Watamu Beach
At low tide, the reef in front of the hotel was exposed. We could walk out along the reef to the sea and it was fascinating to explore all the rock pools.










There were a number of Moray eels, who would often be slithering between pools or pocking their heads out of their holes. Some people fed the eels using bacon rind on a stick which was fun. Also, some of the local people knew where octopuses could be found: they barricade themselves into small holes using their suckers to hold stones in front of the hole. They should leave them alone really, but it was fascinating when they pulled them out of their holes so we could see them swim away in a puff of ink, changing colour in line with their environment.










One morning, we found a turtle on the beach. Some local people had found it and had called "Turtle Watch". I called all the kids over to have a look. They look so helpless on land, especially having seen how graceful they are in the water. By the way, I dived a couple of times with the British couple who run Turtle Watch in Watamu. They told me that it had been set up by a woman called Barbara Simpson - the same lady I had stayed with 18 years ago (unbenownst to me).

The hotel had some canoes which we could take out and I did that a couple of times with Erik and Daniel. Also, a camel came past the hotel every day offering rides to the children. It was quite a large camel at that. Inger-lise had given Erik and Daniel a ride, but Mathilde was to scared. Afterwards, when she saw the camel with me she insisted on having a ride. She really enjoyed it and talked about it all the time afterwards.

Jeremy