'Out of Africa' Part 2 - Kenya
by Charlie Todd
B&F January 2006
Following on from last month’s article about Uganda, we’re off on our travels once again, this time to neighbouring Kenya.
The Cameronian SDB, consisting of Charlie Todd, Ian Graham and Frank Morrison together with band roadies Kris Todd and Sandra Graham took to the road on Friday 18th November.
Day 1 – Rise at 3am, drive to Glasgow Airport, 1 hour flight to London Heathrow, 8 hour flight to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, sponsored by B.A. Move watch forward by 3 hours. Meet up with our hosts Bob and Sue Oliver and Wilson and Janette Graham.
Day 2 – Rise at 9am. Plans to visit the local ‘Triangle Market’ are shelved since there are a couple of very large meetings being held in town by opposing factions, for and against a new Constitution, for which there is a Referendum in a couple of days. Trouble is expected (but thankfully didn’t materalise). Instead at 11am we visit the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, and at 1pm the Giraffe Centre. Remained of the afternoon at leisure with a G&T in the garden. Evening – drive to the Muthega Golf Club (which featured in both of the films referred to below) to play for the Annual Ball of the Nairobi Branch of the RSCDS.
Day 3 – Drive up to Lake Naivasha which sits in the Great Rift Valley an hour north East of Nairobi, having stopped at the viewing point on the rim at 8,000 feet above sea level to look over to the extinct crater of Mount Longanot. Spend the afternoon at Elsemere, one-time home of world famous naturalists George and Joy Adamson (of ‘Born Free’ fame). See colobus and vervet monkeys, hippopotami, fish eagles, pelicans, hornbills and numerous other members of Kenya’s fantastically rich birdlife. (Apparently there are more species of birds on Karen Gold Course than there are in the UK.) On the shores of the Lake is the famous ‘Djinn Palace’, one-time home of Scotland’s senior aristocrat the Earl of Errol, whose life and murder during WW2 were dramatically portrayed in the film ‘White Mischief’. Evening – drinks and a meal at the home of south African born Chieftain Stewart Henderson whose lovely wife Linda has prepared a traditional South African meal in what they call a ‘potjie’ (pronounced poi-key) pot – a three-legged witches cauldron type pot similar to the type which graced many a ‘swee’ on the old Scottish dwelling house range. In fact they are still available and are, I believe, made in Falkirk?
Day 4 – Drive out to the airport and take the 40 minute flight down to Mombassa on the Indian Ocean. Transfer by taxi to the Driftwood Beach Club at Malindi.
Day 5 – At leisure – read, swim and eat and most importantly drink. Swimming in the Indian Ocean is an experience in itself. The shallow water within the Reef heats up quickly so it’ like being in a very warm bath.
Day 6 – After breakfast spend 2 hours snorkeling on the reef in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Huge variety of colourful tropical fish. Afternoon – by tuk-tuk to Malindi Town to visit the tourist shops.
Day 7 – After breakfast return to Monbassa and stop for 3 hours in the vicinity of Fort Jesus to sightsee and eat locally before returning to the airport and flying back to Nairobi. Evening – attend small gathering hosted by Neil and Joanna MacDougall. Joanna, a native of the Isle of Lewis, who has spent over 40 years in Africa with her Water Engineer husband, insists that everyone perform their party piece. Having left the accordions back at base Charlie is obliged to sing in public for the first time in living memory (and hopefully the last).
Day 8 – After breakfast drive to the Maasai Market, a huge weekly gathering of traditional local arts and crafts. Afternoon – 3pm entertain the elderly residents of Harrison house, the last of the old colonials, for 2 hours. Evening – attend a local school production of Babes in the Wood followed by tilapia and chips in the Java House at Nakumatt Junction.
Day 9 – 10am sound check at The Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi, venue for the St Andrews Ball. As usual 4 hours for a job that should have taken 20 minutes. Visit the Sarit Centre at Westlands and stock up on things you can’t get at home – mosquito nets, etc. Evening - dinner, speeches and we play from 11pm till 2am.
Day 10 – Rise late and after a leisurely breakfast visit the Bizarre Bazaar – a gathering of mzungu (white settler) produced arts and crafts. Evening – attend the Karen Golf Club and play some background music at the presentation of prizes of the Caledonian Golf Tournament. (The Karen District occupies the land of Danish authoress Karen Blixen whose life story was told in ‘Out of Africa’.)
