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The hotels at
Watamu look over two beautiful inlets, Turtle Bay and Blue Lagoon, the former dotted with unnamed islets, one unmistakably the shape of a turtle. North from Kilifi, the coast road has run virtually straight, until the turn off to Watamu, save for a gentle curve as the road skirts the wonderful bird sanctuary of Mida Creek. The creek is a broad expanse of tidal mudflats surrounded by a belt of mangroves where three species of the eye catching bee-eater family enliven the dense green. From late March until early May, the creek attracts vast numbers of migrating waders; little stints, greenshanks, whimbrels, curlews, terek sandpipers and many more, dressed in their breeding plumage in readiness for their arrival a little later in Europe. Beside the migrants there are numerous resident birds of special interest like the crab plover, sooty gulls and the osprey.
Near to Mida Creek is Kenya's greatest archaeological heritage, the ruined city of Gede (sometimes Gedi), a lost city whose population inexplicably vanished in the 17th century. The outer wall of this lost city encloses an area of about 18 hectares and a well-informed guess would put the population at around 2500. Many of the houses together with the Sultan's palace have been excavated and partly restored; perhaps it is wandering in a lifeless city, which, without fail, evokes mystery, suspense and melodrama as the visitor relives a past era. Even at high noon when the hot sun strikes down through the surrounding jungle the rustle of monkeys or the flutter of birds can make the heart leap. Few people linger in Gede's ruined walkways as the sun's shadows lengthen. The initiated choose Watamu and the Marine Park where five hotels welcome the fisherman, the scuba diver, the water skier or those who just want to relax, sunbathe and feast on an entrancing seascape.
Turtle Bay is within the Watamu Marine Park and faces southwest and from the beach the visitor looks down the 4 kilometer sweep of the park. The Marine Park is itself within a Marine Reserve whose boundary stretches three miles out to sea parallel to high water mark on the mainland. At the southern end of the Park, within a small reef, which separates Mida Creek from the sea are some caves, housing a collection of very large groupers or giant rock cod. To find them you must search the tunnels, which run under and through this little reef. The first sight may be their enormous, gaping mouth, fringed with tiny fish. A side view of these huge placid monsters shows that they are five to six feet long weighing several hundred pounds. They are alleged to be harmless.
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