Above: Coral garden at low tide on Wasini – copyright Rupi Mangat
Published Saturday magazine Nation newspaper 25 March 2017
A dug-out canoe sails to the dhow anchored in Wasini Channel to paddle me to the shores of the island. In a few minutes we’re on the ancient island of fossilized coral. Wasini once a little village of makuti-thatched coral rag single-storey houses now has a few multi-floored brick buildings coming up. The century-old, ‘Arab’ houses are beginning to crumble and replaced with modern brick.
Our first port of call is to the island restaurant Kaole. Plate after plate of mouth-watering Swahili dishes waft out of the deceptively simple kitchen of the restaurant on coral rag floor and four walls with open frontage to the channel. We’re fed on crab delivered on wooden platters which Husni the waiter knocks the shell open to show diners how to tease the meat out. The table fills with spiced seaweed with chapatti, ‘wali’ and cassava cooked in coconut milk and more. We eat to our fill with the ocean breeze cooling the afternoon temperatures.
A deep narrow gorge cuts across the land. It’s full of forest and steep slopes that few venture into. We’re 30 kilometers west of Kitui the capital of Kitui county and had we been alone, we’d miss Ikoo Valley by the side of the road.
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