The Historic Town and Archaeological Site and Kaya Giriama

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. The Historic Town and Archaeological Site

   Gedi does not announce itself. You drive along the Kenyan coast through palms, cashew trees and roadside stalls selling mangoes, turn in under the shade of the Arabuko-Sokoke forest, and suddenly there are coral-stone walls in the trees, a mosque with an arched doorway, a palace courtyard, houses with wells and sleeping niches, all roofed with branches and leaves instead of stone. This was a Swahili town, founded around the twelfth century and flourishing in the fifteenth, when it traded with the Indian Ocean world, with Chinese porcelain and Venetian glass turning up in the digging. By the early seventeenth century the people had gone. Nobody knows exactly why, and the theories, a shift of the coast, raids, or the failure of the water, have never been settled.

   Read the complete The Historic Town and Archaeological Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The Historic Town and Archaeological Site is where the day begins. Next is Kaya Kauma.

2. 2. Kaya Kauma

   The kayas are patches of forest scattered along the coast of Kenya, each one once the fortified village of a Mijikenda community, hidden deep in the trees for protection. The Mijikenda, nine related peoples of the coastal hinterland, later moved out of the forests, but the kayas remained sacred places, where elders held ceremonies, buried their leaders and made decisions, and where cutting trees or harming the forest was forbidden. That protection has preserved precious remnants of coastal forest, rich in rare plants and animals. In 2008, a group of them, including Kaya Kauma near Kilifi, was listed by UNESCO as the Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests.

   Read the complete Kaya Kauma write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kaya Kauma comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kaya Jibana.

3. 3. Kaya Jibana

   A kaya is a sacred forest, and for the Mijikenda peoples of the Kenyan coast it was once much more: a fortified hilltop village hidden in the trees, a place of ancestral graves, ceremonies and council. Kaya Jibana, belonging to the Jibana community, sits in the hills inland from the coast between Mombasa and Kilifi, and it is one of a group of kaya forests listed by UNESCO in 2008. People no longer live inside, but elders still guard it, and entry is regulated by customs that visitors should respect: guides, permission, and no cutting or taking.

   Read the complete Kaya Jibana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 90 km into the recorded legs you reach Kaya Jibana. Next is Fort Jesus.

4. 4. Fort Jesus

   Fort Jesus stands at the edge of Mombasa island looking out over the entrance to the old harbour, its thick coral-stone walls glowing ochre in the late afternoon. The Portuguese built it at the end of the sixteenth century, to a design by the Italian military architect Giovanni Battista Cairati, to secure their hold on the Swahili coast and the Indian Ocean trade. It changed hands repeatedly over the next two centuries, most famously after a siege by Omani Arab forces that lasted almost three years at the end of the 1690s, and later served as a prison. Since 2011 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the museum inside tells the story of the coast and its many rulers.

   Read the complete Fort Jesus write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fort Jesus, about halfway. Next is Kaya Giriama.

5. 5. Kaya Giriama

   Behind the beaches of Kenya's north coast, on the low red ridges inland from Kilifi, sit a string of forest patches that look like nothing much from the road. They are the kayas, once the fortified villages of the Mijikenda peoples, the nine related groups that include the Giriama, and today they are the sacred groves where elders still gather. The Kaya Giriama forest is one of them, and part of a UNESCO listing that covers several of these remnants of coastal forest. The village huts were long ago abandoned and the clearings overgrown, but the grove survives because it is protected by custom, so that cutting a tree or entering without permission is a serious matter.

   Read the complete Kaya Giriama write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kaya Giriama sits at 178 km, about halfway. Next is back through Fort Jesus.

6. 6. back through Fort Jesus

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Fort Jesus write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Fort Jesus comes up about 244 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Kaya Jibana.

7. 7. back through Kaya Jibana

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kaya Jibana write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 289 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Kaya Jibana. Next is back through Kaya Kauma.

8. 8. back through Kaya Kauma

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Kaya Kauma write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Kaya Kauma, late in the day. Next is The Historic Town and Archaeological Site.

9. 9. The Historic Town and Archaeological Site

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete The Historic Town and Archaeological Site write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 378 km.