Travel&Vacation

Going on vacation is great, but unless you can tie up with someone who actually lives in the area, or is very familiar with it, you will almost certainly miss the kind of place that is Robinson Island.



We were on a family holiday at Hemingways a quite superb hotel south of Malindi on the Indian Ocean. Everything about the hotel was more than fine. It is a real haven for the well behaved British middle class family, with great rules, like not using mobile phones in public areas. As well, if you appear in the bar after 7pm with a hat on it will cost you a round of drinks.



Our accommodation in a two bedroomed executive suite was quite superb, and the room boy Patrick took excellent care of us throughout our stay.



The food arrangements are half board, with complimentary classic English afternoon tea thrown in for good measure. The smell of the freshly cooking pancakes plus the beautiful crust free sandwiches really made lunch unecessary!!

The evening meal was either buffet, or beautifull presented dinner, with a different menu every night.



This article is supposed to be about Robinson Island, which we were very fortunate to be taken to by the owner of Hemingways Dickie Evans, plus his wife and some friends.

It is about an hours drive north from the hotel, past Malindi, and you turn off as you reach the Salt Flats, where most of Africa’s salt comes from. It is a rare sight with shallow ponds of salt water evaporating in the heat, then being scraped and shovelled, before being left in huge mounds to dry out.



Around fifteen minutes from the turn off, the bus stopped, and we were transported with our iced chiller boxes across a small creek, and we were on Robinson Island.



You visit for the restaurant which has no license so you bring your own drinks, and the restaurant itself has been built by beach combing.

Large tables, big cushioned seating areas, sand floor, and no electricity.



The food was to die for with fresh crab, straight from the sea, as big as dinner plates. No claw crusher, just a heavy stick to smash the shell, this was followed by huge prawns, and then some barbecued fish.