Today our driver picks you up at the hotel and brings you to the jetty in Shimoni. Here you board a traditional dhow – a wooden sailboat that Kenyan fishermen still use up until today. On board you are served tea, coffee and biscuits while being briefed. Fresh fruits and other refreshments will also be provided for.
You then sail to the Kisite Marine Park where you can go snorkeling. The warm, clear water of the Indian Ocean with its pristine corals and a myriad of fish makes snorkeling something for beginners and professionals alike. Guides will join you – one guide per four beginning snorkelers and one guide per six snorkelers with experience. Even people who are not able to swim can join with a personal guide pulling them through the water with a floater. Snorkeling equipment is included in this excursion.
Dolphins
The reefs in Kisite Marine Park are not only famous for their colourful fish, but also offer sanctuary to over 200 dolphins – spinner, humpback and bottlenose – which can all be seen breaking above the waves as they porpoise elegantly through the water on a regular basis. From July to December also humpback whales can be spotted here.
Furthermore, Kisite Island is an important bird area, as it is a flat, treeless rocky outcrop with grass patches surrounded by sandy beaches that are exposed at low tide. It’s an ideal breeding area for roseate and sooty terns (from July to September) and great habitat for pelagic feeders.
Seafood lunch
After snorkeling for some hours you head to Wasini Island for a late lunch. This will truly be a meal to remember with lots of seafood, white wine and beer. After lunch you will have time to relax over tea, coffee and patisserie in the Day Dreamer’s Lounge. You do can do some bird watching or look up anything you have seen during snorkeling in the comprehensive marine library.
Once back in Shimoni you can visit the ancient coral caves. The caves are a five minute walk away from the pier and have a length of five kilometers. A healthy population of fruit and insect feeding bats live here now, but for centuries these caves were used by the local population as a site of worship. In the 18th and 19th century these were holding areas for slaves who transferred to slave markets in Zanzibar. Nowadays the caves are run as a community project and the small entrance fee is used to pay school fees of children from the local community.