Day 11 – Drive down to the Magadi Soda Lakes, located south-west of Nairobi, again in the Great Rift Valley. This 104 sq km lake is completely surrounded by vast natural soda flats which are continually supplemented as the water evaporates. These sweltering hot plains prevent any animals from reaching the alkaline lake at its centre. View pelicans and pink flamingoes in the searing heat of the world’s largest mined soda lake. Evening – 11pm departure from Jomo Kenyatta to London Heathrow then Glasgow Abbotsinch and home.
Observations on Africa – Almost every aspect of life in Africa is different and Kenya is no exception. Northern Kenya borders on Ethiopia, which the north-east adjoins the Somali Republic – both unruly and frequently wracked by civil war and famine. To the west lies Uganda and Lake Victoria part of which lies within Kenya’s borders. Here are some observations on life in Kenya for the ex-pat.
Security – Home security is rigorous. Houses or apartments may be grouped in walled complexes with ‘askari’ on the gate. Even within the compound each garden will be walled. The gardener will open the gate in daytime and again an askari, who spends a long night in a sentry type box, during the hours of darkness. Because Nairobi sits almost on the Equator it gets dark just after six every night and light again at six in the morning all the year round. All windows are barred or grilled with a heavy gauge metal door protecting the normal wooden front and back doors of the house. Internally there will be at least one more metal door to separate the sleeping quarters from the living quarters, the idea being that thieves are welcome to steal the telly so long as they don’t murder everyone in the process!
Travel – Being a former British Protectorate traffic drives on the left, as we do. Roads are generally in a deplorable condition – potholes are everywhere. So, ironically, are ‘sleeping policemen’ although the need for them is generally negated by the potholes. It’s best to have the suspension raised before you take your new car out on the road. Traffic lights are used as a guide rather than taken as gospel. Roundabouts, and there are many, particularly on Nairobi’s main road, the Uhuru (Freedom) Highway, are an absolute free-for-all even when supposedly controlled by traffic lights. The height and weight of a 4 x 4 is a definite advantage. Street lighting is very scarce, although it has improved marginally in the past year due to ‘sponsorship’.
Gardens – Beautiful flowering plants and trees grow in profusion. The combination of height above sea level (almost 5,500 feet) which makes it bearably cool compared to the coast, periodic monsoon rainfall and the distinctive, rich, red soil give rise to an abundance of bougainvillea, frangipani, poinsettia, flame trees (of Thika fame) and dozens of others. To create a lawn you don’t sow grass seed, you merely lift and break up a square of turf and plant a few roots at 3 inch intervals. Six weeks later it will have spread to give you a new lawn. Roadside vendors on tracts of spare ground give you dozens of plant species to choose from at minimal cost. The trees play host to an unsurpassed variety of birdlife. You’re far more likely to wake up to the cry of an ibis in the trees than a cockerel. Houses tend to be built on hillsides and monkeys sometimes make their way along the trees bordering the streams in the intervening valleys which serve to drain away the monsoon rainwaters.
Safari – The word comes from the Swahili meaning ‘journey’ but will be forever linked in our minds with viewing wildlife on the plains. Kenya (with its numerous gameparks including the Maasai Mara and Tsavo) and neighbouring Tanzania (with the Serengeti and the Ngorrogorro Crater) play host to hundreds of thousands of wild animals. The Mara River is famous for its hippos and crocodiles as well as being a major obstacle, which has to be crossed, in the path of the annual migration. Lake Nakuru is the home of tens of thousands of flamingo while in the north of Kenya the area around Lake Turkana is known as ‘The Cradle of Mankind’ since Professor Richard Leakey discovered some of the oldest human remains ever found. Uganda is perhaps best known as one of the last refuges of the mountain gorilla and for Lake Victoria’s various attractions.
The Coast – Kenya sits on the Indian Ocean and has two principal resorts – Mombasa and Malindi. Both are major locations for game fishing – marlin, shark, swordfish, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado etc but equally important also boast a reef which provides wonderful snorkeling and scuba diving and beautiful, palm fringed, white sandy beaches for those who prefer a more relaxed holiday. A variety of hotels with evocative names such as White Sands, Nyali Beach, Hemmingways and Turtle Bay line the beaches. There are various things to do and see such as crocodile farms, butterfly farms and wood carving factories.
Shopping – The two major supermarket chains are Nakumatt and Uchumi. There are several shopping malls distributed around the city. Native stalls called ‘dukas’ appear along roadsides or collectively in markets, some of which cater for tourists. Kenya has a thriving industry devoted to carving everything from animals to Maasai warriors. My own favourites are the City Market in central Nairobi and the Triangle Market at Westlands, slightly further out. Haggling is obligatory but good natured (and you know you’ve done well when they congratulate you as occasionally happens).
