Being brought up on the island of Mombasa meant that we were in constant contact with boats, both the indigenous working boats like the great Arab dhows which plied their trade between the coast of East Africa and the Persian Gulf, which used the Old Port on the eastern side of the island (above), and the modern ships which used....
....the Kilindini deep-water anchorage and wharves on the western side.
While I do not remember going aboard a dhow, the water taxis which took us across the Old Port to swim at the Swimming Club - one is visible on the left of this picture - passed close to them....
...and when we drove out to the beaches along the coast to the north and south of Mombasa, to the small, seaside hotels which catered both for locals like us and for people coming down from the interior for a holiday, we had to remember that, long before the hotels were built, the beaches were, and continued to be points from which....
If the tide was right - which meant, very low - we used to hire one of the fishermen to take us out in his ngalowa to the reef, a mile or so offshore, where we explored the brilliantly coloured wildlife in the pools exposed at low water.
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