice souvenirs and visited the donkey hospital. We spent a few days at the very nice pool on the other side of the island at Majlis Hotel and we enjoyed some more amazing cocktails after our extended beach walk to Kizingo, a very beautiful hotel with the friendliest staff and best barkeeper. After almost 2 weeks on Lamu, we flew all together back to Mombasa, where we met Fabri and Patricia, two other friends from Switzerland, who joined us for the next two weeks. Our first accommodation was Swahili House, a small villa right on Tiwi Beach. In the middle of the first night, Tom woke up because he heared water pouring. First he thought it must be raining cats and dogs outside, but then he realized that the sound was not coming from the roof but from the bathroom. He quickly stood up and his feet already landed in a puddle of water on the floor. Our whole room on the second floor was already flooded. We quickly got up and turned on the light and saw the water spilling out beneath the sink in the bathroom. We rushed downstairs and outside to find the night guard who was sleeping on a bench. After trying to explain to him what happened he couldn’t help us much because he didn’t know where the water switch of the house was. So Tom started looking for it all over the place and eventually found it, but by the time, the water was already floating down the stairs to the lower floor, the house was literally under water. After we managed to stop the water, we went back upstairs to check on the damage - at first we thought we were very lucky, there was a spare bed in our room where we placed all our luggage and bags on so nothing got wet - nothing expect Tom’s MacBook who we placed under the bed after watching an episode of Netflix the night before. There was nothing we could do to safe it :( The bedroom downstairs thankfully stayed dry and the house staff quickly prepared another room for Tom and myself to sleep in so we all could go back to bed and get some rest. The next day of course we were a bit devastated and started looking for other places to stay, but it was Christmas and peak season and every hotel along the coast in Diani and Tiwi was sold out or redicolously expensive. In the end, we had to stay one more night in Tiwi and were able to move to the place we had booked for New Years the day after.
Our new home was in Kwale, a place a bit further up in the Shimba hills. The villa had a stunning view over an Elephant Reserve, it was breathtaking, The house was called Pumzika-tu, which is Swahili and translates to “take it easy”. Again, we were spoiled by the house staff (eventhough Enouch and Abu from our house in Shela did set an almost unreachable level of standard). We celebrated Tom’s birthday and New Years Eve on 31st December and enjoyed the quality time with our friends.
Then already the last few days we had together with our friends were coming up. We moved back to the beach into another beautiful house: Tiwi Waterside Villa. The hosts, Aussiemike and Sabine, a couple from Australia and Germany, who have also lived in Kenya for plenty of years, built their own little paradise at the coas of Kenya. Waterside Villa is a beautiful place we would defenitely come back to spend times with friends. We had an amazing 4 weeks together with Jenny, Fabri, Céleste and Patricia, but unfortunately, time flew by and their holiday (as well as ours) was coming to an end - it was time to say goodbye :(
During these past weeks Tom and I have treated us to all the nice houses we were staying in with our friends, since we also thought of it as a “holiday” from camping. Of course, we couldn’t afford to keep on travelling like this, but we enjoyed our time a lot together with our visitors from back home. If everything would have gone according to the plan, the Defender would have arrived just in time after our friends left, but unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. This was the time that started to pull on our nerves. After 6 weeks, we’ve had enough time to chill on the beach and we ate enough of all the nice food and we didn’t want to spend another penny for pricy accommodation. All we wanted was to pick up the Defender and hit the road and go explore the rest of Kenya, while sleeping in the car and waking up in different places every morning and finally start into our adventure on and off the road.
Since it didn’t look like this was going to happen very soon, we had to make new plans. We decided to stay in Diani Beach and get a cheap apartment where we could cook ourselves in order to spend as little money as possible. Furthermore, we also had the possibility to get the booster vaccination for free at the Diani Beach Hospital, which we did (thank God we were staying in an apartment with A/C, the two days after the vaccine we barely were able to leave the bed). The rest of the time we tried to research and plan things for the upcoming weeks, like planning the route and looking up nice camping spots, applying for the visa for Tanzania and so on. After 10 days in Diani Beach we desperately needed a change of scene and went to the very southern part of the Kenyan coast, Shimoni, where we spent a week at Wasini Lookout, a cozy little Lodge just across the channel of Wasini Island. We stayed in a tent, a luxorious one we must add here, it was equipped with a bed and a fridge and a ventilator, but still it was a tent. Monkeys were climbing around the trees and would steal our food if we didn’t properly close the tent and we could hear all the other animals and the waves of the ocean when laying in bed. We had to adapt again to looking for the headtorch and go outside in the middle of the night if we had to go to the bathroom (the only thing I really don’t like about camping ;) ).
