The following article was published by Rupi Mangat in the Saturday Magazine of the Daily Nation on

October 4th 2003

A weekend of sand and diving

By Rupi Mangat

At the precise time that the dive lesson was scheduled in the swimming pool at Kenya Bay Beach Hotel, the sky turned dramatically from sky blue to a ferocious grey. The clouds covered the skies and the rain poured from the heavens.

"Never mind," said Chris Koller, the owner of Peponi Divers and a certified PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) instructor, "you're going to get wet anyway." Paul Karisa Cheupe, his assistant helped with diving gear. I thought it was going to keep me warm as I listened to Paul by the pool in the rain. Divers communicate by sign language, using their hands underwater. If everythings okay, you give the "O", if you want to go up, it's thumbs up and so on. This was getting exciting - now was my chance to do what l had wanted to learn for so long - deep sea diving and this one day fun dive was the perfect stepping stone. After this weekend, l was going to be the diving diva of the underwaters.

Next went on the tank with the compressed air on the back and the flippers on the feet and in we went into a pool that literally felt like there were ice cubes in it. The first breath escaped me involuntary. Still it wasn't so bad as l cleaned the mask and donned it over the eyes and bit on the snorkel. That fitted well. Next, some more instructions on breathing and going down, with the help of weights fitted around the waist belt and deflating the air jacket to help sink to the required depth underwater. Meantime, the rain still kept its pitter-patter in the pool and the wet suit - well you do get wet and but not as cold as when you don't have it on. Down we sunk into the pool.

It was easier than l expected but the cold water bit into every pore in the skin and this wasn't getting to be much fun. A cardiac arrest wasn't something l wanted. I'd wait for a sunnier time. It never came the whole weekend through.

"Well, never mind," said Chris again. "We'll wait," so sure about the sun shining again. Meanwhile the waves hit the reef, drawing a fine white line across the ocean where the reef separates the deep sea from the inner waters of the coral reef.

"For me, this is the one of the top three diving destinations in the world," says Chris, pointing to the open ocean facing us. He can't choose the best between Malaysia, Tahiti or the Kenyan sea.

The one day fun dive is geared to take any reasonably good swimmer to swim in the coral gardens of the undersea at a shallow depth between two to seven metres. The pool lesson is to give you the basic skills of safe diving but you are only allowed to dive in the company of a qualified diver like Chris.

"Come on, l'll take you to the reef in the glass bottom boat," said Chris and off we went in his boat. The choppy sea was less choppier than the night before where waves had crashed violently onto the shorline. Faud Ahmed Bunu, another of Chris' employees jumped into the water with the obligatory bread to entice the fish.

Suddenly there was a shoal of black and white - appropriately named zebra fish.

"Seven kilometres of the reef is protected by the Kenya Wildlife Service," goes on Chris, meaning that you can be charged for activities that can damage the reef such as breaking chunks of it or klling fish or collecting shells.

Glints of the sun shine on the shoals of coral fish now swimming close to the surface, striking blues and greens and purples in the water. It's magical.

Below, the surgeon fish, named for its sharp knife like protrusion swim in colours of pale yellows and different coral colonies sit on the ocean floor.

"During the El-Nino in 1997, when the water temperatures rose, much of the coral got bleached but the recovery has been good. Outside the coral reef, it's 100 percent recovery, here its getting there."

The sea is fascinating. On the outer side, there are more animals of the ocean that with time Chris has come to respect like the reef sharks, the spotted moray eels, the sting rays and many more. For him the sharks are one of the most misunderstood animals in the world - yet only a mere few will kill out of the thousands of shark species.

Two thirds of the earth's surface is covered by water. We are still learning from the sea. Some of the world's deepest seas, covered in a dark abyss where no light has ever penetrated, hides secrets that we cannot even fathom. For the rest, the ocean is by its very size, a great natural factory that churns out

much of the oxygen we breathe thanks to its underwater forests of seeweeds and other plants.

There's no doubt that for centuries people have used the sea as a dumping ground. But the trash we throw in today is much different to what our ancestors threw out which was mostly things that could easily rot or keep like the sunken treasuries. But now we have a new menace - plastic and other synthetic goods.

They don't rot and will for centuries remain in the ocean, killing innocent animals like turtles, fish and birds that swallow the pest.

As a social responsibility, we have to take care of our natural resources. As a management policy, Kenya Bay Beach Hotel supports the International Coastal Cleanup usually held in September, a one day event to clean up the litter on the beach.

Chris and his team also participate in the beach clean but go one step further - they actually dive and collect rubbish under water for the whole week. They collect the rubbish till Saturday and then take it to the collecting point at public beach on Saturday the 20. September. Chris gives out 50 t-shirts to the participants.

The sun has shown up. I didn't dive but with every trip, you learn something and the great people who go about making it a better place. We've been able to hop across the road to Baobab Farm turned into a fascinating jigsaw of living ecosystems and spanning time from when the prehistoric sea covered it to the present. It's time to leave now. Maya and l take a last stroll down the beach.

The four year old picks up a shell, inspects it and then throws it into the sea because that's where it lives. She's learnt that from people like Aunty Tina at Kinondo Kwetu, Dr. Haller at Baobab Farm and from so many other people. It's a compliment to people like them when a child realizes for herself what's good for the Earth.

Rupi Mangat can be reached at email: mangat@nbi.ispkenya.com

Fact File 

Stay at Kenya Bay Beach Hotel on Bamburi Beach. Email: reservations@kenyabay.com or log onto www.kenyabay.com Tel: 254-02-537300/1/2. There are great offers and it's value for money without breaking the bank balance. Walking distance from Kenya bay is Peponi Divers, offering a range of dives for beginners to certified divers.

Email: diving@peponidivers.com or log onto www.peponidivers.com or

sms to +254 722 412302

Kenya Bay Beach Hotel is within walking distance of Baobab Farm, where you can enjoy a jog or run through the tropical landscaped paths or go the Nguuni Hill, where the prehistoric seas once covered the area. For more on International Coastal Cleanup and Baobab Farm Email: Baobab Trust:

baobabtrust@swiftmombasa.com

Kenya Bay Beach Hotel - Amazingly Afordable! 

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