TRAVEL: Wandering around Wasini

Coral rag on Wasini island by the mangrove boardwalk. PHOTO| RUPI MANGAT

What you need to know:

  • It’s too late and too hot to walk to Mkwiro, a smaller village that until recently housed Global Vision International that had an exciting research programme on marine animals like dolphins, turtles, sharks and whales to establish a baseline of what was passing through our waters that connect with the deeper and larger Pemba channel in neighbouring Tanzania.

A dugout canoe sails to the dhow anchored in Wasini Channel to paddle me to the shores of the island. In a few minutes we’re on the ancient island of fossilised coral. Wasini, once a little village of makuti-thatched, coral rag, single-storey houses, now has a few multi-floored brick buildings coming up. The century-old ‘Arab’ houses are beginning to crumble and be replaced with modern brick.

Our first port of call is to the island restaurant, Kaole. Plate after plate of mouth-watering Swahili dishes waft out of the deceptively simple kitchen. We’re fed crab delivered on wooden platters of which Husni, the waiter, knocks the shell open to show diners how to tease the meat out. The table fills with spiced seaweed with chapati, wali and cassava cooked in coconut milk, and more. We eat to our fill with the ocean breeze cooling the afternoon temperatures.

I opt for a stroll through the village after lunch, through the narrow lanes passing by houses with open doors to let the breeze in. Children play by the baraza and we reach the fat-old baobab that has stood sentinel over the village for hundreds of years.

Wasini has been visited since antiquity by sailors from the East in dhows and junks, using the monsoon winds to land on the East African shores to trade and set up home. Graves of buried ancestors lie by a crumbling ‘Arab’ house of coral rag, with inscriptions barely legible in Arabic.

At the far end of the village, the mangrove and coral gardens stretch to the sea. It’s low tide and the ancient coral sculpted by the waves and the winds look awesome amidst the mangrove forest. At high tide all this would be invisible under the seawater.

It’s too late and too hot to walk to Mkwiro, a smaller village that until recently housed Global Vision International that had an exciting research programme on marine animals like dolphins, turtles, sharks and whales to establish a baseline of what was passing through our waters that connect with the deeper and larger Pemba channel in neighbouring Tanzania.

Back at Shimoni on the mainland, it’s cool in the subterranean slave cave where the unfortunate victims of the horrendous trade in humans were horded before being shipped away. The guide points to the well in the cave, the holes above where fruit bats hang, and to the stalagmite rising from the floor of the cave to the stalactite hanging from the ceiling, formed over many centuries.

He spreads his arms open by the wall of the cave. “The slaves were bound with shackles here and flogged,” he says. At the furthest end, the soggy earth shows signs of ocean water seeping in. “The slaves were taken out from here and into the dhows. The community wants to dredge the mud and open the entrance again.”

But this time, it will be for visitors to see.

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WHEN AT WASINI

Explore the island that’s 75 kilometres south of Mombasa and three kilometres opposite the harbour at Shimoni. Wasini is seven kilometres long and three kilometres across. It is steeped in legends. In Mkwiro, there is the story of the king’s daughter, who lived around the 16th century and wanted to rule after her father’s death but was not allowed to because she was a woman. When she died in unclear circumstances, it poured with rain after a long period of drought. Villagers pay homage to her gravesite, marked by a rock. 

Pemba island in Tanzania is a six-hour sail by dhow depending on the winds, and two in powerful speedboat. Fare depends on who you negotiate with, as regular services are not available. Remember to have all your documentation in order and yellow fever certificate for Tanzania.

Check Kenya Wildlife Service www.kws.go.ke for updates on the marine park.

Lots of accommodation at Wasini and Shimoni from luxury to backpack.

Please remember: Never touch coral or disturb wildlife.