Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Diary entry by Juliet 31 Mar 1975 –

This morning at about 6:30am Caroline & Martin Trent, Stephanie their friend, Mike Mowat, and our family left in our red minibus for a day visiting Lake Magadi. It was very misty, cloudy and rainy when we left. We took about 4 hours to drive there and stopped a few times on our way. As we travelled we went through great plains with little bushes and passed small valleys with lots of green trees. We saw cow and goat herds and Maasai villages called manyattas. They have thorny bushes in a circle around them with loaf-shaped huts. The Maasai people wear mainly red or brown cloths draped around their bodies. The cloths are often checked tablecloths. They slit their ears and stretch them and put things in them. I have seen some people with pencils and buttons and a lot of beads. The women wear a lot of bead jewellery around their necks and on their ears. Lake Magadi is very long and the first we saw of it from a hill was white sort of crystalline stuff with patches of blue. As we went down towards the lake we smelled a horrible smell. It really smelled disgusting – I cannot explain what it smelled like because I haven’t smelled anything as bad except maybe the bone-yard in Bristol. The town of Magadi is very small and shabby. The lake has soda growing in it and that is why it smelled and looked like crystals. We went across a causeway but we then must have taken the wrong turning so we decided to go back because we needed petrol. So back again we went and got our petrol then we drove down another road to the end of the lake. We saw lots of flamingoes in the water. At the end of the lake we stopped and had lunch on a small hill. Just as we were finishing it started raining so we went back to Magadi and got a drink – I had Fanta lemonade. There were a lot of Maasai around and Caroline and Stephanie wanted to take some photos but they don’t like you taking them. We then started for home. On the way we stopped for some tea and we saw some baboons. On the journey we saw quite a few packs or herds of baboons. We had a nice day even though it was hot and smelly at Magadi.

Letter from Graham to Grandad Cole 6 April 1975 –

Last Monday we travelled about 70 miles through the Rift Valley to Lake Magadi. It is a big lake with soda on it and the chemicals make it pink. Much of the water is covered by a crust of solid chemicals and this is collected and processed in a factory at the side of the lake. Away at the end of the lake we were in wild country again and saw thousands of flamingoes. On the way home we stopped near a hillside to have refreshments and after a while a friend noticed that we were being watched by baboons. We discovered that they were part of a troop of at least 30 and I went closer to watch them walking up over the hill. They chattered and played and ate from bushes as they went. Some fought very noisily but they didn’t seem to get as far as landing blows. A couple of mothers had babies on their backs. I got a migraine from the heat and the difficult driving but it was a good trip and everyone enjoyed it. The van boils when we go up big hills but otherwise behaves well.

Letter from Helen to Grandma & Grandad April 1975 –

Last Monday we went to Lake Magadi and it was very hot. We went there for the day so Mummy had a lot of baking to do because there were 8 people and me. We all helped Mummy to bake. The roads were bumpy. The grass, trees and bushes do not look at all like they are in England because they hardly have any rain to make them green. When we got to Lake Magadi we saw that there was not water but soda. It looked like dried up froth. A man that came with us put his finger in some water that looked like blood. The soda smelt horrible and I would not like to live there. We met a person from Alliance School and Daddy knew him very well.

Letter from Judy to Grandma & Grandad 22 Sept 1975 –

On Sunday we took the day off and drove down into the Rift Valley to Lake Magadi, the soda lake that we have described to you before. This time we drove on past the lake to an area of hot springs but they were quite unimpressive – we had expected water and steam gushing out – instead there was just a dirty trickle. We rested during the hottest part of the day in the shade of some thorn trees and Graham and I really enjoyed the peace of this desolate and silent place. We soon discovered that we shared our patch of shade with a variety of birds, insects, lizards and chameleons – all having their midday snooze – except the ants who were rushing around as madly as ever. It is strange that of all this fabulous scenery we have seen the part that we feel drawn to return to again and again are these areas of semi-desert. I suppose it’s partly that man has made so little impact here – they must have looked the same a thousand years ago.