Dodori Creek Fishing Camp, Lamu County
Prawn fishing camp along the banks of the Dodori Creek, Lamu County, Kenya. 16 January 2001.
One of the highlights of my time on Lamu was when I had the opportunity to take a boat trip up to visit one of the seasonal fishing camps along the Dodori Creek, where some of the men from Kipungani village on Lamu Island supplement their income by fishing for prawns in the creek. The prawns are boiled and dried on mats in the sun, as seen here, and eventually taken down the coast to be sold in the markets in Mombasa. It's about 35 miles up the coast from where I was staying at Kipungani, so to reach it, I and one of the other guests hired one of the hotel's small motor boats and their most experienced boatman, who thankfully knew the way.
The camp is situated within the Dodori National Reserve, which covers an area of 877 sq. km., consisting of coastal and riverine forests, mangroves, swampy grasslands and savannah that historically supported large populations of elephants, lions, buffaloes, coastal topi, gazelles, antelopes and water birds. The creek itself is a breeding site for dugongs. When I visited though, any wildlife that was there kept a very low profile, but then it was the middle of the day - and we couldn't stay for long, as we still had to get back to Lamu again before it got too dark.
Dodori Creek Fishing Camp, Lamu County
Prawn fishing camp along the banks of the Dodori Creek, Lamu County, Kenya. 16 January 2001.
One of the highlights of my time on Lamu was when I had the opportunity to take a boat trip up to visit one of the seasonal fishing camps along the Dodori Creek, where some of the men from Kipungani village on Lamu Island supplement their income by fishing for prawns in the creek. The prawns are boiled and dried on mats in the sun, as seen here, and eventually taken down the coast to be sold in the markets in Mombasa. It's about 35 miles up the coast from where I was staying at Kipungani, so to reach it, I and one of the other guests hired one of the hotel's small motor boats and their most experienced boatman, who thankfully knew the way.
The camp is situated within the Dodori National Reserve, which covers an area of 877 sq. km., consisting of coastal and riverine forests, mangroves, swampy grasslands and savannah that historically supported large populations of elephants, lions, buffaloes, coastal topi, gazelles, antelopes and water birds. The creek itself is a breeding site for dugongs. When I visited though, any wildlife that was there kept a very low profile, but then it was the middle of the day - and we couldn't stay for long, as we still had to get back to Lamu again before it got too dark.