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st Thursday afternoon I picked Merijn up from school at 15 and drove straight on to the airport and we flew to Mombasa. There the familiar warm and humid air hit us in the door of the plane. A taxi was waiting for us and we drove to Likoni. There we picked up Simon, a scientist of the Zurich based EMPA, who is interested in biofuels and life cycle analysis (LCA). ICRAF has recently joint a European funded project and in that context we met. Less than an hour later, around 2030, we arrived at house 829 Galu Beach estate that I had booked for the weekend. Here we were neighbours of Eirik who put me in contact with Inge, who is managing the house and the non operational hotel in front of it. O
n Friday we were picked up by Stephen of Energy Africa and Aiyana who is doing her Msc field study with them in Shimba hills. First we drove close to the border of Tanzania were between the road and the coast the new field experiments are about to be planted. The field are really beautiful with three large baobabs on the edges. Then we went up to Shimba hills where we visited the office and had lunch at the local cafe.Aiyana showed us were she was living this half year and were her children here going to school. Then we visited Mzee Lugwe who hosts one of the small pilot experiments. He had a lot to tell us, but is never boring to listen too, especially when it 
comes with the wet and dry content of a fresh picked coconut. Miss Helen was home as well when we visited her plot and Mamma Naomi was becoming more content with her Jatropha who were yielding more and more.Back in Galu we found Merijn, who was now accompanied by my brother Thomas and Cindy. They had arrived from Zanzibar where their organised safari ended. They had done some necessary shopping. Also Stepha had arrived from her field work at markets in Mombasa. Simon and I had a quick freshing up before Eirik picked us up to go for dinner at the Safari beach hotel, where we were the only ones having diner. On the moonlit beach we went for a short stroll and back at the house we ended the evening with a drink on the veranda on the second floor, which is the best place ‘in’ the house. After a social breakfast we all climbed into the pickup and Eirik showed his new working place at the Colobus trust. They had a monkey baby of few months old called Erika. She was rescued from a road accident, which killed her mother and currently she spend most of her time clanged onto the volunteers that work there. From there we walked over the beach to Nomad were we enjoyed the beach life at high standard with lunch and drinks. Merijn who first did not want to go, he wanted to go to the swimming pool at the hotel, enjoyed the water and the building sand very much.That evening we made a simple dinner at home and were unable to get up again to go out. On Sunday morning Ayiana’s kids, Eliah and Keleigh were watching cartoons together with Merijn, when I came down. After some breakfast some went swimming and others started packing. Stepha left before noon and we had to be ready by 17, but wanted to spend some time at the beach. When everybody was ready to leave, Simon found himself locked in the bathroom, and he had not even loc
ked the door, just closed it. No simple tricks would help, but Inge brought tools and with brute force the door opened again. Then we all went on the truck again and drove to the Safari Beach hotel, where there is a swimming pool, drinks food and comfortable sunbeds available and sea access under large baobab trees. The baboons were scared off by a professional baboon security and we saw that is was necessary.At 1630 we all went back and when I zipped the suitcase the taxi arrived to bring us back to the airport. We had to wait a long time at the ferry, but could walk almost immediately into the aircraft. On the other side, there was hardly any traffic in Nairobi where we went to bed shortly after emptying the suitcases for the wet towels.
st Thursday afternoon I picked Merijn up from school at 15 and drove straight on to the airport and we flew to Mombasa. There the familiar warm and humid air hit us in the door of the plane. A taxi was waiting for us and we drove to Likoni. There we picked up Simon, a scientist of the Zurich based EMPA, who is interested in biofuels and life cycle analysis (LCA). ICRAF has recently joint a European funded project and in that context we met. Less than an hour later, around 2030, we arrived at house 829 Galu Beach estate that I had booked for the weekend. Here we were neighbours of Eirik who put me in contact with Inge, who is managing the house and the non operational hotel in front of it. O
n Friday we were picked up by Stephen of Energy Africa and Aiyana who is doing her Msc field study with them in Shimba hills. First we drove close to the border of Tanzania were between the road and the coast the new field experiments are about to be planted. The field are really beautiful with three large baobabs on the edges. Then we went up to Shimba hills where we visited the office and had lunch at the local cafe.Aiyana showed us were she was living this half year and were her children here going to school. Then we visited Mzee Lugwe who hosts one of the small pilot experiments. He had a lot to tell us, but is never boring to listen too, especially when it 
comes with the wet and dry content of a fresh picked coconut. Miss Helen was home as well when we visited her plot and Mamma Naomi was becoming more content with her Jatropha who were yielding more and more.Back in Galu we found Merijn, who was now accompanied by my brother Thomas and Cindy. They had arrived from Zanzibar where their organised safari ended. They had done some necessary shopping. Also Stepha had arrived from her field work at markets in Mombasa. Simon and I had a quick freshing up before Eirik picked us up to go for dinner at the Safari beach hotel, where we were the only ones having diner. On the moonlit beach we went for a short stroll and back at the house we ended the evening with a drink on the veranda on the second floor, which is the best place ‘in’ the house. After a social breakfast we all climbed into the pickup and Eirik showed his new working place at the Colobus trust. They had a monkey baby of few months old called Erika. She was rescued from a road accident, which killed her mother and currently she spend most of her time clanged onto the volunteers that work there. From there we walked over the beach to Nomad were we enjoyed the beach life at high standard with lunch and drinks. Merijn who first did not want to go, he wanted to go to the swimming pool at the hotel, enjoyed the water and the building sand very much.That evening we made a simple dinner at home and were unable to get up again to go out. On Sunday morning Ayiana’s kids, Eliah and Keleigh were watching cartoons together with Merijn, when I came down. After some breakfast some went swimming and others started packing. Stepha left before noon and we had to be ready by 17, but wanted to spend some time at the beach. When everybody was ready to leave, Simon found himself locked in the bathroom, and he had not even loc
ked the door, just closed it. No simple tricks would help, but Inge brought tools and with brute force the door opened again. Then we all went on the truck again and drove to the Safari Beach hotel, where there is a swimming pool, drinks food and comfortable sunbeds available and sea access under large baobab trees. The baboons were scared off by a professional baboon security and we saw that is was necessary.At 1630 we all went back and when I zipped the suitcase the taxi arrived to bring us back to the airport. We had to wait a long time at the ferry, but could walk almost immediately into the aircraft. On the other side, there was hardly any traffic in Nairobi where we went to bed shortly after emptying the suitcases for the wet towels.Photos:
1. All in the truck
2. Colobus trust Volunteer with little Erica
3. Colobus in tree
4. Merijn, Keleigh and Eliah on beach
5. Stepha and I on the beach
6. Thomas and Cindy at Safari beach hote
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