Diani beach and Diani Backpackers

And so I cross another border with a new country to explore. First stop, Ukunda. 

This is a town on the road that comes from Tanzania along the coast to Mombasa, and it’s next to the coastal and touristic town of Diani. I stayed first a few days in Ukunda with a great Couch Surfer, Janet. During my stay here I visited Diani but I only got to explore it thoroughly when I came back after I went to Mombasa.

Janet lives with her sister who is a great cook and her lovely nephew. Ukunda is a very local town so people are not used to see tourists in their neighborhood, since they all stay by the beach in Diani. One moves around here in Tuk-Tuks, which you can use privately or shared like a bus.

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I left Ukunda and stayed in Mombasa for a few days. I’m making time while I wait for a friend that is going to join me on my travels, so I come back to Diani where I found a really cool backpackers where I could work and stay for free.

Diani Backpackers is a very enjoyable place where I constantly made friends and explored Diani together with them. The staff I worked together with was very friendly as well so we really got along. I stayed here until Christmas and we spent the Christmas Eve together with other guests of the backpackers.

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The beach in Diani is long and wide, full of restaurants, hotels and resorts. People do many activities here, like kite surfing, diving, parachuting  and more. My German friend Alex finally arrived to joined me on my travels.

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On one side Diani ends by the Kongo river, where we went a couple of times to swim, watch the sunset, and play some beach games. It’s the beach in the picture on top of the post.

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There is also a secret beach that we visited with other guests of the backpackers.

The secrecy and thus emptiness made it a very special place. We rented and rode bicycles for an hour to get there, which made it very tiring at the end of the day.

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That’s it. All the places I visited and people I met in Diani that gave me such nice memories. Now after some discussion and compromise Alex and I decide which route we will take. We leave on Christmas day towards Mombasa.