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What a couple of weeks!!!!!!!!

Firslty we had a superb time aboard the SY Jambo which sailed to Pemba Island (Tanzania) from Shimoni (Kenya) on 22nd December. Its sailing liveaboard, almost exactly the same as a Red Sea Liveaboard but you sleep in coffins, leap of the side of the boat to get in, and pray whilst grabbing the ladder to get out. No, actually it bears no resemblance to a RSL at all. But soooooo romantic.

Captain Hans (German) was a stickler for his schedules whilst his lazy wife (Kenyan) Lillian let us bring up and entertain their 5 year old boy Nicky (Germyan?). Only in Africa could you get this.

Great diving if you like drifts. And how fast (and deep; 8 were below 40m and one to 52m) were they? Thank god for DSMBs. Lots of big fish, but disappointingly only one reef shark. Some of the corals and reef fish are every bit as good as the Red Sea

Food was good for a tiny kitchen and the highlight was eating freshly caught raw tuna with wasabi dip.

Three days in Mombasa saw us caught up in the riots, culminating in us barracading ourselves into the first class lounge in Mombasa Airport when we found out our flights had been cancelled and Kenya Airways wanted to send us back to a hotel. No way were we leaving the safety of that airport at 10pm on New Years Eve (too many machetes for my liking). We saw the new year in with 11 others with a bottle of vodka and a litre of pineapple juice (a wonderful mixture). We finally made it home to Huddersfield about 10pm on New Years Day.

Might try Iraq next year.

Tim