In the Kilifi jungle where the ocean glows

Have you heard of bioluminescence? This is the emission of light by a living organism. It occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in fungi and some terrestrial invertebrates such as fireflies.

Our journey to watch the magical bioluminescent planktons glowing up the ocean at night at Kilifi Creek started one Friday night.

We arrived at Distant Relative Eco-lodge and Backpackers, an eco-friendly lodge located about one kilometre from Kilifi town, at around 8pm.

At the gate, there are lampshades made from recycled wine bottles to guide the path. Just like its name, Distant Relative brings people together from all over the world and its reception area tells it all. It has clothes, Swahili sandals, beaded baskets and jewellery made from beads.

Numerous lampshades made from baobab husks hang beautifully at the reception desk. When closed, a tree is formed artistically by the branches supported by a pulley system and a large stem with numerous roots that support the table at the reception.

Since every Friday is pizza night, we headed to the restaurant to enjoy the sumptuous meal. Wine or juice is served in recycled, cut and nicely shaped glasses. One can also opt to cook from the community kitchen in the lodge.

Here, they cook their pizza on traditional firewood oven.

“It takes almost five hours to light the oven so we have to start early. Once the oven is lit, pizza only takes a maximum of three minutes to be ready,” said Mwanase Ahmed, the manager at the eco-lodge.

The ocean lits up

At around 10pm, we went down the tyre stairs to the ocean to experience the magical moment. Our guide, Mukami Kitonga, told us to remove our shoes before stepping into the ocean.

“When you get in, splash the water using your legs,” she said.

We splashed the water with our feet, the ocean lit up, and as the planktons raced, they emitted blue lights. We kept wading through the water and enjoying the bioluminescence.

That night, we slept in a large mud-walled house thatched with makuti. It has a private courtyard, shower area and toilet.

Distant Relatives has turned into a millennials’ playground as it welcomes camping groups and backpackers. Almost everything at the lodge is recycled. Most seats and the pool table are made from old canoes.

“We like art, recycling and re-using every resource in our facility,” said Ken Mutinda, the marketing director at the eco-lodge.

The bathroom is made from bamboo trees, believed to be 50 years old. There is also a growing bathroom with live flowers and shower cables running through a tree trunk.

The shower knobs are made from wooden handles that stretch out of the tree trunks. It feels like bathing in the jungle.

Water from the washrooms is channelled to pits with banana plants. Organic waste from the kitchen is used as compost manure in a nursery that has coriander, tomatoes, wild basil among other plants.

Even the toilets are eco-friendly; they are made from mud and papyrus reeds.

They used tyres filled with soil to build the foundation of the toilets and recycled vegetables buckets and bleach containers to make the urine separator and conduit. When you answer to the call of nature, you cannot flush it down, you use sawdust instead!

Once the poo bins are full, they are placed in the sun to decay for about six months.

“When the temperatures in the bin reaches about 40 to 50 degrees within that period, all the germs are killed and what is left is what they call “humanure” or human manure. The humanure is valuable, we use it as fertiliser for trees,” Mr Mutinda said.

Besides holidaying like you are in the jungle, you can do Giriama village tours, go snorkelling, scuba diving or dhow sailing.

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