Nature
Local guide and safari organiser · Watamu, Kilifi County
Languages: Italian, English, Swahili, Giriama
A few hours by canoe in the channels of Mida Creek, with the tide deciding the time and the route. You really do paddle, and you move in silence.
Mida Creek is an arm of salt water that reaches inland behind Watamu, ringed by mangroves. It is not a beach and it is not a park: it is a transitional environment, where the water rises and falls twice a day and the landscape changes shape with every cycle.
In a canoe you go right inside it. You paddle along the narrow channels, pass under the roots, stop where the water opens out. The only noise is the one you make yourself, and that is why you see more than you would with an engine running.
Stop 1
We meet at the creek itself, at whatever time the tide makes sensible. The drive from Watamu is short. Before you get out I tell you what to expect: mud, mosquitoes at sunset, no refined bathrooms.
Stop 2
I explain how to hold the paddle, how to sit and how to avoid tipping over, which is easier than it sounds. You board from the bank or from a small jetty, and your feet almost always get wet.
Stop 3
We go in among the mangroves following the water. The route is not fixed: it depends on how much of it came in that day. In the narrow stretches we go slowly, with the roots half a metre from your hands.
Stop 4
We stop where the channel opens out and the mudflats stay exposed. That is the moment to keep quiet and look: this is where the waterbirds feed as the water pulls back. What goes past on the day is not decided by either of us.
Stop 5
We return to the starting point following the tide, which has changed in the meantime. From the creek it is a few minutes back to Watamu.
The time depends entirely on the tide and shifts by roughly fifty minutes every day. The channels need enough water to get through, so the usable windows are few and narrow: we fix the date together, and I confirm the time the day before.
There are only a few canoes and the group stays small. With a day's notice I can almost always arrange it, but in busy periods it is worth asking me as soon as you reach the coast.
The boats and the access to the creek belong to the people who live there: part of what you pay stays on site. In the written proposal I tell you exactly to whom and for what.
The creek lives on tides. At high water the channels are easier to paddle but the mudflats disappear; at low water the mud is exposed and the birds gather to feed, but some passages become impassable. You cannot have both at the same time, and that is the reason the time is never the same.
The time of year makes a big difference to the presence of migratory birds. Which species are there on the day of your outing I do not know in advance and do not promise: nothing is called in, fed or disturbed in order to show itself.
In heavy rain or wind the outing is moved. In a canoe bad weather is not uncomfortable: it is a problem.
You board the canoe from a muddy, sloping bank, often with your feet in the water, and the seat is low. With mobility difficulties, balance problems or back problems this outing is not suitable: the alternative on the creek is the dhow, which is easier to board and does not require paddling.
5/5 across 1 verified reviews
In the canoe we slipped into the mangroves on tiptoe. No engines, no music, only birds. Anyone looking for adrenaline will be disappointed; anyone looking for an hour of peace won't.
In canoa siamo entrati fra le mangrovie in punta di pagaia. Zero motori, zero musica, solo uccelli. Chi cerca adrenalina resterà deluso; chi cerca un'ora di pace no.
Safety comes before the programme. If the weather worsens, if the sea is not workable or if conditions in the park change, we talk it through and decide whether to alter the programme, postpone it or replace it with an alternative.
The conditions that apply in these cases are set out in the proposal you receive, so you know in advance how things are handled when the day is not the one we expected.
No. The animals are free, they move and they follow nobody's programme: sightings cannot be guaranteed, not in the savannah and not at sea. If someone promises them to you, know that they are promising something they do not control.
What I can tell you is how we look for them: keeping our distance, respecting the park rules, staying on the tracks, without chasing and without forcing an approach for the sake of a photograph. Respect for the wildlife comes before any promise.
Many of them can be, but there is no single answer: the duration, the length of the transfers and the timings all have to be weighed against age. A dawn departure with hours on the road is not the same thing for a four-year-old and for a twelve-year-old.
In the form all I need is the number of children and their age ranges. Names, dates of birth and other personal details are not required: those, if they are needed at all, come only when a property or a park asks for them.
Write to me and I'll check what is available over the following days. I'll tell you what is realistic to put together at short notice and what is not.
A couple of hours on a traditional sailing boat on the creek, in the slot when the light drops. You sit, you don't paddle, and you come back in the dark.
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A morning split between the ruins of a Swahili town and the edge of the largest coastal forest left in East Africa.
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A morning on the water between reef and lagoon, on a route adapted to the sea, the tide and what the group can manage.
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Tell me how many of you there are and when: I'll tell you what's realistic and what isn't.
