Press clippings
The sands of effortless time
A land you'll never forget
Kizingo - A star is born
Good clean fun…
Kizingo deserves to succeed
Sailing for your supper
Relaxed and lovely island
The sands of effortless time [Daily Telegraph - Travel, 15 February 2006]
It is hard, very hard, to escape from the hawkers and the "you want company" men and women who cruise Kenya's beach resorts. Or so I thought until I came across Kizingo, a proper no-news, no-shoes lodge on a deserted eight-mile strand of the island of Lamu.
Lamu itself is hardly a secret. Prince Ernst of Hanover and Princess Caroline of Monaco spend part of the winter in fashionable Shela, where Europeans are busy restoring the old Arab houses bought for a song from locals. And the lovely Peponi Hotel cossets minor royals, film stars and those who like to wear a linen jacket to dinner.
Some Shela residents bravely tackle the three-hour walk along the beach to Kizingo, but after arriving hot, red and weary, they usually vow never to do it again. That is just how we regular guests like it. Kizingo ticks all the boxes for a holiday hideaway: there are only seven bandas (simple palm-thatched cottages with walls of woven Pandanus), set in dunes just yards from the sea; it has a convivial bar and restaurant; and the hosts, Louis and Mary Jo van Aardt, have that rare ability to make visitors feel they are part of the family.
Guests wake each morning to see dhows sailing by, their shark's fin sails fat with wind. The beds are king-sized and romantic, draped with mosquito netting, and there are shady verandas to while away the hot afternoons.
In the three years since it has opened, word about Kizingo has quietly spread, attracting like-minded guests: people who enjoy good company, hate piped music and contrived entertainment, and whose idea of holiday bliss is to lie in a hammock reading a good book.
That is not to say there are no adventures to be had, effortlessly organised by the van Aardts. Mary Jo is on a mission to improve the schooling and water supply in the district, and only needs a glimmer of interest from the guests before they are organised on a trip to the mainland to see the work of the Kipungani Schools Trust.
She hires rickety old bikes from the locals for guests to pedal erratically through the cotton and maize fields, down sandy lanes shaded by cashew, mango and baobab trees. It is a rare opportunity to see a village in Kenya. There is the chance to drink honey beer with a farmer and his wife, chat to fellow cyclists on their way to market, and visit a school built and staffed with money donated by former guests.
Louis leads adventures of the watery kind: north to fly-camp on remote islets and explore the ruins of Pate, once an important Arab trading port; south to snorkel on a reef that is alive with fish and, between November and April, dolphin. There is something life-enhancing about plunging into the clear blue sea after a pod of dolphins, watching them duck and dive, spiral and sprint, and flip along on their backs as if to say: "Hello, look how clever I am."
They come close, but never too close, and there is constant chatter, clicking and squeaking. They are probably saying how slow and useless we are at swimming, even with those big flippers.
Apart from taking a couple of planes and a speedboat to get to Kizingo, guests can feel good about leaving only a small footprint. The lodge is built on land rented from Kipungani village, the power is solar, and shower water is recycled to grow plants and stabilise the dunes. It provides work for villagers, buys fish and vegetables from local farmers, and supports two island schools and other community projects.
But Kizingo's enduring appeal is not its eco-credentials, but the way it encourages guests to relax and slough off the trappings of the West as the days go by. Men swap linen trousers for Beckham-style kikoi skirts and the women abandon the make-up box and the hairdryer.
Around the dinner table, set on the sand beneath a zillion stars, the only sounds are the lapping of the sea and happy, carefree laughter as Mary Jo recounts another of her endless stock of shaggy-dog stories about the family's adventures in Africa. At times like this, the stresses of 21st-century life seem a very long way away.
A land you'll never forget [Daily Express, 25 June 2005]
The island of Lamu remains a relatively undiscovered gem. It may only be about an hour's flight north east from Nairobi, but it feels as if you have travelled back in time. One of the ten things you must do in Kenya - swim with wild dolphins at Kizingo and enjoy this wonderful, unforgettable experience.
