beach bbq

sunday brought another routine trip to the forty thieves with a thankfully non-seaweed-annihilated beach (: i had the most amazing pizza with avocado, pineapple, ham and cheese.. they have really thin crusts and taste awesome.

we were once again plagued by the beach boys, which makes me realise i haven't written about them yet. pretty much diani beach is [unfortunately] swarming with these beach boys who, either dressed as masai warriors or not, will come up to groups of mzungu (white people) and pretty much harass you to buy their merchandise the second you step away from the inside of thieves (they're not allowed on the premises). they all pretty much sell the same things - carved wooden necklaces, bracelets, key-rings with names on them.. and they really are quite aggravating. i have absolutely no issue with locals setting up stalls and shops along the shoreline, but having men come up to you whilst you're sun-baking and pestering you ceaselessly every weekend is not the same thing. and once again, they're really sneaky.. if you so much as touch one of their items they'll say you've made an 'australian promise' to buy it and will not leave you alone. they also keep a very close eye on your belongings which means i always, always leave my bag with someone lounging inside forty thieves when i head outside.

i've gotta say i'm quite rude to them and try to ignore them.. when i walk from thieves to the water for a swim and they come up to me saying 'sister, sister!!' i walk straight past them without looking them in the eye. seems to work ok for now.. i'm hoping they'll give up after a while but i really don't think that's gonna happen. just something to accept and deal with.. the beach is still sumptuous and our beach weekends are still a godsend (:

after lunch we were driven to a separate section of the beach maybe 10min away where a secluded bbq was waiting for us.. i know i'm not the only one to have descended upon the meat like a starved vulture - after mountains of rice with floating pieces of beef as a standard meal, the carnivorous dinner of fish, lamb, chicken and beef steaks was just amazing. not to mention that the site we were at was absolutely stunning.. there was basically a narrow beach enclosing a big, still estuary save for the deep channel of ocean water surging into it. the sun was steadily going down and joe, sam and i opted for a swim (: we decided to try and cross the raging flow of water and started sprinting through it, and before we knew it our feet were swept up from under us and we were pushed a good 30m back into the estuary whilst swimming for the other bank. [don't worry, parentals, the estuary was under neck-deep so we weren't in any kind of danger]. we found a bunch of camels chilling on the sand and started joking that they were man-eating camels who'd devour us if we stayed there past sunset..

the swim back was just as amusing and the remainder of the sunset was spent watching jane try to coax hermit crabs into racing each other.. needless to say, they weren't particularly interested. then jane, miranda and jasmine (all fully clothed) had a big play-fight/wrestle and two of them ended up in the water. great day (:

the downside: come monday morning a few other people sported sand-fly bites, including myself. i've got angry, red bites conglomerated down my leg/feet in ugly patches, but thankfully they don't seem to be reacting in the same way as poor emily's.. i've smothered them in antiseptic cream and i hope they'll go away soon.