Saturday 7 March 2015

Day 2: We Relaxed in Mombasa


 Ahhh!! I feel so annoyed! I had planned to get up this morning just before Sunrise to start one of my photography challenges. As you all know, I'm not a morning person!
I dislike mornings, no that's a lie... I HATE MORNINGS!!

To make things a even less bearable, Kenya is 3 hours ahead of the UK so I'm waking up even earlier than I would do when I'm at home. And I'm still on UK timing, well I guess it could be BPT! (Brown People Timing…) 


Anyway, I set my alarm for a half an hour before Sunrise so I could get ready, head out and find a good location but I slept right through it! I’ll have to set like 10 alarms for tomorrow morning, ‘cause I tell you now, I am going to wake up tomorrow morning for the Sunrise, that is a promise to all of you!

One of the best things about staying in Mombasa is being able to watch the Sunrise, I guess I get the best of both worlds because in Bournemouth, (where I live) I can watch Sun set and in Mombasa I can watch the sunrise! One of my missions for this holiday is to capture as many Sunrises as I can given the time period.

We had a very relaxed today, we mainly just paddled in the pool. I grabbed my camera to capture a few pictures of my parents in the pool, then I had an idea and actually jumped (well carefully treaded) into the pool with my camera, I wanted to see if I could get a different perspective of the surrounding areas from within the pool.

I’d taken a few pictures of the pool last year, My Dad was looking for something specific and I was using my 10-20 lens to capture the image, but this time I wanted to try it with my 18-55, I feel I definitely improved on my pictures from last year, I think the main thing about the pictures is the colour, last year when we came it was very dry, the trees were turning brown and the sky was a bit too cloudy, but this time everything was looking healthy and green and the sky was a beautiful blue.

My Dad enjoying having the pool all to himself!

While we were in the pool the lady who cooks the food at the cottages brought the some samosas over and put them on the table, almost a split second later these birds swooped down towards them, the lady, who was carrying a towel quickly swatted them away! It all happened so fast it was so funny! I wish I had got that on camera! But I think it is one of those memories that’s better left un-captured.

The cat - watching the wabbits from the outside of the enclosure

After lunch we went for a walk down the beach, we passed through one of the neighboring hotels and saw they had a small animal enclosure! They had cute little wabbits, peacocks, African parrots, some big birds I couldn’t tell the name of the bird but they were big, hopping around the enclosure (I think they thought they were wabbits) and a tortoise.
I plan to visit tomorrow with my camera and maybe a little bag to smuggle the cutest little white wabbit back home in, it came up to me, sniffed me and hopped off!

The best thing about Mombasa - The Madaf (Fresh Coconut)

We headed back to the ocean and continued on our walk, up towards some of the other hotels, we saw a few friendly faces, people who we had met in the past, they came up to greet us and tell us about their latest deals and offers.

Walking back to the cottages was nice, the beach was calm and peaceful, there were some interesting colours in the sky, scattered between the clouds; a faded shade of pink being broken up big dark grey clouds. We arrived at the cottages at about 6:30 and there was still some light lingering around from the Sunset, I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to get some shots of the outside of the cottages being bathed in the moonlight, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.

The view of the cottages from the beach

A crab just casually strolled past me as I write this, perched on my deck chair; it feels like I've had such a long day but the clock has just struck 9! I’m just mesmerized by the beautiful sight I can see, lying back in my chair I can look up at the sky and see the palm trees, behind the palm trees the clouds are moving and behind them the stars are shining in the night sky. You don’t get this view in the UK, that’s for sure!

The rustling Palm leaves are so loud but it is a beautiful sound, mixed with the sound of the ocean, I can truly understand why my parents love to come here. It has become a part of our heritage, from them being born and brought up in Kenya; they have truly never forgotten where their real home is. I feel a true connection when I venture out into these areas and I find they help to make the most pleasant memories.



Links to the rest of the holiday are below!
Day 1 || Day 2 || Day 3 || Day 4 || Day 5 || Day 6 || Day 7 || Day 8 || Day 9 || Day 10

No comments:

Post a Comment