The theme of Kiwayu Safari Village is informality. A bikini, a kikoi and a hat are all you need for a holiday here. Radical chic is reduced to its barest meaning although deference must be shown to traditional mores within the village area. Your banda is a spacious suite consisting of a bedroom, dressing room, safari-style shower with running water and lavatory. Each hammock-strung verandah offers total privacy and panoramic views over the lagoon. The dining room and bar are also built in the local Bajuni tradition with palm-thatched roofs and woven matting floors. For all its privacy, each of the 18 bandas is within easy distance of the water's edge, the boats and the bar.
The art of living at Kiwayu means adapting to the tides, which govern your day's activity.
There are long walks on the sandy beaches stretching each side of the "oasis": foot safaris over the dunes at sunset, watching the African sun go down over hundreds of miles of game country - lesser kudu rustling in the doum palms, maybe a herd of buffalo around the waterhole below you, lion pug marks in the rippled sand. Snorkelling off the coral heads is at its best in November to December and February to March. You can take dhow trips to the island of picnic in far-off coves with cold crab, lobsters, fresh bread wine and mangoes. You can fish for rock cod, barracuda and snapper in the wide channels that thread through the magnificent mangrove forests. Pick your own rock oysters or water ski in the sheltered lagoon. The bay is perfect for sailing with windsurfer, Laser or Hoby Cat. Finally there is the thrill of deep sea fishing in a superlative sport fisherman crewed by experts where the typical catch from September through to March April include tuna, kingfish, sailfish, and striped, blue and black marlin.
Or simply be idle!
