One of our hotel friends

Being quite tired from the previous days activities we decided to take things at a more relaxed pace today. So following breakfast it was down to the pool to just relax in the shade, reading a book, with a quick dip every now and then to try and cool off. At times we were even in the pool with our books in an effort to keep cool. Then a meal at the bar by the pool (and a Tusker, hmmm).

Getting a little bored with sitting by the pool we decided to pop down to Mamba Village Crocodile Farm, which was a 5-minute drive from our hotel. On arrival we were assigned a guide who took us around each of the enclosures. The crocodiles (by the way, Mamba is Swahili for Crocodile) were kept in different parts of the farm by age, to stop the older ones eating the younger ones. As implied by the word 'Farm', the crocodiles here were reared for their meat and skin, though the enclosures open to the public had animals that were kept as exhibits and so these chaps were lucky and would not end up on our dinner plate back at the hotel.

Nile Crocodiles

A word about safety. The pens the crocodiles were kept in are not like what you might see in the UK where there might be 2 barriers and no chance of coming onto contact with an animal. Here, it is quite possible to lean across and tap a crocodile on the head, should you wish to lose an appendage. On one occasion I was filming above one of the enclosures when I glanced down and saw a 6 foot crocodile no more than 3 feet below my hand. I moved away rather quickly.

We were introduced to Big Daddy. He is a crocodile about 90 years old that, before being captured, had eaten 5 people in a village near his natural home. A sign above his pen read "Please bring more tourists. The last one was delicious". I was in the middle of working out if Lisa's life insurance policy was up to date when I noticed her looking at me with pound signs in her eyes, so I moved away from the pen - just in case. We were then shown around what was called a Botanical Garden, this was really just a shed and a corner of the farm that was overgrown a bit. However, we were shown around by a new guide who really new what she was taking about and was quite enthusiastic about her work. There was also a small reptile and insect corner which contained some very deadly snakes such as the Green Mamba, Spitting Cobra and African Cobra. There were also some nasty looking spiders and scorpions. Finally we were shown into an aquarium but we entered just as Mombasa had one of it's many power cuts, so not being able to see anything we went off to quench our thirst at the on site café. As we finished our drink the power came back on so we were able to tour the aquarium. There wasn't much there that we hadn't seen while diving apart from the Piranha.

It was now feeding time, or rather, it was after we had looked around the souvenir shop. They fed the crocodile from a platform by dangling meat on the end of a line and waiting for the crocodiles to strike by lunging out of the water. By the way, the sign reads "No Diving or swimming allowed"

So back at the hotel, back in the pool to cool off and then a shower and to the restaurant. Then we met up with Gwin and Mark for Tuskers at the bar and sat outside watching the entertainment until it was time for teletubby bye byes.