Desi Dixon: Lamu

East Africa. Kenya. About 150km miles south of the Somali-Kenyan border.

I went there in early May for a week after searching for a place within a 5-hour flight with no Internet service. There is some on the island but I chose a guesthouse without any. For the guests at least. My colleague and friend, Louise, joined me on this trip and we decided to travel on the night flight, supposedly arriving in Nairobi by 7am to make the internal connection and be on the island by noon. On the afternoon that we were traveling, I heard about the Frenchwoman who was kidnapped last October by Somali pirates in the middle of the night from her house on Manda, an island opposite the channel from Lamu. I took out travel insurance and ticked the terrorism box and emailed a copy of the policy to my (attorney) sister in Miami with a list of interesting things that could be retrieved from my home in the Arab Gulf, should something go wrong. We missed the 9am flight to Lamu and had to hang out in Nairobi until 1pm for the afternoon flight. So we ate a big brunch and shopped at the Fairmont after purchasing new airfare.

Lamu has been on my radar for a while. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it's part of an archipelago that was formerly one of the East African territories answering to Oman for centuries. There are centuries of trade between East Africa, Arabia and India as well as the Far East spanning the north Indian Ocean. Lamu is considered the birthplace of Swahili culture informing the architecture, food, song, rites of passage and language which comprise its tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The island and adjacent islands possess a history dating back six centuries with archeological ruins that remain seemingly untouched on the islands of Siyu, Pate and Shanga.

We had a "fixer" of sorts, courtesy of the property where we stayed, Fatuma's Tower. The name is inspired by the only architectural remnant on the premises when the owner purchased the property a few decades ago.... a crumbling tower where the daughter of a merchant lived, attended by five slaves: http://www.fatumastower.com/. It's beautifully landscaped with majestic baobab and tamarind trees and a gorgeous ginger tea that knocked me off my coffee addiction for a week. Our last night there, we ate at Subira House: http://www.subirahouse.com/subirahouse.htm, which was once owned by the Sultan of Zanzibar and is located next to the historic fort. The interior courtyard bordered by ornate Swahili arches giving way to luxurious resting alcoves was an "architectural Digest" dream. The proprietors are into the slow food movement and grow their own vegetables. We had amazing hors d'oeuvres and then a goat palau finished with homemade banana ice cream and a pair of baby bats that swooped in and landed on the lap of a guest and underneath the table. We scrambled to get them back outside before the dog hunted them down for sport as bats are the only creatures pollinating the baobab tree's blooms - a marvelous and spectacular finish to a relaxing week.

I returned for another week in late July before heading to the US, having made new friends on the earlier trip and curious to see and experience more. Here are some snaps from the May trip.

These first two are the dhow ride from the airport (a landing strip on Manda with a glorified shack) to the B&B on Shela.

These are some snaps from Fatuma's Tower of a coral wall covered in creeping fig vine, a hand-carved Swahili door set into a coral wall, a majestic baobab tree on the property and a closeup of the pods the bats pollinate, the foundations of Fatuma's original tower.

This was the view from our terrace, post-rain with a rainbow.

A view of the premises in the foreground on the way up the dune behind the property.

This is midway up the dune trek that 45 minutes on the elliptical machine (level 8) 4 times a week barely served as preparation.

Check out the whitecaps - when the winds shift in November the water is crystal clear and much calmer. To the right is where hundreds of sand dollars wash up daily for the enthusiastic collector who must be equally innovative in packing them for the return journey.