Mida Ecocamp consists of a bar/restaurant on a platform overlooking coast and forest. We offer three traditional built huts, but with yet concrete floor, clean white bedding and mosquito-nets. We also accommodate campers in five secluded sites and overland-trucks in a separate site next to the camp. Seven Tours can be undertaken from the camp and traditional Giriama singing and dancing can be booked on the site. Until the season starts pre-booking is essential.

Mida Creek is a 32km² creek of the Indian Ocean. It is a few minutes walk from the Malindi-Mombasa Road, 100km North of Mombasa, 20km South of Malindi. The camp itself is nestled between a mangrove coast and the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest and the friendly community of Mida Village.

Refrigerator and lights in kitchen and toilet/shower are run by solar system.
Bar/Restaurant is lit by kerosene lights and candles. The courtyard is lit by a large campfire.

Anything is farmed organic here. We are not farming ourselves, as this would take that chance of an occupation away from other locals. An agriculture programme of how to increase the fertility of the ground is on the list ‘to do’…for Mida Creek. Another charity already said they would help with a programme in Mida.

Everything possible should come from local suppliers. For a start the camp was built with locally purchased mekuti, casurinas and dead, but for building suitable coconut trees. Locals also supply limes, coconuts, fish and calamari, milk from their cows, vegetables and fruit when available and the old ladies are making charcoal for us. Most of our recepies are the traditional Giriama ones, which are based on these ingredients. One of the locals would like to start chicken-farming and I personally would like to assist him in the near future.

Buying local goods, most things are wrapped in newspapers or old sacks and bottles, that need to be returned – these things have value here! The rubbish is minimal and goes in a dug out whole in the ground 100 meters away from the camp. Once it is full it gets burned and covered..

We are using dishwashing cleaner (axion, as it can only be used sparingly), washing-powder for sheets and toilet cleaner, that is available in the next town.

We connected a water-pipe to the mains on the Malindi-Mombasa Road. We still try to use water sparingly as it has a completely different status here.

The water is pretty clean in the Watamu/Mida Creek area (cleaner than in most places in the UK, the local guidebook claims) and we are not purifying it. For drinking we offer guests sealed bottled water.
For our waste water in the camp we built a septic tank. The water from the eight separate showers on the overland-truck campsite can be re-used for growing more demanding plants as bananas one day.

Mida Creek is ‘full of life’, but still classed as an area of highest priority for conservation (Mida Creek is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve). Conservation laws have been made, that restricted the life of the locals living there. We support the idea of conservation full-heartedly, but believe it is necessary to have a balance between people and nature, to not add to the people’s suffering. Mida Ecocamp will give people a separate way of income and also highlight the importance of their stunning surroundings. Some issues we would like to tackle directly – for example replacing the illegal nets fishermen use, so the fish-population can one day recover (the nets now are to small and fish cannot grow to a proper size or reproduce. We had weeks with fishermen coming home empty-handed. Unfortunately this is still a long way off.

That Mida Creek won’t change a bit apart from available health-service, available schooling and available food for the local people living there. That alone will have a positive impact on the whole environment.

Sammy Sabaganga has attended secondary school and a 2-year course in ‘Tourguiding’ accepted by the Kenyan Wildlife Service. He has got the knowledge to pass on and does though when he takes tourists for an excursion. There have been talks of offering courses for children and making them aware of their environment, but I have to focus on the running of the camp first.
During the building work we offered free food to children who cleaned up washed up rubbish on the beaches.

In our two years travel in Africa we have seen a lot of places spoilt by tourists. It is in our greatest intention that this doesn’t happen in Mida. On our notice-board  in the office we ask tourists not to hand out sweets or money to children or pay over-priced fees for goods and services. If they would like to help the people and children, they can purchase school-uniforms or pay a year’s school fee for a child instead. We are also more than happy to assist tourists in any decision making in connection with giving a donation and being sure that the intended recipient receives it. Mida Ecocamp is looking after the community as a whole.

I really don’t believe at this stage there is a big environmental impact due to the camp. The only improvement we could make is to exchange the kerosene for the restaurant lights with an eco-friendly product, produced nearby. But this won’t be possible until the season starts and the camp is turning over some money.

We so far only received customer feedback through word of mouth. We have only been opened for a short while, but managed to have a list of returning customers. I am glad to say, that we had mostly very positive comments. Any negative feedback has been and will be a lesson to be learned from!

The camp belongs to the local community – I am helping on a volunteer basis. The camp’s intention is to give the people a place of work to improve their lives, build a subsidised dispensary, help with schooling and make sure people will be able to maintain a healthier nutrition than now. Being a traditional Giriama camp, it helps the locals to get some of their pride back and the tradition alive.

Not yet looked into it.

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Please provide 2 references, preferably one from the local or national government tourist authority or a registered NGO (Non-profit Non Governmental Organization) locally, and the other from your certification scheme if you are in one.