Our day on Lamu started with breakfast served on the balcony outside our room, pleasantly breezy.
We then walked the couple of miles along the beach to Lamu town, passing laden donkeys heading the other way
Pretty much everything travels by donkey.
The sun was fierce and I was taking no chances
Boats in varying states of repair line the shore.
They harvest mangrove wood for timber. I imagine it has good resistance to rot.
The new ambulance: the other is a tuk tuk. The DC has a Defender 110 and some motorbikes, and there are a few tractors. Otherwise donkeys and people...
...or boat.
We met the reverend gentlemen at the Catholic Church, right in the middle of Lamu, then visited the museum next door. This is in the entrance hall
A Swahili bed.
Our guide tells us about local Swahili culture.
A Swahili chair - they had a lot of different chairs.
One of many fine doorways.
From the roof you get a good view of the seafront.
Just up the road is the Donkey Sanctuary, an offshoot of the Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon, UK. They take on orphaned, sick or mistreated donkeys. We fed them an apple that had rolled around in Meld's bag for several days.
The working donkeys look healthy enough - these are taking sand to a building site.
Walking down the main street (officially Harambee Avenue, but no-one seems to know it as that!) we reached the old fort. It's an impressive building, but otherwise not very interesting except for the views from the top.
Looking down on Harambee Avenue.
The new and old meat markets to the south.
A guest house to the north.
Bats hang around in a big tree outside the fort.
Another fine doorway.
A man leads his camels by - and charges for photos.
We take a Tusker baridi at the New Lamu Palace (one of the few places that serve alcohol).
Carrying fish up from a boat.
Phone box graveyard.
Fr Anthony and Meld pose with Ali Hippie - a Lamu character who invites people to his house to dine (Charlie and Luke went and pronounced it good).
The start of a dhow race.
We took a boat back to Shela to show the Fathers our accommodation. They enjoyed the pole pole boat ride.
Captain and mate
We sailed back to Lamu, to find one of the racing dhows had sunk - not surprising, they lean over so far they take in a lot of water.
We were invited to dine with Fr Anthony's nieces who live on the north end of Lamu town. Dinner was taken seated on the floor. Easier for some than others.
You can see the bit that will be knocked out to form a window in due course.
Anthony and his elder niece, Riziki.
The whole family outside their home. Farida, in black, then walked us to the ferry
We picked up the Deacon from the church and all sailed to Shela, then Meld and I walked up to our hotel and the others sailed back to the church in Lamu.
Maps of today's route (the shortest yet!)
