Lamu

Lamu Island is no more than 100km from the Somalia border on the northern part of Kenya’s coast. Shela village on Lamu, managing a marine project, is where Gugs has been based since she escaped our strange UK lockdown stint in 2020.

I arrived here today from Nairobi and I’ll stay here in Gugs’s house for around a week, hoping to resolve the latest visa conundrum, for Tanzania, during this time. Reaching Shela entails a boat ride because as a traditional Swahili settlement not connected to the mainland by road, Lamu has no cars; only donkeys, feet and a few motorbikes.

I dropped bags at Gugs’s and went on a walk around the maze of lanes and eventually emerged onto the dunes. The summary of my initial exploration of Shela is that it’s a unique place full of cats, donkeys, alleyways, strong wet season winds, wild dunes and choppy waves. All of that was followed by some excellent pizza at a little Italian restaurant by the Shela jetty.