Journey To Lamu, Kenya

In April of 2008, my friend Susan who works for the United Nations invited me to come and visit her in Tanzania and play some piano concerts in the area as well. Not going to Africa so frequently, I took the opportunity to travel around a bit as well. For one long weekend of my two week trip we went to the island of Lamu off the coast of Kenya. It was in many ways the highlight of the entire trip and overall just really fascinating and enjoyable. I will write a few entries about Lamu and this one is just about the journey getting there.

We began in Arusha, Tanzania, and had a four hour bus ride north to Nairobi, Kenya for our flight from Nairobi Wilson Airport. Nairobi Wilson is perhaps the only airport I've ever been to where you can arrive 15 minutes before the scheduled departure of your flight and have both you AND your luggage make it onto the plane. Exciting as this may sound, I don't recommend it, we were all pretty stressed! The main reason this is possible is that departures is basically one room.
Here's the airplane we were rushing to catch:



We arrived about an hour later at the Lamu Airport, or landing strip, which I have two pictures of. The first is arrivals. The second is baggage claim. Yes... the one with the people sitting on it!



From there you walk to a pier where you catch a boat that brings you to the island Lamu itself (the airport/landingstrip is actually on a smaller island opposite Lamu). Lamu has two settlements on it, the larger Lamu Town, and the smaller Shela, also known as Shela Village where we stayed. The following pictures are sequential, from the boat ride, the view of Lamu Town from the water, other houses along the way, the arrival at Shela, and our destination, a building called Fatuma's Tower where we stayed and partook in the offered Yoga twice daily during our visit.




The beach along this white wall is the road between Shela and Lamu. It disappears and reappears with the tide.


This picture is Fatuma's Tower, a restored 14th century tower at the very back of the village Shela just where the sand dunes really start. More to follow in coming entries!