Today marked the end of our time in Makindu, as we woke up early and loaded our car to start a long, 6 hour drive to Mombasa, our final destination.
But first, we visited Makindu hospital one last time to say goodbye to Dr. Kasanga for being so generous, and also to donate some of the PPE we brought with us. After that, the drive began. It was actually quite nice, we passed through the countryside, as well as numerous small towns on the way. We got excited as we saw that the climate was changing from arid to tropical as we got closer and closer to Mombasa.
Eventually, the palm trees started appearing, and soon enough, the town appeared, we had arrived! Sadly, the traffic was quite bad on the way in, but it did give us time to see the town closely. Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, situated on the coast towards the bottom of the country. It dates far back into Portuguese colonial times, being a large hub for trade, and it used to be the capital of Kenya, until it was moved to Nairobi during the English colonial times.
As we pulled into the resort we were staying at, The Whitesands, we immediately smelled the ocean mist and felt the heat. We checked in and changed as soon as we could so we could go out to the beach and relax. The beach had nice, white sands, and the water temperature was perfect. The beach itself was quite small, but that was because we arrived at high tide, and later on, we saw just how low the low tide actually was! We walked along the beach and had a dip in the pool to relax, before having dinner.
For only being in Mombasa for half a day, it has left a strong first impression. I can't wait to see more of it, we'll be here for a while!