MALINDI EXCURSIONS

These are short trips from your hotel or beach resort in Malindi and Watamu to various touristic sites in the Northern Coast of the Kenyan Coast. They include the following:

VSJ 105: Gedi Ruins and Kipepeo Butterfly Project Tour – Full Day

Highlights: This is a full day excursion from your hotel or beach resort starting after breakfast and ending in the afternoon with a lunch break back to your hotel.

Gedi Ruins Tour
Gedi Ruins is a 12th Century Swahili village that was mysteriously abandoned some 600 years ago due to unknown causes. It is now a National Museum, and the ruins are heavily overgrown with beautiful indigenous forest trees, baobabs and tamarind. Well worth a walk and a visit. Look out for Syke's Monkeys, and the Golden Rumped Elephant Shrew can also be seen here. A quiet, careful look in some of the old wells can turn out the odd owl, too.

Kipepeo Butterfly Project Tour
Right at the entrance to Gedi Ruins is the Kipepeo Butterfly Project. This innovative project is aimed at giving the forest edge communities opportunities to get an income directly from the forest, by live breeding the unique butterflies of the Arabuko-Sokoke forest, and sending them to live butterfly display centers around the world.

The project has led to a large increase in household incomes in those households participating in the project, and since butterflies are short lived and hard to breed abroad, the market is quite reliable. Recommended to clients staying in Malindi and Mambrui, full day excursion. Lunch will be at your hotel or resort on Watamu beach.

VSJ 106: The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Walking Tour – 4 Hours

Highlights: This is a four hours excursion from your hotel or beach resort starting after breakfast and ending by mid day before lunch at your hotel.

This forest covers an area of over 400 square kilometers, it is the last large piece of indigenous coastal forest left in Kenya followed by Kakamega Forest in Western Kenya. It is a key site for the global survival of six bird species and three mammal species.

The Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Guides Association has several expert guides who can accompany you on your forest walks. They are expert ornithologists and can help visitors find and see some of the rare and unique birds of the forest. Over 260 species of birds have been recorded in the forest including the six globally threatened ones:

• Sokoke Scoops Owl,
• Sokoke Pipit,
• East Coast Akalat,
• Spotted Ground Thrush,
• Amani Sunbird and
• Clarke's Weaver.

Many of these are found and observed regularly by visitors.

For those less keen on "twitching" and ornithology the forest is also lovely for a walk, and exciting too, considering there is a resident herd of elephant and buffalo!

VSJ 107: LAMU ISLAND TOUR FROM MALINDI TOWN– 2 Days / 1 Night

Highlights: This is a two days excursion with air transfer from Malindi to Lamu and vice versa, an extraordinary island where time stopped since centuries and life goes on with ancient, charming and relaxing steps.

Cultural Lamu Island; The town was founded in the 14th century and it contains many fine examples of Swahili architecture. The old city is inscribed on the World Heritage List as "the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in Africa”. Once a center for the slave trade, the population of Lamu is ethnically diverse. Lamu was on the main Arabian trading routes, and as a result, the population is largely Muslim. Due to the narrowness of the streets, automobiles are not allowed - the city is easily explored by foot, bicycle, or, as many locals favour, donkey. There are several museums, including the Lamu Museum, home to the island's ceremonial horn; other museums are dedicated to Swahili culture and to the local postal service. Notable buildings in Lamu town include:

* Lamu Fort: Fumo Madi ibn Abi Bakr, Sultan of Pate, started to build the fort on the seafront, to protect members of his unpopular government. He died in 1809, before the first storey of the fort was completed.
* Mnarani Mosque
* Riyadha Mosque: Habib Salih, a Sharif with family connections to the Hadramaut, Yemen, settled on Lamu in the 1880s, and became a highly respected religious teacher. Habib Salih had great success gathering students around him and in 1900 the Riyadha Mosque was built. He introduced Habshi Maulidi, where his students sang verse passages accompanied by tambourines. After his death in 1935 his sons continued the Madrassa, which became one of the most prestigious centers for Islamic Studies in East Africa.
* The Annual Maulidi Festival:The Riyadh Mosque is the centre for the Maulidi Festival, which are held every year during the last week of the month of the Prophet´s birth. During this festival pilgrims from Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Zanzibar and Tanzania join the locals to sing the praise of Mohammad.

VSJ 108: HELLS KITCHEN MARAFA TOUR – Half Day

Highlights: Half day excursion (in the afternoon) taking a leap into the past to see local ancient carving and tradition to enjoy native culture and early religious feeling of this part of East Africa.

Hell's Kitchen: Hell's kitchen was originally a sandstone-rich escarpment, which upon erosion by rains, winds and torrents, was transformed into a canyon with magnificent gorges and chimneys, some of them rising up to 30 m high. Its beautiful colours are best appreciated at sunset.

To reach Hell's Kitchen, the easiest route is to take the route northward from Malindi. Soon after crossing the Galana/Sabaki River, the road heads into the town of Mambrui, from which there is a detour to Marafa. At the end of Marafa, turn right and 500 m ahead you will arrive at Hell's Kitchen, called by the natives Nyari, "the place broken by itself".

You will be transferred back to your hotel in the evening