Wandergliding: Jambiani & Paje Beaches

January 13^th-14^th, 2024

I hired a boda boda driver who works at Kameleon Blue to take me to Jambiani, on the east side of the island in the late afternoon, about 30 kilometers away. I was staying at a pretty basic/rustic resort called Kimte. I thought I was going to be in a five bed dorm but lucked out and was in a room with only three beds, plus I was the only one in the room for the first of my two nights. Then I was joined for the last night by a Canadian woman, from Manitoba, named Shannon and she was a good roommate (never heard her while sleeping).

Jambiani Beach:

The restaurant area was right on the beach and reminded me of some establishments in Goa, India. Speaking of reminders, soon after I sat down at a table, I saw a dog that looked a lot like Pester, the dog who befriended me in Goa and for all intents and purposes became my pet. He would follow me around everywhere, even up the hill where I would take-off with a tandem passenger and then he would meet me on the beach when I landed. I miss that boy.

A familiar scene at a beach restaurant:

The dog-like Pester:

He was friendly, and had pink skin on his snout like Pester.

Here's Pester and me in Goa. You can read my blog post about The Dogs of Arambol at this link.

Unfortunately, it seemed as if my pink eye (conjunctivitis from allergens) was back. I still had the medication from the ophthalmologist and decided that I’d have to stop wearing my contact lenses for a while (perhaps a week) and use the eye drops. This sucked as there was a kitesurfing school right next door and it would have been great to rent gear and try and progress my skills.

Some local boys playing football:

One of many kitesurfing schools/shops on Jambiani and Paje beach.

Whoa, someone has a fancy house.

Instead, I decided to visit the popular beach about 6 km north called Paje. This was the beach that the owner of the kitesurfing school in Kenya had said was really busy…and he was right. I sat down at an upper floor of a restaurant with a view of the water and counted over 72 kites. Wow. It was entertaining to watch all the action.

Plenty of kitesurfers at Paje:

This was another group of local acrobats, with a bit more of a set show than the guys in Stone Town. Later I saw a group of young boys trying to do a similar act, but it was not as impressive (not surprisingly), but good on them for trying.

This picture doesn't do it justice as to how busy it looked.

Kites, kites and more kites...

Some kites came pretty close to the upper balcony of the restaurant.

This was this guy's second attempt to jump over the boat with a guy filming from inside the vessel.

This was the only real mess up I saw, but I didn't actually see the incident. There's a kite on the boat in the middle of the picture. It has been deflated by a helpful guy who swam out to help the woman who is to the left of the boat.

The wind died down, so it became an even busier beach.

This guy was a good rider on a regular board. When the wind died down, he came in and switched to a foil board, where you ride a few feet above the water so there's less drag and it can be done in lighter wind.