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Lamu Island & Archipelago -
Indian Ocean
Lamu is a town, an island and an archipelago. If
you visit, you should try to visit all three.
The archipelago is a chain of seven islands and
a multitude of islets, separated from the
mainland at its narrowest part by a channel just
a few meters wide. Dense mangrove forests fringe
the mainland and the inland sides of the
islands, while the seaward sides are protected
by reefs and lined with dunes. Throughout the
archipelago, there are numerous historical
sites; visible and tangible evidence of ten
centuries of a colorful, and often rich cultural
past. Most of these settlements are Arab in
origin and started as small trading stations. As
these small colonies grew, they absorbed much
from the local people and a distinct Afro-Arab
culture emerged. This culture, which came to be
known as Swahili, today dominates not only Lamu
but also the urban centers of Mombasa and
Malindi, and its language has become the
principal Lingua Franca of East and Central
Africa.
The beach on Lamu Island is 12 kilometers of
empty sands backing on to an ocean unprotected
by a reef, and therefore livelier and more
powerful than you find elsewhere in Kenya. But
no one comes to Lamu only for the beach. The
town is now well known, a delightful anachronism
carrying on its daily life as it has done for
centuries so that the visitor has a science
fiction experience of being transported back
through time. Settlement dates back to the 14th
century and by the 19th century Lamu was a
flourishing trading community. But labor
emigration and a fall in the value of its
exports brought, in the early days of the 20th
century, an end to its heyday.
There are still many manifestations of the
elegant, refined life led by the richer folk in
past eras. If you can be shown the interiors of
some of the grander mansions, from the outside
appearing both formidable and similar, you will
find enormously intricate plasterwork unknown in
the rest of Islam.
The architecture is admirably suited to the
climate - a series of open plan galleries almost
always without doors, and interior courtyards
open to the sky, which ensure shade and calm
against the tropical sun. The town is crowded
with houses and people, the streets so narrow
that you can shake hands with your neighbor in
the house opposite. The main street, Ndia Kuu,
is lined on either side with shops and
workshops, each no more than a room stretching
from the street to the living areas behind. Here
you will find carpenters and herbalists,
jewelers and grocers, coffee houses and cooks
preparing the local equivalent of Turkish
Delight called halva - stirred in huge copper
cauldrons, and even a factory, using Dickesian
machines, which makes local spaghetti, known as
tambi, and coconut oil used for cooking by the
townsfolk and for sun tanning by visitors.
In the center of town stands the fort. Built for
Omani invaders around 1812 it later became a
prison, and is now a cultural center operated
through the museum. The Lamu museum itself is on
the waterfront, occupying a house once the home
and office of colonial district commissioners.
Before that, it had housed Queen Victoria's
consul - one Captain Jack Haggard, brother of
the more celebrated author of King Solomon's
Mines. This museum is a small gem, housing a
collection of Swahili artifacts, jewelry and
crafts unequalled anywhere else. The two most
important items in its collection are the Siwa -
ceremonial horns; one, made of ivory, belonged
to a former sultan of Pate (an island in the
archipelago) the other is from Lamu itself. As
befits a maritime community the museum houses a
collection of sea going vessels and marine
tackle and there is a wonderful model of the
rope sewn vessel known as mtepe.
A 45-minute walk from the town (or 15 minutes by
motor boat) brings you to the sleepy village of
Shela. This is where the beach begins and the
complexities of life end. Even the beach is
simple, just a 12 kilometers swathe of shining
sand lapped by a balmy sea. To sail the
archipelago is to discover. Beautiful beaches,
glorious seascapes, ancient ruins, fishing and
scuba refuges.
For desert island lovers there are remote
hideaways at Kiwayu Island and on Manda Island
which are the ultimate in getting away 'from it
all. From these havens it is possible to visit
the wildlife sanctuary at Dodori or the
beautiful Kiunga Marine National Reserve.
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- © 2008
Copyright Geolya Safaris
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Moktar Dadah Street,
Ruprani House, 2rd Floor,
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P.O. Box 64578, Nairobi, Kenya.
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Telephone: +254 -721-213 564 /
+254-721- 543 362
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Email
info@geolyasafaris.com
or
geolya@gmail.com
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http://www.geolyasafaris.com
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Licensed by Ministry of
Tourism Kenya
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