Eating Out – For Scotland’s ‘other national dish’ the ‘Indian’ there is no finer place on earth. Asian labourers originally came to East Africa to build the railways a century ago and most stayed on. Their descendents run businesses and restaurants, and if you think your local Indian restaurant is good you should try this.
The Java Coffee House is a small chain which started recently but which has a great future ahead of it. Ironically, although Kenya produces some of the best tea and coffee in the world there was no-where that you could guarantee to get a good cup of either until the enterprising Kenyan wives of three US citizens started this business. They do good food too, although you’re more likely to get tilapia or Nile perch (from Lake Victoria) with your chips than haddock. Exotic fruits such as mango, paw-paw, pineapple, avocado etc are available in abundance. Sugar is semi-refined i.e. a brown colour but equally sweet. Tusker and Whitecap are the favourite local lagers but you can’t beat a Gin & Tonic as a ‘Sundowner’. Stoney Tangaweisi is a very popular locally-brewed ginger beer. The brewery was bought over by Coca Cola so it must be good.
Transport – Even setting aside financial constraints Kenyans are keen walkers and will happily walk miles each way to and from work. The most economic form of transport is the minibus or ‘matatu’ as they are called. Up until two years ago there was no enforced regulations regarding numbers carried and safety but a serious of serious crashes with high casualties changed all that. Buses are popular but there is no local train service. Heavy goods vehicles frequently severely overload to the extent that they are unable to climb the many hills and start rolling back, taking all in their wake. Very occasionally, just to show how much they’ve understood the root of the problem, the replacement vehicle sent to pick up the load at the crash site will suffer a similar fate! Engines, as a rule, are badly serviced and exhausts spew out clouds of noxious fumes. Fuel, I understand, is a bit more ‘raw’ than we are accustomed to here.
Conclusion – Kenya frequently received a bad press whenever an incident hits the international headlines but while it undoubtedly has its problems it is a wonderful tourist destination and visitors to the country are well looked after.
Our thanks to the Caledonian Societies of both Kenya and Uganda, to all our hosts, drivers, the sponsors (especially British Airways and SN Brussels) for making our trips such an interesting and unforgettable experience.
The Cameronian SDB, consisting of Charlie Todd, Ian Graham and Frank Morrison together with band roadies Kris Todd and Sandra Graham took to the road on Friday 18th November.
Day 1 – Rise at 3am, drive to Glasgow Airport, 1 hour flight to London Heathrow, 8 hour flight to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, sponsored by B.A. Move watch forward by 3 hours. Meet up with our hosts Bob and Sue Oliver and Wilson and Janette Graham.
Day 2 – Rise at 9am. Plans to visit the local ‘Triangle Market’ are shelved since there are a couple of very large meetings being held in town by opposing factions, for and against a new Constitution, for which there is a Referendum in a couple of days. Trouble is expected (but thankfully didn’t materalise). Instead at 11am we visit the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, and at 1pm the Giraffe Centre. Remained of the afternoon at leisure with a G&T in the garden. Evening – drive to the Muthega Golf Club (which featured in both of the films referred to below) to play for the Annual Ball of the Nairobi Branch of the RSCDS.
Day 3 – Drive up to Lake Naivasha which sits in the Great Rift Valley an hour north East of Nairobi, having stopped at the viewing point on the rim at 8,000 feet above sea level to look over to the extinct crater of Mount Longanot. Spend the afternoon at Elsemere, one-time home of world famous naturalists George and Joy Adamson (of ‘Born Free’ fame). See colobus and vervet monkeys, hippopotami, fish eagles, pelicans, hornbills and numerous other members of Kenya’s fantastically rich birdlife. (Apparently there are more species of birds on Karen Gold Course than there are in the UK.) On the shores of the Lake is the famous ‘Djinn Palace’, one-time home of Scotland’s senior aristocrat the Earl of Errol, whose life and murder during WW2 were dramatically portrayed in the film ‘White Mischief’. Evening – drinks and a meal at the home of south African born Chieftain Stewart Henderson whose lovely wife Linda has prepared a traditional South African meal in what they call a ‘potjie’ (pronounced poi-key) pot – a three-legged witches cauldron type pot similar to the type which graced many a ‘swee’ on the old Scottish dwelling house range. In fact they are still available and are, I believe, made in Falkirk?
