Kenyan sailing

We had a late summer holiday this year. The days were getting shorter in the UK, leaves were falling from the trees and the evening chill was tempting us to turn on the heating. What better time of year to head off somewhere hot?

A friend of ours, Anne, is a sailing instructor. We'd learned to sail with her when she worked at a Neilson resort in Ortakent, Turkey. Neilson holidays are a great idea; you relax but you also get plenty of exercise. In that holiday I passed my Level 1 and 2 RYA dinghy sailing, my Level 1 windsurfing, and still found time to play tennis in the mornings, a couple of water-skiing lessons and visit Bodrum and the fantastic ancient Greek city of Ephesus.

Anne has moved on from Turkey, seeking somewhere she could spend the whole year round on the beach, so when she suggested we come and visit her in the resort of Kilifi in Kenya... well, who wouldn't?

Kenya has been in the news a lot recently, after a spate of kidnappings and murder of tourists on the north coast near Somalia. I spent a while studying the Google map of the area, which improved my African geography knowledge no end, but to be honest that wasn't hard. Kenya is close to quite a number of places that summon up thoughts of banditry; Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and of course Somalia. But in East Africa, the definition of "close" is somewhat different to that in Western Europe. A hundred miles can take an awful long time to traverse on the mud roads that are often more pothole than road. So we weren't unduly worried about the terrorist threat, but it's always there in the back of your mind.

Still, Kenya has a lot to offer. The sailing was excellent. Kilifi is on the coast by the side of a creek, a natural bowl lake leading to the sea. It's on the side of this creek that Neilson had their sailing centre. The creek makes a great place for both beginner sailing (which, despite my certificates, still describes me) and more advanced sailing as you head out towards the reef and the open sea and the wind picks up. I spent most of the time sailing the Laser Ones, great little one-man dinghies - you might have seen them being sailed rather better than I can in the Olympics, and tried our hands at the larger Laser Bahia. We also had a blast on the Laser Dart 16, a catamaran, and tried our hands at trapezing while the expert hands of Anne kept us on course and kind of upright.

What makes Kilifi a slightly different place for a sailing holiday is that you can get off the water for a few days and go and look at, say, some lions or an elephant. So that's exactly what we did. Our excellent tour guide Jackson and his trusty Nissan, Geraldine, took us to Tsavo East National park and Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary. I hadn't expected to see quite so many wild animals quite so quickly, from zebra to warthog, ostrich to impala, hartebeest to elephant, all manner of bird of prey and a surprisingly large number of lions. The highlight had to be when the lioness we were watching called and three little heads popped out from behind the rocks. The cubs were as playful as you could hope for and incredibly cute for raw killing machines.

I can heartily recommend you go and visit Kilifi whether you can already sail or want to learn. Neilson is actually closing its centre at the end of the year. But fear not! Anne and the team love it there so much, they've decided to start their own sailing, windsurfing and watersports company. Based in both the original location of the Mnarani Club Hotel and the rather lovely Boatyard (which has a great bar and restaurant), the team of 3° South will soon be open for business.

Go. You really should.