Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Diary entry by Juliet 8 Dec 1975 –

We left home this morning and drove to a picnic site on the Rift Valley escarpment. It had lots of tables and chairs under trees and we climbed up a thing made for looking down to the Rift Valley where we saw 6 giraffes. After lunch we drove here to Safariland Lodge beside Lake Naivasha and pitched our tent at the campsite. It is right on the edge of the lake and has a jetty where they hire out boats. There is a good big swimming pool and also a small one, horse riding for 10/- per hour, tennis, huts for bird watching, archery, and a pen with geese, guinea-fowl, and hens with what looks more like white fur than feathers. We had some cake at the Lodge and then Helen and I explored the bird huts and jetty. We saw a fish eagle, a very large heron, lots of starlings and lots of birds in the papyrus reeds. We saw lots of fish at the jetty. Mummy and I went for a walk on the jetty in the dark – it was lovely.

Diary entry by Juliet 9 Dec 1975 –

This morning I got up at 7:45am and walked along the jetty with Helen and Fiona. We saw three fish eagles, two ibis, a red-headed woodpecker, 5 glossy starlings, a heron on a boat, and lots of other birds. Then we took out a sort of punt with a motor for an hour (with Mummy and Daddy) and went down to Crescent Island which is a peninsula really. It was lovely and calm and there were a lot of coots swimming on the water. After lunch we went to Hell’s Gate which is a sort of gorge of high cliffs and volcanic plugs left standing on the ground. We drove along a dust road for a long time staring at high cliffs. It was not at all like Cheddar Gorge. As we drove along the road we came to an end so had to try another road. We eventually landed up at a thermal energy project area where there was a huge jet of steam. It is a United Nations project and Dad went to speak to a few French men we saw. This place was riddled with roads leading to more drill holes and we got lost amongst these until we found the right road. By this time we were half way around the lake so by the time we got back we had run out of petrol.

After supper we went for a walk just at sunset down to the jetty and we saw a hippo playing around. We stood quiet for a while and then it came towards us. Then the jetty man came and went ‘click, click’ to the hippo and he came over. Then I tried it and he came and chewed playfully at a rubber tyre on the edge of the jetty. We found out that when you hold your hand above his head he would open his mouth so we got some leaves and dropped them in his mouth and he chewed at it quite happily. He was great fun and we played with him for 30 minutes. I heard him just a minute ago honking away. I asked the jetty man if the hippo was there every night and he said ‘yes, usually’ so I am going to look out for him.

Diary entry by Juliet 10 Dec 1975 –

This morning I got up early and went along to the jetty and saw two herons. Later in the morning we went swimming. On the way to the pool we looked at the birds in the pen. The swimming pool was quite warm and there were four big beach balls. First we sunbathed on some lovely beds and then we played in the little pool with the balls. After lunch we sunbathed and read and lounged around. We went to the lodge for a meal – we were the only people there – we sat by a lovely big fire to wait until it was ready. We checked the jetty for the hippo on our way back to the tent but he wasn’t there.

Stills from our ciné film taken at Safariland pool.

Letter from Judy to Lisbeth & Peter 10 Dec 1975 –

At the moment I am sitting in shorts and t-shirt in a bird-watching hide on the shores of Lake Naivasha (one of the few fresh-water lakes in the Rift Valley). As it is the middle of a very hot afternoon there are not a great many birds to see, so Graham has gone to sleep and I am writing letters as well as a very sticky hand will allow. It is much more peaceful here than back in our tent where the children are supposed to be having a rest !

Diary entry by Juliet 11 Dec 1975 –

This morning as usual we went along to the jetty – we saw herons, pelicans, coots and lots of other water birds. When we left Safariland we went by a different road up onto the Kinangop Plateau. We could see into part of Longonot crater. When we got home we went and got some cine film of us waving at a passing train at Kikuyu.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 12 Dec 1975 –

We have just returned from a short holiday camping at Lake Naivasha – a fresh water lake in the Rift Valley about an hour and a half’s drive from here. It was a beautiful campsite with lovely green grass and plenty of tall acacia trees to give shade right by the lake. There were also half a dozen luxury bandas and a dozen permanent tents but we seemed to be the only people there most of the time. These places can’t make a profit for they always seem to have plenty of staff sitting around doing nothing, and are rarely more than a quarter full. I think this place is run by a chain that owns several hotels in Nairobi and elsewhere and no doubt deals mainly with the charter flight holiday business and not the individual like us. Anyway it was very pleasant and peaceful for us. We saw a lot of different lake birds including enormous Goliath herons and smaller grey ones, pelicans, ibises, cormorants, egrets and plenty of ducks and coots. We took a motorised punt out on the lake one morning which we all enjoyed once Helen and Fiona had decided it would stay afloat.

