We flew to Mombasa from Nairobi arriving late at night and were slightly concerned that we had to have an armed guard in our taxi to take us to the hotel; this was our first indication of the dangers of travelling by road in Mombasa.  We stayed in the Baobab Beach Hotel for the next seven nights generally relaxing and enjoying the sun and hotel pool.  We were warned about leaving the hotel alone as outside the high fencing around the hotel grounds it could be very dangerous.  This did not cause us any real concerns as the hotel was absolutely fantastic and the pool, food and entertainment enough for us after several days getting up at the crack of dawn and rushing off all over the countryside in search of animals.

Every morning at breakfast the baboons in the trees around the restaurant attempted to 'pinch' guests' food from the table and one of the staff complete with safari hat and slingshot tried to scare them off.  There was only ever going to be one winner there and it wasn't the 'hunter' on two legs,the baboon saw him coming every time and escaped; it gave us some amusing moments nevertheless.  We also found it amusing that the baboons, who of course had no fear of the guests just wandered around the place and if you were silly enough to leave any food or your drink by the sun longers they very quickly took that.  This happened to Sue who had her back to the baboon and was completely oblivious that he was drinking her cocktail.  The hotel pool was very good and for the younger guests there were many organised activities including pool football which Bob took part in.