Talking turtle

Turtles are protected in Kenya and especially in Watamu as the beach and surrounding area has been designated a National Park by the Kenyan Government and they have an area where they talk turtle, at the Watamu Turtle Protection Association. Just before leaving Watamu yesterday morning we had an opportunity to get out of our shells, visit the centre and get that particular load off our backs. If there is one thing it tortoise it was that there are several very poor puns available when talking turtle.

I took this picture of a three foot specimen which was rescued with a curvature of the spine, but has been nursed into a position where it is almost ready to be released back into the wild. I worry that one day that I myself shall be released back into the wild by that nice lady decorator, especially if she read some of my columns.

Bit of a flap on

The short one hour hop to Nairobi was uneventful, if you ignore the storm clouds that were gathering around Malindi airport as we left (which caused that nice lady decorator to cling to me in a very satisfying way) and we arrived into the city and then to our hotel at the very sociable hour of gin and tonic o clock. The whole Medina Palms experience is behind us, unless we take the plunge and buy one of their penthouses ourselves, which we may well do. In fact I have some work to do on figures in the coming weeks and if we proceed it will require the excellent services of Currencies Direct if we are to realise a dream.

Because of flying restrictions, which despite my protests preclude the use of the internet in flight, this post was created last evening before I am able to report success with my attempts to browbeat some of my BA pilot mates into pulling strings and securing an upgrade. With luck, we shall have been sleeping like babies in fully reclining seats in First Class, however the more likely scenario is that we will not have slept and will be gruesomely grumpy due to squatting in economy for eight hours. In those circumstances I thought it best to post this whilst in the glow of several large gin and tonics and a nice helping of a cheeky Bordeaux, yes they have Bordeaux in Africa.

Whilst waiting to discover our fate, we remained at the excellent Fairview Hotel for several followed by dinner at their sushi bar having looked in their shop where the guy running it was listening to “Coward of The County” by Kenny Rogers, a little incongruous in the middle of Africa, you have to admit.

So back to reality, if you can call it that, the south of France after the challenges of Africa and actually I am looking forward to it. There are any number of Christmas events upcoming and my job tomorrow will be to collate them in to some sense of order. Obviously in terms of importance, the top of the tree will be the Currencies Direct event in Sophia Antipolis on 13th December, where I shall be found at the head of a queue of people desperate for signed copies of “Summer In The Cote d’Azur” by yours truly, the new publishing sensation of the south of France, at least in my own mind.

The high spot of the evening was that nice lady being serenaded by an ageing African Lothario of uncertain age, well, in my estimation he was over 70, but when one is in the thrall of admiration, age is not important. I know because she told me.

Chris France