Stills from our ciné film taken on the boat on Lake Naivasha – trying not to look rather apprehensive !

The edges of the lake were covered with masses of blue water-lilies and tall papyrus reed where hippos live. We didn’t see any hippos when we were out on the boat but we heard them every night and one evening when we went down to the jetty to see the sun set over the lake we saw the top of the head of a hippo sticking out of the water quite close by. To our surprise, instead of being frightened by us, he proceeded to come right up to the jetty and gambolled around in the water just like a puppy, letting us put grass and reeds right into his jaws. The boatman said he was a frequent visitor and had obviously got accustomed to being fed. He was still quite young so perhaps was an orphan because normally hippos are only seen in family groups. We couldn’t swim in the lake but there was a very pleasant pool at the lodge. Unfortunately they charged quite heavily to use it even though we were staying there and paying camping fees so we didn’t go as often as we would have liked. The weather was very reliable – beautiful cloudless mornings which lasted til 12 noon, then the clouds came over from the mountains on either side of the lake and there were often short but violent rain and thunderstorms in the afternoon – by sunset the sky was almost clear again. We drove out to Hell’s Gate one afternoon – a most remarkable gorge formed by the land being raised and a large river (probably the outlet for Lake Naivasha) cutting down to depths of many hundreds of feet. It is dry now but stretches for at least 10 miles and is most impressive. Unfortunately they have had a lot of trouble with cars being broken into, windscreens smashed etc so we couldn’t leave the car – however now we know it is worth visiting we can return with someone to stay with the car. While exploring the tracks by car we heard a deep roaring from over the shoulder of a hill which on investigation proved to come from a steam bore. We found that a UN geo-thermal project had been set up there with the possibility of it being used to create electricity. It was most interesting and we had a good look round and spoke to 2 Frenchmen in charge. At the moment they were letting the bore run for a month or so to see if the pressure dropped significantly; presumably if it did it would be no use for commercial exploitation. Kenya is no doubt interested in power projects as a proportion of its electricity has to be imported from the Jinja Falls hydro-electric plant in Uganda. Helen and Fiona were quite frightened by the steam bore which was about 60 ft high and very noisy – a bit like a gigantic steam engine letting off steam ! It was quite an eerie sight among the desolate, dried-up hills. On the way home we actually stopped at a level-crossing for the first time since arriving in Kenya, much to the children’s delight. There are so few trains during the day. It was a lovely steam train so we decided to try and film it in the cutting just near our house. We had a 20 minute drive home, then had a cup of tea and walked down to the railway. Sure enough, about an hour after seeing it at Limuru along came our train which we duly filmed ! The line is so winding and steep between here and Limuru that we reckoned it would take that long even though it is only 12 miles as the crow flies.

Letter from Helen to Nicky Dec 1975 –

We are camping near Lake Naivasha. We went on a motor boat for an hour, we only just had enough petrol to get back. There is hippos in the lake but not crocodiles. It is very nice here. There is a big swimming pool and a little pool. The swimming pools are very warm and the little one is about up to your knees. The big one is an ordinary swimming pool. There are lots of birds here we have seen three herons, six fish-eagles, two corments (sic), two ibises and more than 30 coots.

Diary entry by Helen 26 Feb 1977 –

I was glad we were going to Naivasha but I hate packing up all the things. It was quite hard to pack the things in the van because all the seats were in. We were taking our friend Catherine too which was nice.

Diary entry by Helen 1 Mar 1977 –

I bought some sweets from the tuck shop and when I got home Juliet kept on begging for more as soon as I’d given her one, so I got really mad with her.

Diary entry by Helen 12 Mar 1977 –

This morning we went to Naivasha again which was nice. On the journey I realised that our car is much more comfortable than our van was. This evening we went for a meal at the lodge and by the time we had finished it our tummies were almost bursting. It was a six course meal. That night me and Juliet slept in a little tent only big enough for two which was nice.

Diary entry by Helen 13 Mar 1977 –

This morning in bed I was bored because I had finished my book. In the afternoon Mum and Dad went to Hells Gate. Jackie and Heather our friends came which was much nicer as it’s not so fun playing with only two people. We had a lovely time swimming and I got quite sunburnt and it hurt a lot.

Diary entry by Helen 4 June 1977 –

Today we went to Naivasha. On the way we had a picnic at a picnic spot on the Escarpment. It was a lovely place and had a lovely view. We drove up to Kijabe because Alliance boys were playing rugby there at a school and needed a teacher. I thought it looked a very nice school.