Diani

This will be short: a) because I’m way behind in blog posting and b) it was a wonderfully low-key time at the coast that didn’t engender much drama.

tuk tuk from the airstrip

As a part of my mother-in-law’s visit, we headed back to the coast. It’s become sort of a standard drill to take visitors on safari, usually Amboseli, and then to the Indian Ocean. Often it’s been Diani. There’s a lot to say for the “go with what you know” theory. When you have someone visiting on a once- or twice-in-a-lifetime excursion, you generally want as few surprises as possible. Or when you’re traveling with your children. I remember my brother visiting me in Europe many years ago and he specifically requested to do something new to me rather than show him a slew of my favorite things. It was a way we could both explore together instead of having just one of us seeing new stuff. I get that and that was probably the right thing to do in that situation. But the older you get, the less keen you are on leaving the door open to things unraveling. Especially in a foreign country. Moreover, stuff is going to happen anyway, no matter how well you plan, and my appetite for the unpredictable and inconvenient isn’t what it was when I was in my 20s and 30s. 

So Diani was the natural choice. We’ve been other places but this is the place we know the best. I have to say, the entire coast is beautiful and most places are quite nice. Occasionally I’ll hear about someone having a miserable experience here or there but overall your chances are pretty good of having an amazing time at the beach.

not my thing...

The standard drill is to put on a swimsuit, get wet, eat too much and do the same thing the next day. There are loads of possible activities but the girls are at the age where they sort of dominate the swimming pool from sunrise to sundown. We spent some time on the beach, making sandcastles and so forth, but they seem to prefer the pool.

colobus monkeys munching on flowers

For some reason I didn’t spend much time sitting and relaxing. As I think back on the trip, I’m trying to sort out why. I know that I had quite a bit of work to do so that ate up a big chunk of time. No, it’s not ideal to make a trek to the coast and “waste” a bunch of it on work, but, sadly, it needed to be done and, if you need to do it anyway, there are far worse places to bust out your laptop.

girls pulled into the act

I did spend a considerable amount of time in the pool with the girls, throwing them around and playing various games. They’re tons of fun to hang out with, plus, in the back of my mind I knew I had a few weeks away from them coming on the heels of this trip.

Too soon we would be back in Nairobi. We would have a few days in the city before my mother-in-law and I would return to the airport for her journey home.