This morning we arrived in Mombasa, Kenya. The ship arrived at approximately 6:30 in the morning. Our tour was scheduled to meet in one of the lounges of the ship at 7:50 AM so we got up early to have breakfast before we met for the tour.
We went up to the Lido Café for breakfast. There were many more passenger’s up at this hour than normal as several tours were leaving early in the morning. After having a very nice breakfast we got ready for our tour.
Mombasa is Kenya’s second largest city and its chief port. Many visitors arrive in Mombaa because of their interest in Kenya’s interior regions. The tour we selected was the Shimba Hills National Reserve excursion. This National Reserve is located about fifty minutes from where we docked this morning and is often said to be Kenya’s most underrated wildlife refuge. It sits at an altitude of 1,500 feet.
After arriving at the pier we were escorted to safari vehicles that can hold about six passengers. Our vehicle had five passengers and a driver. In total, sixty passengers were on this tour. We drove for about ten minutes through the downtown area. Adjacent to the pier there were many locals selling wooden items. The town itself was fairly rundown and was highly congested. We then reached the ferry that would take us from the Island where the Crystal Serenity is docked over to the mainland. The ferry boats seemed to run about every fifteen minutes and were very old looking. They were loaded with vehicles and then fully packed with locals who stood on each side of the boat. It was out of a movie and we hoped that we would have a safe journey over to the mainland. There were no life vests that were visible.
After arriving on the mainland we continued our drive and the area was quite run-down. There were all sorts of shops along both sides of the road selling a variety of items from fish, to vegetables, to all sorts of hand-made items. There were animals on the sides of the road and as we got further away from the ferry area the clothes that people were wearing seemed to change from those that looked like they were from the western world to clothes that were African looking as well as those that would be worn by Muslims. After another fifteen minutes we were out of the town and we still saw many people on the sides of the road walking or riding bicycles and we saw buildings that people lived in that ranged from huts, to shacks to stoned buildings. There were many animals and it looked like many people farmed the land. We had been warned that the roads would be quite bumpy which they were. We made a stop before we arrived at the park and then once in the park we proceeded on dirt roads the entire time.
We saw some wildlife, which included a giraffe, a baboon, some guinea fowl, and another animal that had the speed and look of a dear, but is a different animal. We did see fresh evidence that Elephants were nearby but we never got to see one in the park. At the conclusion of the tour we were taken to a lodge for a short break and then we made the drive back to the ship. Once again, we went on another ferry which looked even older and more rundown than the first ferry.
We saw many churches and mosques and schools on each leg of the drive but they were all mostly run-down. This part of Africa is clearly third world.
There are places where sometimes people will do independent tours. This is clearly an area where we would not recommend that anyone do tours on their own. The United State Department Web Site clearly warns United States citizens to be on alert in this area and our observations are consistent with this warning.
Over the past few days, many passengers have bought an array of items in Africa. Many of bought various wooden statues, wooden masks and many other wooden items. This was also true in Mombasa where there were vendors all over town and over at the cruise ship terminal selling these and other items. When the passengers bring these items back to the ship they are told to surrender them to the Security Staff or the Front Desk Reception Personnel upon reboarding the ship In turn, Crystal personnel will place these items in their freezers for 48 hours to ensure that all undesirable adult bugs and their eggs are quickly and humanely eliminated. This is something that is critical that the passengers have Crystal take care of because they will not be able to re-enter the countries such as the United States of America if this has not been taken care of.
After we got back to the ship, we had a very nice lunch in the Main Dining Room. We were quite hot from the ride back to the ship as the vehicle did not have any air-conditioning so it was nice to cool down in the comfort of the ship. After lunch, we went to the Fitness Center and each worked out for an hour on the treadmill (Anne Marie) and on the elliptical machine (Keith).
This evening it was just the two of us in the Main Dining Room for dinner. The restaurant personnel reset our table for two and the theme for this evening’s dinner was African Night. Keith tried the Cherry Crusted Loin Of Springbok (Antelope) which was wonderful and Anne Marie tasted it as well and had Scallops for her entrée.
We now have two days at sea and look forward to all of the activities that are scheduled for these two days.
Keith & Anne Marie
No comments:
Post a Comment