Kizingo - A star is born [The Sunday Times, 20 March 2005]
There are several top-quality beach hideaways in this largely untouched archipelago but Kizingo took my breath away, and takes castaway luxury to a new level. It consists of just a few bandas hiding in the dunes. The atmosphere is religiously laid back, though snorkelling, swimming with dolphins and body surfing are on offer, plus turtle watching from October to June. Created in partnership with the local village and in harmony with the environment this is a world-class retreat in every way.
Good clean fun - how to have a fantastic holiday without destroying the environment [The Sunday Times, 16 January 2005]
If you weren't feeling so utterly lazy, swinging in a hammock and staring out at the rolling surf, you'd probably give yourself a pat on the back for discovering Kizingo, a lonely new barefoot-luxury lodge hidden in the sand dunes at the far end of nine miles of beach at the tip of Kenya's Lamu island. Most guests are here to relax after the relative bustle of a safari, but a week here would unwind any stress case.
Good for the planet: the local villagers specifically asked Mary Jo and Louis van Aardt to open Kizingo, because they felt they could be trusted to do it right. The airy banda lodges were all built by the villagers themselves, solar power provides the electricity and all your used water is collected and used to cultivate vegetation that protects the fragile dunes.
The Saturday Telegraph [24 July 2004]
Kizingo deserves to succeed; it is a perfect fusion of eco-lodge (solar power, water recycling, local market-gardening and education projects) with the level of comfort that well-heeled guests expect even in a 'no-news, no-shoes' kind of place.
Sailing for your supper [Metro, 29 March 2004]
Kizingo is an eco-lodge two degrees above the equator on the Kenyan island of Lamu. Owned by Louis and Mary Jo van Aardt, Kizingo juts out to the point at which the creek that separates Lamu from the Kenyan mainland meets the Indian Ocean. It's a group of six bandas - or thatched cottages - constructed from mangrove poles and straw to a surprising degree of luxury. All the bandas have ocean views, eco-loos and solar panels for hot water and lighting, but if you are a bit squeamish, it may not be the place for you. Kizingo's aversion to mod cons, such as air-conditioning, means the bandas have no windows or doors. It also means you may get the odd gecko running about. But if you are looking for a real desert island experience, it's an amazing place.
Though it has been open less than a year, Mary Jo and Louis have that rare ability to make you feel as though you are one of the family and their most revered guest at the same time. The couple have also helped build a village school for the islanders and established a sanctuary for the turtles that nest of their miles of sandy beaches. Life at Kizingo quickly settles into a routine. The staff do personal wake-up calls and guests usually follow breakfast with some sort of group activity - such as taking a tour of Lamu Town, sailing a dhow on the creek, beach or line-fishing and swimming with dolphins.
It's my second day at Kizingo, and a group of us has gone out with Louis to snorkel around the reef. Two wild pods of dolphins hang out in the surrounding waters, so we may get to swim with them. But there's no guarantee that we'll get a sighting because Louis refuses to resort to tricks such as feeding them. 'They have to remain wild, or what would happen if we left?' he reasons. On our way to the reef, dorsal fins appear on the watery horizon. In a bid to catch up with them, we dive into the sea, but our friends disappear again before we can reach them. This happens three more times, the dolphins obviously enjoying the tease. Giving up, we make for the reef, diving into underwater tunnels and exploring other sea life when the dolphin pod appears before us. I follow a pair, trying to keep pace, but they pull a lightning-quick back flip and shoot of in the other direction. They seem to be smiling, as if to say: 'You can't keep up, but we'll come and say hello anyway.' Back on the boat, we swap our dolphin tales. Some of us even have tears in our eyes.
Relaxed and lovely island [The Sunday Times, 8 February 2004]
Lamu is a tiny island filled with hot, hot days, perfect sea breezes and empty white-sand beaches. It has crumbling Arabic houses, narrow twisting streets, hectic marketplaces and stunning sunsets. For total isolation try Kizingo which is right at the top of the island offering barefoot luxury. The six thatched bandas are made of local materials by craftsmen in Kipungani village. The resort is a perfect departure point for swimming with dolphins, in an empty stretch of open sea without any hint of the fairground theme that can mar some dolphin 'attractions'. Take a sunset sailing trip on a traditional dhow boat or try kayaking, deep-sea fishing, windsurfing and snorkelling.
