The hotel chalets

This morning we had to get up rather early. We grabbed a couple of pastries from the restaurant for breakfast and then boarded a coach to take us to Wasini Island at 6:20am.

About 2 and a half hours later we arrived about 150km south of Mombasa on the coast, not too far from Tanzania. From the resort we had arrived at we could see Wasini Island and the Dhow that was to take us around the island and to a Coral Reef for some snorkelling. I paid a few pounds extra and booked another dive, so I was quite a happy budgie.

We had to wade through the sea to a small boat which then ferried us to the Dhow. As soon as we got on the boat we were offered a drink and it wasn't long before we were under way. I rather enjoyed this and the views of the Island and the East African Coast were quite outstanding.

Our first glimpse of Wasini Island

We spotted the first dolphin after about 20 minutes. We were soon to spot the rest of the pod and they followed the boat (or we followed them) for a good 25 minutes. I took some pictures and video footage of them as they surfaced for air and I was quite pleased. However, no sooner had I put the cameras away than they started leaping out of the sea, as if to taunt me.

Arriving at the reef I joined another Dhow which had been following us and I set off for my Dive. As I swam around the reef I again saw quite a bit of wildlife. More Lion Fish, Lobster, Parrot Fish and a rather strange looking creature I later found out was a "Snorkelling Lisa". This odd looking creature stayed pretty much on the surface and so I didn't get to see much from my vantage point 6 meters down. I could also hear the dolphins, but they were too shy to come close and stayed out of sight.

After my dive, which lasted about 30 minutes, I went and joined the others snorkelling on the reef. A short while later I was back on the boat and we set off for Wasini Island. Wasini Island was featured in a recent "Vets in Practice" on BBC television. One of the Vets went to Mombasa for 3 months to offer his services and he was asked to neuter the wild cats on the Island as their number was growing out of control. On the Island we didn't see any wild cats but we did hear them fighting in the bushes every now and then.

At the restaurant on Wasini, we sat down to quite a stunning meal. Fresh crab was brought out in buckets and I eat 2 whole crab. That alone was worth the ticket price according to UK prices. I then eat barbecued fish for a main course. Lisa had soup followed by barbecued chicken.

Dolphins

Letting our dinner settle, we then set off for a walk around the Island. Not a great deal to see but we did have a walk around the coral gardens, for which a raised wooden platform had been built as part of a community project. The project was set up to help pay for the kind of local amenities that we take for granted, schools and more importantly fresh drinking water. After our walk around the Island (which nearly too all the skin off the backs of my legs so strong was the sun, thank god my shorts had zip-on trouser legs!) we had to wade back to a small boat to take us to the Dhow. A short boat ride (which didn't go down to well with Lisa's stomach, we discovered this day that Lisa is not good with boats) and we were back on mainland Africa, aboard our bus and heading for Mombasa.

Back at the hotel I met up with Paul, our rep. On the bus we had decided to cancel our Dhow trip on Thursday because Lisa didn't think she could stomach it. I was quite happy to do this because we had made one trip and Lisa said I could go diving instead. Bonus! Paul was most helpful and even arranged a refund. After a shower it was straight into the restaurant, from there to the bar (Tusker, yum yum) and off to bed.