We were married on the 16th of August 1997 and flew out to Kenya from Manchester on Tuesday the 19th. We were taken to the Travellers Beach Hotel near Mombassa, where we spent the honeymoon. We had four days at the Travellers Beach, three days safari and seven days back at the Travellers Beach before returning to Britain on Wednesday the 3rd of September.
The hotel consisted of two wings, north and south which were separated by a
private house. Each wing contained buildings with the bedrooms, several
pools, bars which served snacks, shops which sold t-shirts, wooden animals and
so on and access to the beach. The hotel also contained a dining room for each
wing, an Italian restaurant and an Indian restaurant. We were on half board,
which meant breakfast and dinner (or lunch if we swapped) in the dining room
and the other meal wherever we wanted (the Indian was excellent). The food was
of a very high standard and very cheap (6 course meal for a fiver).
 |
 |
| Aerobics in the pool | Hotel rooms |
 |
 |
| The pool | The pools were joined by a 'river' |
 |
 |
| The beach | Claire with coconut |
We had a three day safari (the 'Stanley'). Each morning we would drive to a particular area, take a safari drive around, then stop at a safari lodge for lunch. Around 4 o'clock we would go for another drive, then dinner at the lodge and go to bed. The three places we visited were Tsavo East, Tsavo West and Shimba Hills.
 |
 |
| Shimba hills | Tsavo east |
At the first safari lodge we stayed at we saw the following sight, a huge herd of buffalo marching up to the waterhole from who knows where.
We saw all sorts of animals on safari. Here are some pictures of some of them. You can view big versions of each of the pictures by clicking on them. Follow the lion trail to see all my lion pictures, the elephant trail to see all my elephant pictures, or the animal trail to see all the animals.
 |
 |
 |
| Lion Trail | Animal Trail | Elephant Trail |
We spent an afternoon in Mombassa town itself. This was perhaps the scariest part of the whole trip. We were greeted by a guide as we left the bus, who took us round to see the sights. We saw the steel elephant tusks across the main road, several Indian temples, Fort Jesus, built by the Portugese a long, long time ago, the markets and the old town. The old town consisted of lots of very narrow streets, much bustle and people everywhere. We eventually escaped back to the sanctity of our hotel.
 |
 |
| Elephant tusks | Fort Jesus |
The other excursion we had was a reef walk and a trip in the glass-bottomed boat. We waded out about half a mile to the boat, which took us further out to the reef. We walked about on this with our guide showing us such creatures as the African Banana, the Sea Cucumber, the Sea Sausage, sea urchins, and various shellfish.
After this we got back in the boat and sailed to an area where the water was a bit deeper. We could see corals and fish through the glass bottom and were given the opportunity to snorkel about and see these close at hand. The guide threw bread to the fish, who came in their thousands, giving us a chance to swim through shoals of them.