Driving the Coast: Mombasa to Lamu, the Long Way

The B8 from Mombasa to Malindi and on towards Garsen is fully tarmacked and, for the most part, in good condition. Done in one push it is six hours to Malindi and a long day beyond. Done properly it is four days.

Day one — Mombasa to Kilifi

Sixty kilometres, an hour and a half with traffic. Stop at Mtwapa for lunch on the creek, then cross the Kilifi bridge and stay a night above the water. Mnarani Ruins sit on the south bank and take forty minutes to walk.

Day two — Kilifi to Watamu

Only fifty kilometres, which is the point: you arrive by eleven and have the whole day. Gede Ruins, fifteen minutes inland, are the best Swahili archaeological site on the mainland and are almost always empty. Snorkel Blue Lagoon in the afternoon.

Day three — Watamu to Malindi and north

Malindi is twenty-five minutes on. Vasco da Gama’s pillar, the Portuguese chapel and a good Italian lunch. From there north the road empties out — Marafa Depression, the "Hell’s Kitchen" sandstone canyons, is an hour inland and worth the detour for the late-afternoon light.

Day four — to Lamu

From Malindi it is roughly three and a half hours to Mokowe jetty, where you leave the car in a guarded compound and take a boat across to Lamu or Shela. Check current security advice for the Garsen–Witu stretch before travelling; convoys are no longer standard but conditions change, and any reputable operator will tell you the current position honestly. Many visitors simply fly this leg — forty-five minutes from Malindi — and that is a perfectly reasonable choice.

Practical notes

Fuel at Mombasa, Kilifi, Malindi; after that it thins out considerably. Police checks are routine, polite and quick — have the logbook or hire agreement and your licence to hand. Avoid driving after dark anywhere north of Malindi. A saloon car will manage the whole route; a 4x4 gives you Marafa and the beach tracks.