Early March - Diani

The week after returning from the previous trip, the first week of March, we’d made plans to go to Diani, an area on the coast that we’d been to a few times. The girls were in their second week of a two-week vacation and they desperately needed to get out of the house. To our knowledge, Covid-19 hadn't reached Kenya as of yet.

arriving in Diani

One challenge is that I had been planning on traveling to the US in early April to work on a partially built house that we purchased late last year. As Covid-19 was moving across the globe aggressively, it wasn’t clear if I was going to be able to travel. Not traveling to the US would mean that I would have several vacation days that I would end up not using. We booked the trip before I really could know what was going to happen.

packed in a tuk-tuk

Between the time we booked and the time we traveled to the coast, it was clear that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the US. The trip would be postponed indefinitely. Even our normal summer trip to the US now looks to be unlikely. I went from a hyperactive travel year to being completely grounded. I’m already thinking this could be good for me, though I’m quite sad about not being able to finish the house and not seeing my family. Oh well. I shan’t complain. Others have it far worse that I.

So we went to Diani for what was essentially a long weekend. We knew the virus was likely to hit Kenya at some point, potentially quite hard, so we wanted to get out while we had the chance. I had work to do so I knew going into it that it wouldn’t be all beach and pool. Bu it was worth it to get away anyway.

Most of the Kenyan coast is stunning so not matter where you go, you’ll likely have a beautiful beach, warm water and gorgeous views. We took a tuk-tuk from the tiny airport the short distance to the hotel. The weather was humid and warm, as it always is, but it wasn’t suffocating as it feels sometimes. Given that I spend so much time in hot Mogadishu (and several years in Dar es Salaam), I suppose my body has learned how to make the adjustment. 

not our work of art

our modest contribution to the beach

The grounds of the hotel are beautiful. It’s also kid friendly. Would we stay there if we didn’t have kids? Hard to say but having pool slide and staff who do activities with children is a nice bonus for this stage in our lives.

Priya & Kinaya doing the macarena

the great plated lizard (love the reptiles)

Kenya rock agama (agama lionotus)

As I’ve said in the past, if I had to choose between a beach and a remote location in the mountains, I’d choose the latter. Having said that, I’ve grown fond of the ocean and all that it has to offer. I doubt I’d ever consider myself a beach person but I do enjoy it. The down side is that I had to work. As such, I would set up my computer at a table away from where Priya the girls were so as not to get, or be, distracted.

opted out of the camel ride this time

It’s punishing to be sitting there in a swimsuit, laptop in front of you, palm trees and turquoise water in the background, people milling about on holiday (Germans having their morning beers), trying to deal with coronavirus contingency planning, mortar attacks in Mogadishu and so forth. However once I dove in, it wasn’t so bad. I can get lost in things to the point that I’m almost oblivious to my surroundings. In the end I was able to sort of have it both ways. I didn’t get much reading done, as I had hoped, because when I was at work, I was full on at work. When I was with my family, I was full on with my family. Didn’t leave much time for anything else. 

I can feel the warm night breeze just looking at the photo

Overall it was a good break. Given the deteriorating coronavirus situation, it’s a bit of a slap in the face to come back to the surreal situation that was setting in back in Nairobi.