MOMBASA

A PORT WITH HISTORY

The story of Mombasa goes bak to Solomon, his shipmen to Tyre and Tharshish and their travels down the east coast of Africa seeking gold, silver, black woods, ivory and peacocks all for the adornment of the new temple in Jerusalem.A Greek captain of an Egyptian trading vessel at the time wrote in his log og the imports and exports, the trading establishments and how the Arabs married the local girls and now between them they provided the basis of Swahili. now Kenya’s national language.For a thousand years ther was peace on this coastline; Christian Arabs at the time sailed in their thousands to the east coast, set up townships and plantations.However, as years passed the portuguese navigators were thinking of a sea route to the Indies, but it was not until the mid 1400s that Prince Henry the Navigator of portugal provided the ship, crew and the commander, Vasco da Gama, to sail round the cape of Good Hope and into the Indian Ocean. The fleet reached Mombasa in 1498. A few years later the portuguese conquered the east coast, built fortresses and did their best to defeat the Arabs and local populace. Two hundred years later the portuguese left in defeat.For a century all was quiet. Then Sultan Seyyed Said of Oman moved his court from Muscat to Zanzibar, invited foreigners with their trading skills to the islands of Zanzibar and Mombasa. As the east coast began to flourish so did traders, missionaries and explorers seek pathways into the interior, from Mombasa to the Congo, to the Atlantic Ocean. On the way was Uganda. The Arabs managed the slave trade until Britain stopped it Meanwhile, Britain had been busy at Mombasa where a terminus of Uganda Railway was constructed at kilindini and son, the tourist people, were advertising safaris by rail and ship ( the latter round Lake Victoria) and the railways was printing posters showing the delights of passengers offering buns to elephant from train carriage windows.

MOMBASA OLD PORT

For the past two thousand years or so wooden lateen-sailed dhows form Arabia and further east have called at Mombasa old port. They were engaged in trading in carpets, dates, ivory, spices, blackwoods and peacocks.To this day a few dhows call at Mombasa mostly engaged in trading up and down the East African coast from Arabia to Zanzibar.The facilities that at one time could cater for as many as fifty sea-going dhows at a time are now under utilized......until that is, that plans for developing the Old Port for the new style smaller luxury cruise ships are put into effect.The Old Port provides a safe and sheltered anchorage with excellent draft of up to 16m in the entrance channel. At present there are berthing facilities only for dhows and small coastal vessels together with offices for immigration, port health, customs and port police. The plan is to develop the port so that cruise ships of up to 100m long can come alongside possibly at English point immediately opposite the Old Town.The limitation on the use of Mombasa Old Port relates as much as anything to the passenger capacity of the ships. Anything more than 120 passenger could cause congestion in the narrow streets of Mombasa Old Town and an undue strain on the transport infrastructure.Nevertheless, the advantages in touristic terms of arriving in a truly ancient historic environment literally under the shadow of the 16th century Fort Jesus and berthing in an Arab/ Swahili town barely changed in recent centuries, are easily recognised. Until the planned facilities are in place cruise ships, especially those of the ‘expeditions’ and ‘adventure’ type are welcome to enter the Old Port and anchor instream opposite Mombasa Old Town. Passengers can be taken ashore to the existing facility by ships tender of locally chartered launches or small dhows.Large motor coaches cannot negotiate the narrow streetsa but a shuttle system of mini buses will take passengers to coaches waiting near to Fort Jesus for onward transport to the town center or beach hotel.Telephone and postal service are at present somewhat limited but a proposal is beign advanced to position a mobile post office at the Old Port during visits of cruise ships.Mombasa is an island set into the mainland embraced by two arms of the Indian Ocean. One arm includes Kilindini harbour and the other is termed Mombasa old harbour. It is called ‘old’ because it was Mombasa’s first harbour and dates back before the time of Christ and, remarkably, Old Mombasa Harbour has hardly changed. This is the harbour in which the lateen sailed wooden dhows of Arabia and India to this day drop anchor. Here the harbour is wide with safe and sheltered achorages. And yet only minutes away is the laning stage and beyond there are the delights of the Old Port town of Mombasa with Fort Jesus lss than five minutes walk along a narrow street.The waters of the Old Port redilent with history. It was in the anchorage that Portuguese, Turkish and British battleships attacked the town of the Fort. During the early 1500s the Portuguese bombarded the town every time they passed, saying that it took a day to knock Mombasa down and another to build the place again.Today Fort Jesus, built by the Portuguese in the 16th century, is a museum and will worth a visit to see thousands of artifacts recovered from depths of the harbour waters and from the Old Town.When in 1938 the Gripsholm, the first cruise vessel to visit Kenya, arrived at Kilindini, something changed in Mombasa. We had met the outside world- ordinary, kindly, pleasant people who were taking an interest in us, our island, trees, flowers, peculiar dances and in the way we lived.We are always please to meet our visitors and we know that all over the world there are photographs and films showing how we live almost on the equator in a world of beauty and content such as is not found in many strange parts of the world we live.

TOUR AND SAFARIS

The largest tour operators in Mombasa can provide more than 2500 seats in eight 40, 44,or 45 seater coaches( many but not all, are air conditioned); 30 cabstar coaches seating 18 passengers and 170 minibuses.It is will recognised that shore arrangements for visiting cruise ships may require more capacity( especially air-conditioned) than any one tour operator can provide. However it is common practice in such circumstances for tour operators to cooperate by subcontracting the hire of coaches to make sure the needs of visiting ships are fully met.

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