The magic of the Lamu Archipelago

There are no words to describe what I felt at the sight of the Island of Ndau off the Lamu Archipelago..... It's a Sunday like any other in Watamu, where I live with my husband; up early in the morning, I put the coffee pot on the fire and, while we tidy the room and our things to go to the beach, we wait for the smell of coffee to envelop us completely... We dip a few biscuits in our milky coffee and then go back to getting ready for the sea.... the period is unfortunately not the best here in Watamu.... the presidential elections of December 2007 changed many things, especially for a tourist resort like Watamu.... By now the agency has been closed for a month; the tourists, very few, who come here are veterans and already know everything and everyone, so all we can do is enjoy this paradise a little ourselves...

While we're heading to the beach a thought flashes through my mind and I say spontaneously to my husband: “Why don't we go and visit your parents for a few days???”..... He looks at me astonished and I see his eyes light up with joy... he says to me: “Do you really feel up to it???”.... I thought about it a bit, honestly, but my conclusion was: Yes!!! Within 10 minutes he was already on the matatu (local public transport that for a few shillings takes you anywhere!!!) heading to Malindi to book 2 seats on the coach that would take us to Lamu the next day. There are many companies, all fairly reliable; obviously you have to know that on these coaches Africans travel with everything it's possible to transport, and we choose the one where there's room the next day... for 1000ksh (about €10) in total we can reach Mokowe and from there Lamu...

Happy as a child he comes home and we decide to prepare our small luggage that will accompany us for those long-awaited days.... We've been married a year and haven't yet had the chance to go and visit his parents... I already know his father... but not his mother... who was anxiously waiting for me together with all the people of Ndau..... Monday arrived... I had already made that journey towards Lamu more than once, but that day I will never forget... every moment I found myself wondering how the meeting would be and above all how the impact would be with that reality I had only heard about from my husband, about his childhood... about his adolescence... I keep looking out of the window, holding on through the big potholes, I can't rest... I always try to see passing by that memory of that road already travelled... a baobab... a palm... a village... the river... the people...

the children who wave as we pass... the checkpoints with policemen taking turns to get on and off... in short a set of things that makes this journey a unique experience, with the added fact that you're sharing a day with the local people... The chatter that I barely understand swirls around the “corridor” of that somewhat battered coach, the laughter of the lads telling each other stories, the comments about this announced war, later fortunately ended, where everyone had their say with respect, the shouts of children who, tired of sitting still, move from one passenger to another looking for a different game... What a journey!!! After almost 4 hours here we are arriving at the embarkation point for Lamu, Mokowe.... This is where the rush begins!!!... not because we were tourists, but because that's how it works there...

When these coaches arrive loaded with people who need to get to Lamu, the boat owners try to attract as many people as possible for the crossing... and we too have to play the “game”... We accept going with a small hull for 100ksh each and off we gooo..... that day and at that hour the channel that separates Manda from Lamu was swept by wind and small continuous waves meant that our journey from Mokowe to Lamu turned into a continuous cold shower!!! Certainly if we were dozing we woke up!!!! Here we are, arrived at Lamu.... nothing and everything seems new to me!!! Here too the rush to get you to sleep in some typical and cheap little place; you can be taken to see rooms and then negotiate the price once you've chosen...

The houses that line and overlook the “channel” of the Indian Ocean dominate my view, together with the many fishermen on their “dhow” boats and the many “punda” donkeys that trot along the dirt lanes loaded with every impossible and unimaginable thing... Already from here you begin to catch that I-don't-know-what that only Lamu can give.... There's something magical in the air of Lamu...... and I could feel it.... and then... you only had to look at my husband Hadhir's eyes to understand that we had finally entered his world... his childhood... that atmosphere that even with his move to Watamu had not abandoned him at all.... The Lamu Archipelago is made up of six major islands and an infinity of small islets where the daily life of its people is still breathed today....

It's enchanting to stroll through the winding lanes of Lamu, the main island together with Manda, and you can immerse yourself completely... Swahili culture is dominant here, the houses with wooden doors carved by local craftsmen, the women walking wrapped and mysterious in their “bui-bui”, you hear the rumble through the narrow alleys of the donkeys' hooves, the palms with the wind make such a pleasant sound that, together with the creaking of the wood of the dhow “parked” along the shore, they form a melody you can only hear here.... At sunset people stop working... they go to pray... and then they go back to walking the narrow lanes and meeting up to chat and tell each other about the day... And us??? After a quiet day through the lanes of Lamu greeting all of Hadhir's acquaintances and friends, we decide to undertake that long-awaited journey to the islet of Ndau...

a big dhow was waiting for us at 4 in the morning there at the main pier.... Help!!!! That was my reaction at the sight of the boat packed with people and then not that big!!!! NO NO AND THEN NO!! I will never get on there!!!! The anxiety overwhelmed me and I burst into endless tears, so much so that everyone got worried and made me sit down to calm me... My thought now turned to how we would get to that island if we didn't take that boat... Unfortunately the smaller islands are not easily reachable because, since the phenomenon of the tides exists there too and it being an archipelago of mangrove islands with large and small channels separating them, between these islands at times the tide is so low that boats can't navigate...

the problem is also when it's high, there are points where there's so much current and wind that it feels like going into a storm!!!! In short, for me there were all the grounds not to trust that crossing at all on that boat packed with people and goods!!! Hadhir, angry, takes me back to the room and I, still in a vale of tears, apologise to him in every way... he understands, but now he asks me how I think to go and visit his family, given that that's the only way!!!! Those few hours of sleep manage to make me reason and to inquire the next morning whether there are larger boats that reach these islands. Yessss!!! Found!!!... the “passenger” boat that in 5 or 6 hours reaches Kizingitini, a small village on the island of Patè; from there with a sailing boat we could reach Ndau. Hadhir offers to phone his folks so that the next day someone would come to pick us up at Kizingitini... and