Da Plane Da Plane!

Over the past two evenings as we sat at dinner, we were entertained by a spectacular lightning shower along the horizon across the channel. Every time thanking Mother Nature that she hadn't rained on our own personal parade. Until of course the morning of our departure, in which the clouds began to form overhead and even though the wind would shift sending clouds scurrying away fromshore, the wind would then turn again. We were in a constant state of cat and mouse with the rain.

Julie had prepared a wonderful morning hike and breakfast at the tip of the island. We were to hike to the end of the island and the boat would join us and we would enjoy breakfast along the shore, followed by a snorkelling session in an area which was perfect for viewing a variety of fish species. We set out on our adventure, walking along the coastline that later that day would be underwater and unreachable otherwise. We admired corals, algae, various fish, snails, rock formations and natural pools formed by deep ravines along the cliffs.

We eventually made it to breakfast which consisted of our standard fare of fresh fruit, yogurt, muesli, tea, bacon, etc. We sat protected under a cliff as rain drops flittering down upon the already wet sand. With breakfast complete we continued to walk down the coast where we encountered a group of fisherman who were heading back to Mombassa after having spent 5 months fishing in the local waters. Knowing Julie, we were invited to view their bounty. We were witness to piles of sharks, rays, and other marine lying lifeless and covered in salt along the cliffs and under tents prepared to embark onto the Dau's, which are the local wooden sail boats. All this time, all I could think of was pirates. Somalie pirates had recently had made headlines due to the increased number of highjackings on the high seas. We were literally miles from the Somalie border and visions of me as a damsel in distress floated through my mind, then of course I was saved by Cleber's courageous efforts and we lived happily ever after.

But I digress, as the fun was just beginning as we were to leave later that day and just as we arrived back at the camp the skies opened up and we were living out Noah's arc in real time. It was an incredible show of force of nature, but this posed us with a very serious problem, as our thirteen seater plane would not be able to land on the sand, as it needed a tarmac which was located in Lamu, either reachable by speed boat, which would take 1 1/2 hours and we would arrived soaked and jittery, or by an even smaller plane which would take 10 minutes. Julie went into overdrive calling, negotiating and pleading on our behalf to get us evacuated as we had a 7am flight the next morning to Capetown and although not the end of the world, missing it would create a domino effect that would really interupt our trip. We chose the plane option as it was the simplest and safest option but would end up costing 30,000 schillings which seemed like a fortune but in the end came to about 300 euros and would save us from more headaches. Thankfully Julie assured us that this would be reimbursed.

Enter Charlie. With the skies having cleared Charlie, our adring pilot, agreed to come to our rescue with his little propeller 4 seater. He was a god. He had 30 minutes to spare and we had 20 minutes to get there. We literally flew into the boat, only to arrive at the shore and the "most expensive taxi" was not to be seen, so we quickly diverted our boat to the alternate shore where the more exclusive resort lay along the coast line where we could catch the taxi from there. We waded up to the shore and a comedy of errors ensued.

Julie was losing patience as we were having difficulty getting the boat close enough to the shore to be able to get off without finding ourselves chin deep in water and our luggage held abover our heads. At this point, Julie has located Charlie's plane as is approaching the landing strip and is standing on the boat waving her scarf, it was just like out of the movies. We finally make it ashore, a bit wet but running for the taxi, hand over the 4,000 schillings and race to the sand runway as Charlie would not wait much longer. We arrived of course just in the nick of time and were greeted by a very handsome pilot from South Africa who seemed to get a kick out of the fact that we were stranded and was as jolly as santa claus.

Once strapped in, we took off for the ride of our lives. I sat in the back with the luggage, Julie just up ahead and Cleber as co-pilot. I had never experienced anything as thrilling and beautiful as this plane ride. Charlie made sure to offer us a ride we'd never forget. He dipped down low enough along the waterway for us to wave to the boat that just minutes before had dropped us off at the shore, we continued to fluy quite low qlong the shores and across the mangroves lined up along shore and over wetlands that spread out like spilled milk. Cleber was even given the chance to "fly", needless to say he was estactic and even shared with me after we landed that he was so moved by the experience that he almost cried. I can't begin to explain just how poetic this voyage was, it was surreal, we were viewing one of the most beautiful spots in the world through the grace of this small vehical whichy allowed us to play god for a day. We glided, we swooped, went straight up and then leveled off. Our bodies and our minds pushed to their very limits. Time stood still. And then we landed. Only to be greeted by a family of baboons lying across the runway, this was most certainly Africa.