28APR2007 “Sundowning”

James and Kate Nokes have a gorgeous home on a cliff overlooking the Indian Ocean. They had a 100 foot tunnel dug (chiseled really, but certainly not blasted!), at an angle through the coral cliff, connecting their garden to the otherwise inaccessible beach below. The beach completely disappears at high tide, but at low tide, a small sandy beach and multiple coral tide pools are exposed and reveal all kinds of crabs, fish and other dudus (Kiswahili for creepy crawly thing). They invited us over for a sundowner (cocktails with sunset watching) dinner and tide-pooling with their three boys.

We saw some pretty cool mini-marine worlds in the tide pools and even managed to catch a picture of a moral eel gliding over the smooth coral in just a few centimeters of water.