Nakupenda Kenya

NAKUPENDA KENYA At last, after a long search, I managed to find a truly good deal and fulfilled my dream of returning to Kenya, this time to Angel's Bay in Mambrui, north of Malindi. There were four of us: me, my husband and my children aged 13 and 15. We left from Bologna, flew with Neos and arrived in Mombasa after a smooth flight at 6 o'clock on 7 January. This time the impact was not as traumatic as the first time; I already knew what to expect and I was really eager to see my old friends again, whom I had met the year before in Watamu.

To cover 120 km, the distance between Mombasa and Mambrui, we took more than three hours, given the dramatic state of Kenya's roads; indeed, you can't say they're uneven, there are real chasms and the drivers are really skilled, zigzagging to avoid the deepest potholes, but who knows whether President Mwai Kibaki's government will think of using the tourist entry taxes to improve the country's roads? Angel's Bay in Mambrui, managed by Reliance, is a lovely complex, clean and tidy: the rooms are spacious, though a little spartan, the food is good, perhaps there isn't much choice, but the fish is excellent and the fruit something unforgettable; just thinking about it, my mouth still waters.

The feature of Angel's Bay is that it overlooks a wonderful beach, very long and almost deserted, scattered with flecks of gold brought by the Sakaki River which flows into the sea nearby; you can also get there on foot and you can see the hippos that live there and splash about in the water, near the mouth of the river.

We hired two quads and had enormous fun speeding along the deserted beach, admiring the sand dunes, setting flocks of seagulls to flight, rolling in the sand of the famous "Golden Beach", where you truly have the impression of walking on gold and bathing in the "glitter" that children use to make Christmas crafts! The sea at Mambrui is always a little rough, because there is no coral reef and because it is a very windy area; nearby is Che Shale beach, the only place on the Kenyan coast where you can kitesurf, but the clarity of the water depends on the floods of the Sabaki River, which crosses the savannah and pours its waters into the ocean. During our stay we saw an improvement: in fact, in the first days the water was red, while at the end, since it hadn't rained, it was already cleaner and clearer.

For this reason, from Angel's Bay there are daily shuttles to Watamu, where the sea, by contrast, is fantastic, and to Malindi, for anyone wanting to shop or experience life in town. Once again it was a wonderful holiday, made even more magical by our friend Dasha, a beach boy in Watamu, who despite the distance went out of his way to show us wonderful places and introduce us to unforgettable people, and treated us as friends rather than simple tourists.

The first day in Watamu will be unforgettable for me: at the meeting point in front of the Barracuda Inn, there wasn't just my beach boy, but all his friends, who had come to say hello or to meet me in person; with them on foot we crossed Watamu, we went to the agency where our "black son" now works, we stopped to chat with the people we had met the year before, then we went to the island of love, a paradise beach, where at low tide tongues of sand emerge, so white that it dazzles, and you can walk for hours in the shallow, very warm water full of colourful little fish. Here our friends, in the blink of an eye, organised a wonderful barbecue of lobster and prawns for us, accompanied by coconut rice and an excellent, very juicy pineapple, then we waited for the tide to come back in and, in a mango-wood canoe, they showed us the palm-lined coast from the sea.

We did the safari in Tsavo East and this time, given the heavy rains of December, we found a very green savannah, all in bloom and with mushrooms; for this reason we saw fewer animals than the previous year, because there were puddles of water everywhere, but thanks to the skill of our excellent driver Ringhi and of our Dasha, a guide with falcon eyes, we were still able to admire many, but above all we saw the cheetah stalking some gazelles unaware of the danger, the lionesses resting under the acacias, who, when they saw two zebras chasing each other playfully, tried to chase them without, fortunately, succeeding, the buffaloes bathing, the hippos, the warthogs and of course many elephants, giraffes, zebras, baboons and myriads of brightly coloured birds.

We slept at Lion Hill and, from the top of the hill, while we watched a beautiful starry sky, we heard the roars of the lions, right below us. But the most beautiful thing about the holiday was the contact with the local people: coming back from the safari, we stopped at the Moi High School in Taita to embrace Omar, the brother of our beach boy, whom we help with his studies from Italy.

It was a truly moving moment: we were received by the headmaster of the school, who welcomed us as if we were his real parents, showed us his very tidy exercise books and the report card, where we could see that the results are excellent, then he showed us that we are perfectly up to date with the payment of the fees, and here the credit goes to Dasha, who, as soon as we send him the money, takes care of the payments; then, after a visit to the whole institute, we said goodbye and here we cried, because seeing that with little effort we can guarantee the education of an eager boy keen to change his life filled us with joy. On the way back we saw where the film "Out of Africa" was shot, a corner of Kenya with palm groves stretching as far as the eye can see; in fact this is where the coconuts come from that are exported from Kenya all over the world.

We stopped in the villages we came across on the road to leave the children what we had brought with us: clothes, stationery and food, and we were thanked with smiles we will never forget. But the moment that will remain forever carved in my heart was when, the day before leaving, Dasha, our guardian angel, came to pick us up to take us to Watamu to meet his family: we were welcomed into their home like relatives come from afar, we met the grandmother, the mother, who hugged me so tightly she took my breath away, the sisters and the little nieces; there were no grand speeches, in fact few words were said, but from their smiles and their intense looks I felt all the affection and gratitude towards me.

After that we went to the beach, in front of the Barracuda Inn, to greet all our friends, and there we had the honour of meeting Esther, the girlfriend of my beach boy, the boy who made me fall in love with this wonderful land and whom I consider my third son, and little Abu, his little man, whom my husband and I cuddled and held in our arms as if he were our first grandchild. So, after this meeting, where I was moved to see someone I thought was just a boy being so caring and affectionate with his son, I decided that as far as I can I will help this wonderful boy, who loves