Siyu to FAZA is a shorter walk than from Pate to Siyu and more interesting, through waist-high grass, fertile shambas and sections of bush. It takes about two hours, but you'll need guidance, at least as far as the airstrip inherited from a 1980s oil-prospecting venture. From there it's straightforward. An hour or so out of Siyu, you reach the first shambas . There are usually people on the path; if you catch up with someone from behind, announce your presence before trying to pass. Strangers are rare and you could give someone quite a fright.

 

On a coast of islands, it's not surprising that Faza itself is almost an island, surrounded by tidal flats and mangroves. A secondary school, health centre, police station (with nothing to do) and even a post office and telephone exchange have made Faza the most important settlement on Pate island. There's even a Land Rover ambulance donated by Saudi Arabia, the only vehicle on the island. Every few years a lodging house opens, but the lack of visitors forces them to close sooner or later. There's a very unprepossessing council guest house which is available in theory. Private accommodation , though, is easy to find. Fishing is the commonest occupation, with much of the catch going to a cold room at Kisingitini, from where it's shipped to Mombasa. Faza suffered a serious fire in 1990, which razed many houses to the ground and caused devastation. Today, you would hardly know.

As a contemporary Kenyan rural centre, Faza makes an interesting place to walk around and you're almost certain to have plenty of time to fill before the boat leaves. One part of the village is devoted exclusively to cattle stalls, but goats run everywhere, ruining the efforts of the primary school headmaster to prevent soil erosion on the badly rutted and sloping football field. A fine evening stroll takes you across the mud on a new concrete causeway to the thickets on the "mainland", where the island's expanding secondary school is located. From Faza you could, if you wanted, walk on to the other villages on the island, all fairly modern and bunched together within forty minutes of Faza: Kisingitini, Bajumwali, Tundwa (Chundwa), and the closest, Nyambogi.