Ten kilometres before you reach Kilifi, there's a turn-off to the right to TAKAUNGU . Although there are a couple of matatus most days from Mombasa to Takaungu, the chances of a lift are relatively slim if you get dropped off at the turning, but the walk (5km) is not too long. Takaungu is enchanting - a quiet, composed village of whitewashed Swahili houses situated on a high bluff above Takaungu Creek . There are three mosques and one or two small shops and hotelis , but no formal lodgings except for the exceedingly expensive Takaungu House (tel 0125/22479; over Ksh16,000/$215; with deep pool; bookings through Bush Homes of East Africa). If you want to stay in the village and you speak a little Swahili, people will put you up for a very reasonable price. Food supplies are variable; women will prepare food if you ask, and especially if you supply the ingredients. There's no produce market, but a small fish market by the creek - be there when the catch arrives to get the tasty ones. Takaungu is a place that repays time spent getting to know it. If you just want to sit back and relax, pass it by and head on to Lamu.

 

There's a small seaside beach , 1km east, through the secondary school. Takaungu Creek is startlingly beautiful, the colour of blue Curaçao, and absolutely transparent; the small swimming beach on the stream is covered at high tide, but you can still dive from the rocks. Upstream, the creek disappears between flanks of dense jungle. When you're ready to move on, the tiny, council-operated rowing boat provides a slow and almost free service across the creek to the Kilifi side; from there, it's a five-kilometre (ninety-minute) walk through the sisal fields to Kilifi bridge.