Over a month has passed since the Millenium. Its about time you had some news from DiveTheDream Team.

Unusually enough, we have actually managed to stick to our schedule and spent January diving our way down the coast of Kenya. Click here to go straight to diving facts for Kenya.

After the 7,000km journey up from Cape Town, 24hours in each others pockets for the last 6 months and the events surrounding the Millenium, you'll be surprised to hear that Charlie is still talking to Mark and didn't blame him (too much) for abandoning her by the road on New Year's Eve. In fact we've have had a 'mostly' easy time in Kenya. The main contributing factor to this relaxation was that the road distances between the Kenyan diving spots are relatively small so all three of us (incl. Truck) were able to have a good rest between dives.

In fact the only event worthy of note in Kenya apart from diving, thirty-one peaceful sunrises, chattering bush babies at nightfall and skinny dipping under the stars in silent warm seas, was being robbed at knifepoint on Kikambala Beach. Apologies for the lack of land photographs on this Kenya update. The camera with a roll of ('the most incredble!) Kenya photos was nabbed. This happened because we believed our guidebook when it told us 'safe friendly beach' and stupidly took a camera with us. Hmm, not a clever move. To cut a very long story short, we learnt our lesson, were slightly shaken but mainly angry that a little man with a huge, probably blunt kitchen knife could get a watch and camera from us when he himself was shaking like a leaf!! Later we were told we made the right move as he could well have had ten mates in the bushes.... Aach, you live and learn.

WOES OF A MALTREATED TRUCK

We now realised that we hammered our poor Landy into the ground by driving so many kms each day on the way up from Cape Town. Sometimes we were driving for 10 hours a day covering only 600km, usually less on Malawi and Kenyan roads. We have learned that we must treat her like the lady she is or else she gets into a strop and simply refuses to move. The loud rattling in the engine that destroyed our New Year turned out to be a split collett that had come loose and was bouncing around inside.

When Gordon from Mombasa got his magical hands under her bonnet, he found that Truck had a few other minor problems to sort out....

In total, the engine, electrical connections and a re-welded alternator bracket took 3 days, a lot of innovation due to lack of parts and specialised tools and only cost £120. Click here to see Landy Costs so far since August. Had we visited a more 'professional' garage, we would probably not only be waiting for parts now, but the cost would have trebled. Chuffed to bits with that result!

KENYA'S COASTLINE

The coastal road from Malindi to the Tanzanian Border is such a well trodden tourist route lined with hotels and resorts that it often felt like we were in the Med. The majority of hotels are in the luxurious bracket for the package holidaymaker and all the dive bases are generally attached to these hotels.

Despite our initial negativity, the camping amongst willowy coconut palms, walking barefoot on the white sands and sinking into that inviting 28 degrees of dreamy blue seas, soon lulled us both into a very 'chilled' frame of mind. Kenya was an easy' experience for us especially after the eventful trek up from South Africa. Go to diving introduction.

Somalian Bandits:
We had planned on diving from the Northern Islands of Lamu and Pate near the unstable Somali Border however the getting there proved somewhat offputting. $70 one way flights with little or no equipment allowance would take us way over budget, taxis and hired armed escort were also too expensive, 8 hour journey on crowded buses with our camera and diving equipment was too much of a risk and to drive our own Truck with armed escort would mean being prepared to leave her on the mainland before taking ferry to Lamu and this required much trust in local security in the middle of nowhere. Apart from those problems, we heard that Lamu diving at the moment was being badly affected by Somali current and strong winds. Although there is definately opportunity to dive on Lamu, the odds were against us and we apologise that we cannot complete the diving report on this area.

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