Our adventure seemed to crescendo as we started to approach our final days away.
We parted from our bikes for the first time for months and headed off to the coast.
A week staying in a basic chalet on the incredible Diani beach was just so ridiculously idyllic and perfect. It was fun to play house again, to cook and to stay in the one place for 9 consecutive days. The space, endless hours of no plans now spelt freedom and possibility to me, at the beginning of our trip all that time stretching ahead had felt pretty daunting! We stayed at the beautiful secluded Diani Beach Chalets, an absolute paradise for us. The chalet was simple with an equipped kitchen, hot showers, running water and lots of space with a patio looking out over the beach and the sea. There is no WiFi or televisions to be seen which makes the experience all the more immersive.
Late night swims in the ocean and early morning walks, runs and stretches on the white beach and turquoise waters were such a treat.
If you want a relaxing week in a Kenyan beach paradise with fresh sea food stunning views, walks and lots of options for ocean activities check out the Diani Beach Chalets.
Rob and I decided to use some of the time to learn to kiteboard at Reef Kiteboarding Centre.
We started off learning with a trainer kite on the beach before moving on to learning to control the kite in the water.
Infiniity is one of the first strokes we learnt in terms of controlling the kite. Into infinity is where I thought I was going to go and not come back the first time I felt the power of the kite lift me up out of the water! Wow.
Rob progressed quickly in his lessons, he was able to zoom across the water before we left Diani. I was more of a 'poly, poly' ( slowly!) learner just delighted to get more and more confident in learning to control the kite in the water.
We made really good friends with the Reef Kiteboarding Team and decided to help as best we can to promote them. They are local instructors and don't have the technological headstart that non local kiteboarding schools have. We are going to build them a website and promote them on social media as much as possible.
We love the way learning to kiteboard at Reef Kiteboarding provided some cheesy yet fantastic life analogies. The kite needs the correct small movements to manoeuvre it to positions which power it or get it into a neutral place. The more relaxed we could be the better our control became. For me this took so much practicing in order to master these moves and be able to relax into it. In the same way learning to time and time again return to peace in myself is where I can then experience much clearer thinking and helpful actions......the power I need to move forward in every way.
Rob and I have a helpful morning routine which we have been doing since we first started spending time together. It greatly helps re the learning to live more from a place of peace. It includes having a delicious coffee whilst reading the bible or listening to a book, chatting through how we will apply what we are learning to the day. We pray together and sometimes meditate on what we have been contemplating. It was great to have more time to do this whilst we were at Diani. One theme I found so helpful to contemplate more is on the concept of having heaven in pur hearts and how as Dallas Willard puts: passing from life to death ideally could therefore be like just another day the more we can live from this heavenly place now. O ffor more of that!
In addition to enjoying kiteboarding we loved our simple routines at Diani. This included eating locally grown fresh fruit and vegetables and buying fish from the local fisherman. We had a couple of cats adopting us for the week and had a couple of visits into our chalet by monkeys on the prowl for some fruit! All just great experiences.
It was hard to leave Diani. Light, space, incredible colours and enjoying relaxing, walks, runs, swims and learning to kiteboard was just such such a special time. I hope we can go back there soon!
0 Comments