Eco-friendly can be fun

By Thorn Mulli

I have kept true to my resolution of taking holiday breaks from work only during the tourism low season: The rates are fairer, the staff less harassed (boy don’t I hate waiting for my coffee), the air more serene, the beaches more private….

Recently, desperate for a tranquil place to get away from the whirlwind that is the newsroom, I began a search for a holiday destination. The venue had to be coastal, for therapeutic reasons, but with innumerable spots to choose from, and the ever-hovering possibility of disappointment, making a choice was a daunting task.

Severin Sea Lodge on Bamburi beach, three kilometres from the award-winning Haller Park and 12km from the Mombasa port, won the day, thanks to a splendid stay at their Tsavo-based sister camp a while back.

Keen on making the holiday memorable from step one, I embarked on my first train ride in decades. But this was not such a good choice; the 500km rail journey from Nairobi to Mombasa only lived up to its ‘lunatic express’ tag. We arrived in Mombasa, no wait, Mazeras, 26 hours later, in the dead of night, and had to make the remaining 19km of our trip via taxi.

The bad start was, however, salvaged by eager staff of the four-star, 188-room beachfront resort. They ensured this weary sojourner received a hearty welcome, despite the late hour.

Crisp, scented bedding was the last memory registered before bird chirruping, brine-laced whiffs and sun rays breathed life into the room. Someone (me) had left the patio door open, so birds were not the only flying visitors in the room; luckily, all rooms have mosquito nets.

Bugs aside, I have to hand it to this 42-year-old resort for the impressive amount of greenery and fish-filled waterways dotting the four-acre property. Considering the chocking display of brick and mortar in modern establishments seeking to maximise on hard-to-come-by shoreline plots, this is truly remarkable.

As I recovered from my train lag, I spent the first day of my holiday indoors. The book I had intended to finish, however, remained untouched, replaced by the lazy flicker of a wall-hung television, walks on the expansive grounds, and dips in the pool. It was a shame, considering the entertainment the establishment has gone to lengths to provide, complete with an animation team and the Barracuda Diving School.

It was time to enjoy fresh seafood, something that’s rare in the capital: Smoked sailfish for breakfast, seafood pizza for lunch, and grilled red snapper fillet with garlic and basil butter for supper.

It would have been a shame not to have a taste of Severin’s signature restaurant, the Imani Dhow. This fine dining establishment was created from an actual 40-year-old Zanzibari cargo jahazi that plied her trade between Zanzibar, Dar-es-Saalam, Tanga and Mombasa, before taking a final bow on Bamburi beach, where she had come for repairs in 1984. Imani Dhow has been the venue of many excellent meals since then, with the specialty being fresh catch from the sea in which the vessel once toiled.

When night fell, as I watched Giriama traditional dancers in the entertainment gazebo, an acquaintance made on the ‘lunatic’ train, Benson Wandario, zoomed in on a boda boda to take me out for a different kind of local outing. His pick was a sky view (the kind without a roof) bar not far from my hotel. Here, we met more comrades from the train: Adam, an American; two Germans, Anna and Wenke; and Natty, an Ethiopian based in Nairobi. As we dug our feet in the sand and sampled mnazi (palm wine), no one noticed the clock skip into the next day.

To attest to the area’s level of security, as we dispersed to our accommodations, Benson, without blinking, suggested I walk back to Severin Lodge along the beach rather than take a cab back on the highway. I did, and true to his counsel, only the unfamiliar sight of dhow silhouettes and roar of crashing waves gave me a rush.

The following morning, I noticed a coconut tree with a sign next to the royal suite. The sign read that the daughter of the lodge’s founder planted the tree in 1982. On enquiring about this from the general and front office managers, Andrew Muir and George Oyugi, I was schooled on how one of the earliest lodges on Kenya’s coastline practices responsible tourism.

At the heart of this is a full waste recycling plant installed in 1992 is the use of solar energy and makuti thatch supplied by the local community. For its efforts, the resort has bagged the Eco Warrior Award twice since the inception of the prestigious prize in 2008.