Wasini Lookout hosts a very interesting NPO - REEFolution. Their mission is to protect coral reefs and grow artificial corals and plant them out again to restore habitat for fish and other animals of the sea. We had a chance to meet the Dutch founder, Eric, as well as some of the local reef rangers, who explained their work to us and also took us to a sea weed farm close-by, where they grow sea weed which is then processed into soaps, shampoo, lotion and also food.
Finally, 3 weeks later than scheduled, the ship with our container arrived at Mombasa Port. We were very close to reunite with our Defender and didn’t want to wait another minute. The agent from Mombasa port pormised that we would be able to come pick up our baby two to four days after the arrival at the warehouse of the shipping agent, already released by customs and ready to drive off. We went back to Diani Beach for another night or two in the apartment we already stayed in the week before and waited for the magic phone call. But it didn’t happen - we waited and waited and the agent told us every day that tomorrow would be the day where the car would be released from customs. At least, the container made it to customs, one step closer, but from there, nothing happened. After five days the agent told us that we would have to come in person to have the car released. So on Friday, one week after the ship already arrived, we took a Matatu (public bus in Kenya on which I could write a story by itself) and after an Odyssee arrived at the customs, where the officers opened the container together with us. There was our baby, safe and sound tucked in - we were so happy! We drove out of the container and waited patiently until the customs officer checked all our belongings and compared them with the packing list we handed-in in Athens. After another four hours in the heat (it was noon and there was close to no shade between all the shipping containers) they told us, it would take at least another two to three hours until they would release the car, so we decided to leave and go grab some food. When we returned 3 hours later, we were accompanied to our car and asked to wait a little bit longer. We weren’t allowed to touch or open any door of the car until customs would release it. Time went by and at around 5pm our agent showed up to tell us that they would not be able to release the car today, because they had to wait for an approval which came from the office in Nairobi and after 5pm, chances were zero to receive such an approval. Meaning, we had to go on the same Odyssee (TukTuk, Ferry, Matatu, TukTuk) back to Diani without the Defender. I will not elaborate on the mood we both were in, it was sooo frustrating. At least, we managed to get the confirmation of the custom officer that, as soon as he would receive the approval, they would stamp the Carnet and hand the car over to our agent so we could just pick it up from him and we did not have to come back to cusoms again. The next day, Dylan and Flurina, two friends from Switzerland were already arriving in Kenya, so we told our agent that we would come either Sunday or Monday to pick up the car, because we wanted to welcome our friends first. Also, we didn’t really believe that they would receive the approval the next day after all our experiences and we were certainly not in the mood to come back to Mombasa for nothing one more time. By Saturday night, our agent informed us that he was able to pick up the Defender, so we arranged for Sunday morning to come and pick it up. Besides the Carnet, which was stamped on the export section instead of the import section, everything went well. We finally were able to take the Defender with us and drive on African ground for the first time. Our agent took the Carnet and went back to customs the next day, to get the stamps right, and sent it to us afterwards - just in time before we took off on our first Safari.
We enjoyed a couple of nice days at the beach and went on a whaleshark snorkeling trip together with Dylan and Flurina, we saw two of them - it was breathtaking to swim with those huge creatures. There were a few final things we had to sort out and pack up and get the Defender ready and then, together with Boniface, a Kenyan Safari tourguide who drove our friends in his Toyota Landcruiser, we left the coast and drove towards Tsavo West Nationalpark, where we would spend the next three days all together on safari. We were amazed by all the exotic animals we saw, giraffes, zebras, hippoes, crocodiles, impalas, dikdiks and all their relatives, elephants. Dylan and Flurina stayed in a beautiful lodge and Tom and I parked on a official “camping ground” of the nationalpark. There was nothing more than a sign post, which told us we were on a camping ground - no facilities, no fence. We were indeed a bit nervous when we drove to the spot in the darkness after dinner with our friends at the lodge. When we turned off the engine and shut off the lights we couldn’t even see our hands in front of our eyes, it was pitch dark. But nothing helped, we had to leave the car to open the roof tent, which we did as quickly as possible. Then we hopped into our bed, turned off the lights and listened to the various sounds from all the animals around us. We couldn’t really believe that we were actually finally in Africa and spent our first night in the Defender in the middle of nowhere in a nationalpark - it was unreal. The second night, we already felt a bit more comfortable. When we woke up in the morning, I heard something very close walking by in the bushes. When we looked out the “window” we saw a hyena pass by just 2 meters away from the Defender. I desperately had to pee but waited for another hour until I dared to quickly leave the car ;) Our two first nights in our Defender in this national park offered all you would expect from Africa: bumpy dirt roads, wild animals, countless stars, wilderness and absolute solitude.