Day 4 – Drive out to the airport and take the 40 minute flight down to Mombassa on the Indian Ocean. Transfer by taxi to the Driftwood Beach Club at Malindi.
Day 5 – At leisure – read, swim and eat and most importantly drink. Swimming in the Indian Ocean is an experience in itself. The shallow water within the Reef heats up quickly so it’ like being in a very warm bath.
Day 6 – After breakfast spend 2 hours snorkeling on the reef in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Huge variety of colourful tropical fish. Afternoon – by tuk-tuk to Malindi Town to visit the tourist shops.
Day 7 – After breakfast return to Monbassa and stop for 3 hours in the vicinity of Fort Jesus to sightsee and eat locally before returning to the airport and flying back to Nairobi. Evening – attend small gathering hosted by Neil and Joanna MacDougall. Joanna, a native of the Isle of Lewis, who has spent over 40 years in Africa with her Water Engineer husband, insists that everyone perform their party piece. Having left the accordions back at base Charlie is obliged to sing in public for the first time in living memory (and hopefully the last).
Day 8 – After breakfast drive to the Maasai Market, a huge weekly gathering of traditional local arts and crafts. Afternoon – 3pm entertain the elderly residents of Harrison house, the last of the old colonials, for 2 hours. Evening – attend a local school production of Babes in the Wood followed by tilapia and chips in the Java House at Nakumatt Junction.
Day 9 – 10am sound check at The Intercontinental Hotel, Nairobi, venue for the St Andrews Ball. As usual 4 hours for a job that should have taken 20 minutes. Visit the Sarit Centre at Westlands and stock up on things you can’t get at home – mosquito nets, etc. Evening - dinner, speeches and we play from 11pm till 2am.
Day 10 – Rise late and after a leisurely breakfast visit the Bizarre Bazaar – a gathering of mzungu (white settler) produced arts and crafts. Evening – attend the Karen Golf Club and play some background music at the presentation of prizes of the Caledonian Golf Tournament. (The Karen District occupies the land of Danish authoress Karen Blixen whose life story was told in ‘Out of Africa’.)
Day 11 – Drive down to the Magadi Soda Lakes, located south-west of Nairobi, again in the Great Rift Valley. This 104 sq km lake is completely surrounded by vast natural soda flats which are continually supplemented as the water evaporates. These sweltering hot plains prevent any animals from reaching the alkaline lake at its centre. View pelicans and pink flamingoes in the searing heat of the world’s largest mined soda lake. Evening – 11pm departure from Jomo Kenyatta to London Heathrow then Glasgow Abbotsinch and home.
Observations on Africa – Almost every aspect of life in Africa is different and Kenya is no exception. Northern Kenya borders on Ethiopia, which the north-east adjoins the Somali Republic – both unruly and frequently wracked by civil war and famine. To the west lies Uganda and Lake Victoria part of which lies within Kenya’s borders. Here are some observations on life in Kenya for the ex-pat.
Security – Home security is rigorous. Houses or apartments may be grouped in walled complexes with ‘askari’ on the gate. Even within the compound each garden will be walled. The gardener will open the gate in daytime and again an askari, who spends a long night in a sentry type box, during the hours of darkness. Because Nairobi sits almost on the Equator it gets dark just after six every night and light again at six in the morning all the year round. All windows are barred or grilled with a heavy gauge metal door protecting the normal wooden front and back doors of the house. Internally there will be at least one more metal door to separate the sleeping quarters from the living quarters, the idea being that thieves are welcome to steal the telly so long as they don’t murder everyone in the process!
Travel – Being a former British Protectorate traffic drives on the left, as we do. Roads are generally in a deplorable condition – potholes are everywhere. So, ironically, are ‘sleeping policemen’ although the need for them is generally negated by the potholes. It’s best to have the suspension raised before you take your new car out on the road. Traffic lights are used as a guide rather than taken as gospel. Roundabouts, and there are many, particularly on Nairobi’s main road, the Uhuru (Freedom) Highway, are an absolute free-for-all even when supposedly controlled by traffic lights. The height and weight of a 4 x 4 is a definite advantage. Street lighting is very scarce, although it has improved marginally in the past year due to ‘sponsorship’.
