Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 25 Dec 1975 –
This morning when we woke up in Meru National Park we opened our Christmas presents at the breakfast table. We had only brought our small presents and left the others in Kikuyu. We left home to travel here on Sunday 21st Dec at about 8am. This time we had two big boxes, one cupboard and two little chests of drawers so we had a lot of things to put our gear in. It has been lovely and hot and clear for the past week and we had another hot day coming up. This time we didn’t break down at Embu and the land on the way was very lush because there had been some rain. We noticed a great difference in the scenery after leaving Embu. In Embu the land was lush with lots of trees but out of town there were only green bushes because the cattle had grazed all the good grass. We arrived at the Game Park at about 3:15pm and drove straight to the Bwatherongi Campsite. We have a banda which faces the now empty Bwatherongi River.
On the way we had crossed two big rivers, the Ura and the Rojwero. Driving to the campsite we saw one herd of elephants a long way off and several herds of gazelle and zebra. Fiona slept with Mum & Dad in the banda and Helen and I slept in the van.
Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 13 Jan 1976 –
We found the banda very comfortable and it was pleasant to have chairs and table and a raised fireplace for cooking so that we weren’t squatting on the ground all the time.
Diary entry by Juliet 22 Dec 1975 –
Today we just drove around the park. We went up onto a place called Mulika Ridge and saw a large herd of elephants close by. It reminded me of a book called ‘Among The Elephants’ by Oria and Iain Douglas-Hamilton which I have been reading and if you can find it I suggest you read it.
Diary entry by Juliet 23 Dec 1975 –
Today we also went for a drive around the Park. Outside the banda there are some kind of moles which we call diggers because they dig and throw up the soil which makes a sort of crater. In the evening we went to the Lodge for a drink.
Diary entry by Juliet 24 Dec 1975 –
Today we went down to the Tana River. As soon as we had crossed the Rojewero River the scenery changed from the lushness of the plains to the dense green bush. On this road we saw lots of tiny dikdiks and the only other thing we saw were gerenuks, a kind of gazelle with a long neck, legs and tail. We took a different road from last time and after a few miles found a notice saying ‘4 wheel drive only’. We decided to try it and it went alright until we came to a sand river with no drift (concrete causeway) but the worst bit was downhill so we just bombed down over it. We stopped at a lovely spot on the Ura River for a break – it was just like a river at home – the water bubbling over rocks in the shade of lush green trees. Then we went to the Tana River and saw lots of hippos and a few crocodiles. We also saw a monitor lizard but he was quite small. We went along to Adamson’s Falls and saw the river rush down the fall. We found a secluded little beach and us three children spent a few hours playing bare in the water. It was lovely after the hot drive.
Diary entry by Juliet 26 Dec.
Today we went for an early drive along a road on a ridge and around some rhino plains and ‘rhino alley’. The scenery here was quite green with scattered bushes. While we were driving along the road we saw a small cat-like figure running along the road. We thought after looking at some pictures it was a rare serval cat. Further on we saw a female ‘black’ rhino with a young baby. We stopped to have a look and she and her baby charged at us, so we soon moved! As soon as we had moved off a little way she turned and ran off into the bushes. We wondered afterwards if she had just been teaching her baby how to treat big, noisy, human-smelling things ! If so, that was was another anti-human rhino trained ! We returned to our banda before it got too hot and stayed there until we went out again at 4pm. We saw lots and lots of giraffes and elephants.
Diary entry by Juliet 27 Dec 1975 –
This morning Daddy took us around to see some ‘white’ rhinos that are being bred near the Park HQ. There were two rhinos of about 4-6 years and a mother of an enormous size and a tiny little baby. They were kept in a huge, and I mean huge, pen. The little baby was called Jamhuri (which actually means republic – we have a Jamhuri Day here which is Independence Day) and his mother was called Mtanza and one of the others was Mtaba but I can’t remember the other one’s name. We were taken into their pen by two rangers, one young one and one old man with a big, complicated-looking gun. The young man played with Jamhuri who was giving fake little charges. We were allowed to scratch his head while Daddy filmed us. The skin was amazingly rough and very thick. While the young man was talking to Daddy Jamhuri kept fake charging so the ranger gave him a slap on his cheek which I have no doubt he felt. It was a visit which I won’t forget.
