Watamu

Watamu: Where Oceans Shift and Skies Unfold

A first ever journey to Africa began with awe in the Maasai Mara and carried me eastward to Watamu, a place where the Indian Ocean glitters with an almost unreal brilliance. Staying at the fabulous Hemingways Watamu, I found myself immersed in a seascape of ever-changing moods — storm-laden skies, furious winds, and waves that churned with restless energy. Those first days were tempestuous, yet perfect, giving me the chance to lean into long exposures that captured the ocean’s rhythm beneath brooding, angry clouds.

And then, the transformation: clear skies and the equatorial sun comforted by cool gusts from the ocean. Tides rose and fell with dramatic force, amplified by the full moon, revealing sandbars and seaweed-strewn paths that led, almost magically, to the beach bar of a neighboring property. To walk through those shallow waters was to feel the pull of the sea, a reminder of nature’s constant motion.

What amazed me most was how alive the ocean was, right at our doorstep. Stingrays glided through the shallows, moray eels darted from coral crevices, puffer fish hovered like odd balloons, and octopus unfurled their shifting forms — a marine world of astonishing diversity, all within reach of the resort’s edge.

This photo essay is a reflection of those days — of colour and chaos, of wild skies and calm horizons, of a corner of Africa where the sea writes its own poetry in light and tide.