Tiwi beach

Joe, Chris and Sarah returned to Nairobi on the overnight train from Mombassa to fly back to England, and we set off with Tim for a week on the coast. We decided on Tiwi Beach, a quiet spot with self catering cottages. We were warned of the potential dangers on part of the journey from some violent locals armed with machetes who apparently rob white tourists on the road, so we travelled by a cheap taxi instead of public transport. We found a small thatched cottage just two minutes walk through palm trees to a white sandy beach and the Indian Ocean. We enjoyed a quiet week, which was what Tim wanted, lazing, reading, beaching, swimming, etc., with Jane and Tim snorkelling along the reef. Ken's swimming proved not to be up to this. We bought fresh fish from fishermen on the beachfront and it was great to cook for ourselves. We visited the popular Dianni Beach up the coast and were very pleased we had chosen Tiwi.
Also, from creatures great (of the safari trips) to creatures small. We watched a horde of small crabs running about the beach at dusk to avoid the incoming tide, and our toilet bowl contained two lizards and a frog during our stay. The most exciting encounter with small creatures came one night when we were woken at 1.00am by the bites of dozens of ants in our bed and with hundreds of them on the floor around the bed. They were small ants but their bites were very unpleasant. After picking the ants off each other and the bed, and anticipating the need to sit up all night, we discovered that due to a power cut and doing the cooking by torch light, we had forgotten to put out the remains from the fish we cooked the night before. A two inch wide column of ants ran around the edge of the cottage to the rubbish bag with thousands of them covering the bag. Those around, and in, our bed were the stragglers. After many more bites, and still using torches, we managed to throw the bag out of the back door and wash and clear most of the ants from the cottage. At one stage Ken put his hand on the bag, in the dark, to realise that what felt like fur was a mass of biting ants. It was a little difficult to sleep after that by quite funny nevertheless.
Back to Nairobi by the overnight sleeper from Mombassa. The sleeper train was good, with 'more than adequate meals', and the lovely practice of a man playing a xylophone up and down the train to alert passenger to the next meal sitting Passing a large area of industrial slums just before we arrived in Nairobi was salutary. A week with Tim was great, however, taking him to the airport was difficult in reminding us that we would not be seeing him or the others for nearly six months.