Nyali, the comfortable suburb of Mombasa closest to the town, has a few minor items of interest of its own - apart from three of the North Coast's main hotels. It was the site of Johan Ludwig Krapf 's first missionary toehold on the east coast, four years before Livingstone arrived in Africa. Krapf reached Nyali with his wife and baby daughter in May 1844. His wife died of malaria on July 13, their baby the next day. The pathetic graves - still carefully tended by parishioners of St Peter's Church, Nyali - are to be found at the end of the road leading past the Tamarind Restaurant and a couple of cement silos. Opposite, on a small knoll, is the stone Krapf Memorial .

 

There's another reminder of Mombasa's history in the site of the Freretown Bell , at the Nyali Road junction. The bell was erected by the Society of Freed Slaves in the 1880s to warn the people of Freretown (named after Sir Bartle Frere, who founded the freed slave community here) of any impending attack by Arab slavers. The district still has inhabitants who trace the roots of their freed-slave ancestors back to Malawi and Zambia. The bell hung silently under its small stone arch until the 1920s when it was removed for safekeeping to the nearby Emmanuel Church (Freretown's parish church, erected in 1889), where it is still in use. The bell you see at the Nyali Road junction is a plastic replica.

Behind Nyali Beach and the hotels, you can't miss Mamba Village on Links Road (daily 8am-6.30pm; Ksh450, children Ksh250). Nothing to do with poisonous snakes, this is the biggest crocodile ( mamba ) farm in Kenya, with hefty entry fees to the "crocodile trail" and film show. A series of semi-natural pools, created in a disused quarry, houses many thousands of crocodiles at all stages of growth (and a special freaks sideshow of congenitally deformed croc-lets - not a pleasant sight). The overall effect - with "croco-burgers" in the snack bar, the 5pm Pavlovian bell-ring feedings, and unlimited saurian souvenirs - is tacky in the extreme, and the crocodile trail sits uneasily with the skin-farming half of the "village", which is not on show. Also part of the empire is the adjacent Botanical Garden and Aquarium (daily 9am-6pm; Ksh150, children Ksh70), which includes a thirty-minute guided walk around its snake park and gardens, specializing, no great surprise, in the weirdest things they could find, including carnivorous plants and "fishes which blow up for not being eaten" (ie puffer fish). Also here is the Mamba International Nightclub . Further down Links Road, the Mamba outfit now also offers horse riding (daily 8-11am & 3-6pm; 1hr beach trips Ksh950; better-value lessons at Ksh2900 for ten 30min stints, or Ksh3900 for ten hour-long rides).

Across the road from Mamba Village is Nyali Golf and Country Club (PO Box 95678 tel 011/471589), a stuffy sort of place that doesn't go out of its way to welcome non-members. They maintain a dress code for men (shirts with collars, socks) in return for which they offer an ordinary swimming pool, squash, tennis (Ksh11,600 for a week's membership) and, of course, golf (free for members, Ksh2400-2600 for non-members, or Ksh1200-1300 if playing with a Nyali Club member; caddy Ksh130 for nine holes). A restaurant of the reliable Minar group has opened next door, specializing in Mughlai cuisine (daily; complimentary hotel shuttle service; tel 011/471220).

The main public access to the beach at Nyali is right by the entrance to Nyali Beach Hotel . It gets pretty busy at weekends. One oddity a little way south is a cave containing a natural lingam (phallic representation of the Hindu god Shiva) in the form of a stalacmite, plus a natural rock formation resembling Shiva's son, the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh. The area is maintained as a temple by the local Hindu Union, but visitors are welcome (remove shoes when entering the temple cave) and the site includes a pleasant ledge overlooking the ocean and a roofless cave containing two more Shiva lingam stalacmites. The story attached to the cave tells of a certain cow who was in the habit of rubbing her udders on the stalacmite to exude milk (pouring milk on the lingam is a way of worshipping Shiva). Her herder, afraid that the cow would damage her udders, hit her to get her to stop, upon which he was attacked by a swarm of bees. Admitted to hospital, he was treated by an Indian doctor who, hearing the story, decided to investigate, and was amazed to discover the Ganesh rock and the Shiva lingam .