Gardens – Beautiful flowering plants and trees grow in profusion. The combination of height above sea level (almost 5,500 feet) which makes it bearably cool compared to the coast, periodic monsoon rainfall and the distinctive, rich, red soil give rise to an abundance of bougainvillea, frangipani, poinsettia, flame trees (of Thika fame) and dozens of others. To create a lawn you don’t sow grass seed, you merely lift and break up a square of turf and plant a few roots at 3 inch intervals. Six weeks later it will have spread to give you a new lawn. Roadside vendors on tracts of spare ground give you dozens of plant species to choose from at minimal cost. The trees play host to an unsurpassed variety of birdlife. You’re far more likely to wake up to the cry of an ibis in the trees than a cockerel. Houses tend to be built on hillsides and monkeys sometimes make their way along the trees bordering the streams in the intervening valleys which serve to drain away the monsoon rainwaters.
Safari – The word comes from the Swahili meaning ‘journey’ but will be forever linked in our minds with viewing wildlife on the plains. Kenya (with its numerous gameparks including the Maasai Mara and Tsavo) and neighbouring Tanzania (with the Serengeti and the Ngorrogorro Crater) play host to hundreds of thousands of wild animals. The Mara River is famous for its hippos and crocodiles as well as being a major obstacle, which has to be crossed, in the path of the annual migration. Lake Nakuru is the home of tens of thousands of flamingo while in the north of Kenya the area around Lake Turkana is known as ‘The Cradle of Mankind’ since Professor Richard Leakey discovered some of the oldest human remains ever found. Uganda is perhaps best known as one of the last refuges of the mountain gorilla and for Lake Victoria’s various attractions.
The Coast – Kenya sits on the Indian Ocean and has two principal resorts – Mombasa and Malindi. Both are major locations for game fishing – marlin, shark, swordfish, yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado etc but equally important also boast a reef which provides wonderful snorkeling and scuba diving and beautiful, palm fringed, white sandy beaches for those who prefer a more relaxed holiday. A variety of hotels with evocative names such as White Sands, Nyali Beach, Hemmingways and Turtle Bay line the beaches. There are various things to do and see such as crocodile farms, butterfly farms and wood carving factories.
Shopping – The two major supermarket chains are Nakumatt and Uchumi. There are several shopping malls distributed around the city. Native stalls called ‘dukas’ appear along roadsides or collectively in markets, some of which cater for tourists. Kenya has a thriving industry devoted to carving everything from animals to Maasai warriors. My own favourites are the City Market in central Nairobi and the Triangle Market at Westlands, slightly further out. Haggling is obligatory but good natured (and you know you’ve done well when they congratulate you as occasionally happens).
Eating Out – For Scotland’s ‘other national dish’ the ‘Indian’ there is no finer place on earth. Asian labourers originally came to East Africa to build the railways a century ago and most stayed on. Their descendents run businesses and restaurants, and if you think your local Indian restaurant is good you should try this.
The Java Coffee House is a small chain which started recently but which has a great future ahead of it. Ironically, although Kenya produces some of the best tea and coffee in the world there was no-where that you could guarantee to get a good cup of either until the enterprising Kenyan wives of three US citizens started this business. They do good food too, although you’re more likely to get tilapia or Nile perch (from Lake Victoria) with your chips than haddock. Exotic fruits such as mango, paw-paw, pineapple, avocado etc are available in abundance. Sugar is semi-refined i.e. a brown colour but equally sweet. Tusker and Whitecap are the favourite local lagers but you can’t beat a Gin & Tonic as a ‘Sundowner’. Stoney Tangaweisi is a very popular locally-brewed ginger beer. The brewery was bought over by Coca Cola so it must be good.
Transport – Even setting aside financial constraints Kenyans are keen walkers and will happily walk miles each way to and from work. The most economic form of transport is the minibus or ‘matatu’ as they are called. Up until two years ago there was no enforced regulations regarding numbers carried and safety but a serious of serious crashes with high casualties changed all that. Buses are popular but there is no local train service. Heavy goods vehicles frequently severely overload to the extent that they are unable to climb the many hills and start rolling back, taking all in their wake. Very occasionally, just to show how much they’ve understood the root of the problem, the replacement vehicle sent to pick up the load at the crash site will suffer a similar fate! Engines, as a rule, are badly serviced and exhausts spew out clouds of noxious fumes. Fuel, I understand, is a bit more ‘raw’ than we are accustomed to here.
Conclusion – Kenya frequently received a bad press whenever an incident hits the international headlines but while it undoubtedly has its problems it is a wonderful tourist destination and visitors to the country are well looked after.
Our thanks to the Caledonian Societies of both Kenya and Uganda, to all our hosts, drivers, the sponsors (especially British Airways and SN Brussels) for making our trips such an interesting and unforgettable experience.