A beach-and-bush escape to Manda Island

Jan Fox has an unlikely encounter with buffaloes and explores ancient Swahili ruins in the heart of Kenya’s Lamu Archipelago

Words by Jan Fox | Photos by SCC Kenya

‘ Y ou see that high wall over there,’ our guide, Philip, said, pointing at a crumbling structure beneath a commanding baobab tree. ‘That was where Jomo Kenyatta was imprisoned by the British’. We were on a tour of the Manda Town ruins, in the back of an open-top six-wheel Range Rover. Of all the remnants of ancient Swahili towns along Kenya’s coastline, these ruins in the north-western tip of Manda Island are the least visited. They were first excavated by archaeologist Neville Chittick in 1965, who traced the town’s origins to trade with the Persian Gulf during the 9th and 10th centuries.

Manda’s early inhabitants constructed buildings with burnt square brick, stone and a lime mortar – a technique found only on islands and coastal areas of Kenya. Buildings were also made from coral rag, the rubbly limestone cut from dead coral reefs. Chittick managed to identify seven main periods of occupation on Manda Island stretching over nine centuries, using fragments of Chinese porcelain, local and Islamic pottery and glass.

Today, the Manda Town ruins are surprisingly well preserved, albeit within tangles of thick vegetation. We explored most of them on foot, peering into the depths of overgrown wells, and admiring the intricately carved mihrab of one of the mosques. To get to an old sunken storage room beneath two stunning baobabs, we ducked under the giant web of a beautiful golden orb-weaver spider. And deep in the mangrove creek we caught glimpses of weathered sea walls. Nature had taken over the old town, which lent the whole experience a sense of lucky discovery.

Whether or not Kenya’s first president had been imprisoned on the island in the 1950s is not clear, but there was certainly a colonial detention camp on Manda. Files found at the Lamu Fort a decade ago included letters on prominent Kenyan freedom fighters such as Achieng’ Oneko, Bildad Kagia, Paul Ngei, Pio Gama Pinto and Muindi Mbingu, some of whom were detained in Lamu.

The correspondence was between local colonial administrators and the headquarters in Nairobi, as the detainees were moved between the various camps along the coast. All that is left today of the Manda Island prison and its rich history is a craggy wall, lost within a flourishing forest. We followed a sandy two-track road away from the ruins into a clearing with a full water trough at its centre. We were in for another surprise. A pair of wide, curved horns emerged from behind a screen of bushes, followed by the bulky brown frame of a male buffalo. Three others ambled behind him and stopped for a drink at the trough. Sitting in the company of buffaloes at the coast was just bizarre, and to top off this surreal beach-and-bush experience, we were joined by a raucous troop of baboons, and a pair of relaxed bushbucks. The buffaloes, we learnt, belonged to a 60-strong herd that became isolated when the narrow Mkanda Channel was dredged, separating Manda from the mainland. The herd was apparently followed by a pair of intrepid lions that swam across the channel, but were eventually chased away by herders after preying on livestock.

The expansion of the Mkanda Channel is symptomatic of ongoing large-scale developments in the Lamu Archipelago. The distant drone of a huge marine dredging vessel was ever-present in Manda Bay, where the Lamu Port is being constructed. But it will be a long time before the transport infrastructure on the mainland catches up with the expansion of the port, and before the bay is full of marine traffic.

A beachfront room at the Manda Bay lodge

In the meantime, as the landscape changes in the archipelago, its wildlife continues to adapt. Between October and April every year, large flocks of carmine bee-eaters fly in from the mainland to roost on a mangrove island by the port. On our first evening, we headed to the island in a small boat, and drifted beneath a frenzy of thousands of squawking bee-eaters.

There is also plenty of marine life in the bay, concentrated around the reef beyond Manda Toto Island. We snorkelled in the area with our guide, Saidi – floating above the twitching mantle of a giant clam, avoiding the menacing black spines of sea urchins, and watching a shoal of stunning Moorish idols swirling in the currents. We also caught a glimpse of an impressive grouper, gliding along the sea floor.

Snorkelling in Manda Bay

The isolated Manda Bay lodge is the ideal base for exploring the archipelago. This boutique lodge sits on a pristine stretch of coast in the north of Manda Island, on the opposite side of the island to the busier Lamu Channel. Half of its 22 rooms are beachfront, perched on a low sea wall with access to the lodge’s private beach, and with uninterrupted views out towards the bay and Pate Island. The remaining rooms are set back within groves of palm trees and acacias, still with sea views. With palm-thatched roofs and large glassless windows, the rooms blend well into their surroundings, but they are also deceptively luxurious.

The Lamu Archipelago will inevitably evolve over the next few years, as the port is completed. But it will be a long time before the infrastructure of Kenya’s interior catches up to allow the port to function as it should. And tourists will continue to flock to the more familiar donkey-trodden alleyways of Lamu Town and Shela Village. So the Manda Bay lodge is bound to remain an isolated treasure for years to come.

For bookings and more information about the lodge, head to www.mandabay.com.