After an early morning swim and short trip into town, hired snorkels and masks with Ben and Jim and walked out across the hard, sharp stones and coral. Swam among colourful corals populated by a variety of colourful fish, from tiny, darting dark blue flashes to huge, striped and speckled ones with an entourage of smaller fish. There were blues, greens, yellows, multicolours, like floating ribbons across the sea floor; corals like huge brains and giant white clams and two yellow corals poured onto the sea floor like liquid rubber. The water was rough because of the incoming tide, throwing me and the sand and weed about so it was very tiring and the water the water churned into a murky brown - but still fun.
Jim and Ben headed out into the waves after an exploratory swim towards the inside line of the reef but I didn’t have the strength to follow them so I turned and swam back over a heavily weeded seabed, kicking and stroking against a tide rushing diagonally to shore. The weeds danced in the currents, moving backwards and forwards in graceful curves, sometimes giving the impression that the ground was moving and at other times resembling a ballet chorus line. Fewer fish but I did see some cream ones with distinct stripes, beautiful and very different from those I saw further out. Finally reached the shore, exhausted and sunburnt across my back and legs from the bums-up hour and a half.
I recuperated in the bar while Myrta wielded the truck cleaning whip over Linda and Adri – the result a gleaming Stanley!
Late afternoon we drove down the coast. Ann, Adri and I paid a princely 30 shillings to wander through the ruins of Gedi, one of the most important Swahili cities and palace on Africa's east coast from the 10th to the 17th century and rediscovered only in 1948 (it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2024). Golden streaks of sunlight filtered through huge baobab trees and poincianas heavy with scarlet blossoms illuminated coral and earth walls that seemed to grow out of the ground and the trees. The palace ruins were home to monkeys, a red squirrel and unseen creatures that scampered through the leaf litter. The palace had an atmosphere of misty secrets that I would have loved to delve into but, sadly, we didn't have time for me to explore a path that had been cleared along the external wall. I wonder what archaeologists feel when they discover these sorts of lost treasures.
We continued down the coast to the Ocean Sports Hotel where we played water polo in the pool, with both teams using unfair but fun tackles. Afterwards we dined in the restaurant overlooking the sea, a riotous affair with an inebriated Geoff performing verbal contortions that had us imagining that management would put up a "no overlanders" sign immediately after we left. The meal ended with our now-traditional money battle compounded by the bill being added up incorrectly. Finally sorted, we headed to the beach for a sandy night under an almost full moon.
Images of Gedi by Ashikoye Okoko, Copyright: © National Museums of Kenya
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