Diary entry by Juliet 28 Dec 1975 –
Last night Mummy said she heard a leopard ‘coughing’ and some monkeys squealing and panic-ing but we have not seen any leopards. This morning we went for a short drive and met some rhinos by the side of the road. As we drove towards them they didn’t take any notice. There was a mother and a young one of about 2 years old and two of about 4 years old. Daddy took a film of them. Later on we met a herd of about 8 elephants and we filmed them too. We also filmed us crossing some fords or drifts. In the afternoon there was a slight rain storm.
Diary entry by Juliet 29 Dec 1975 –
This morning some Americans who were camping near us came and told us there were two lions in the area we drove around yesterday. We drove over there and sure enough there were two lions – a male and a female sitting under a palm bush. Two other vans came along and so we decided to leave and come and see them again tomorrow on our way home to Kikuyu and not disturb them any more now.
Letter from Helen to Nanny & Grandad Dec 1975 –
We had dinner in the Meru Mulika Lodge. First course we had minestrone soup second course Juliet and Fiona had lamb casserole Daddy, mummy and me had salad. Third course was pudding. There was a long table with lots of bowls of various pudding I had a bit of each.
Diary entry by Juliet 30 Dec 1975 –
This morning we packed up and got off before 8am as we had planned. We drove around to the lions and saw three cubs of about 1 year old ! We didn’t manage to get a film of the cubs but got a lovely film of the male walking around a bush to a lioness. We stopped outside the park at a village called Marimanti to visit some Alliance boys. We found them in a church service, but when they came out we were ushered to the village hotel and given drinks – tea for Mum & Dad and milk for us. We were also given some toffees, some biscuits and a lovely bun. We were then asked to stay the night which of course we accepted. We were taken to the room belonging to our friend Gaishu in a mud hut. It was the custom of his tribe to give their boys a room of their own when they become a certain age. Before lunch Mum & Dad were taken around the village. We had our own food and after that we were taken to Tharaka School which is a boys only school. Then we were taken to the Rural Development Centre via the Health Centre – they were very interesting places. In the evening we had two meals. The first one was at the home of Jully and Steven Mucheche. First we were given a plateful of chicken and then a cup of tea and last, but not least, a cup of real chicken broth – there were no stock cubes or anything like that here. These people had three very pretty girls and one boy that had left school. I think Steven must have had another wife because the little girls were quite young – they were very shy but friendly. The other meal was at the shop belonging to Gaishu’s father. It was a brick-built shop. We had the same food but with the broth as gravy on the chicken. We went to bed late but satisfied.
Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 13 Jan 1976 –
On the way home we spent 24 hours with one of the Alliance boys who lives in a village near the park and had an entertaining time being shown around and meeting all the important people. Although it is quite a small village it is an important centre for the tribe in this area – one of the smallest in Kenya. We saw around the local Harambee (built and run by self-help) secondary school which had an irrigation scheme run by the school on a school farm where they were growing all kinds of different beans and maize, a Health Centre with a maternity wing and a rural development centre where there was a small herd of European type dairy cows and where local farmers could go for advice and instruction. All the buildings were as simply constructed as possible and the equipment minimal and it was difficult to tell whether all the schemes in fact did anything to ‘develop’ the local people but they were obviously very proud of them all. We had two evening meals with different families which the children coped with nobly and were sent home with a bottle of sour milk – the way they drink it – for our lunch. We managed to evade the offer of some very smelly and fly-ridden raw meat ! We spent an uncomfortable night in a small hut, but all agreed the experience was worth the discomfort!
Tribes of Kenya postcards from Helen’s collection.
Diary entry by Juliet 31 Dec 1975 –
We left in the morning but not before buying some ‘kangas’ – a piece of material which is wrapped around you like a Roman toga only over both shoulders and tied behind the neck. Helen & Fiona’s material in kitenge and mine is kikoi.
We gave two men a lift with us; one to Embu, a big town on the way, and one to Nairobi. We also picked up a policeman ! When we got home we opened the rest of our Christmas presents. From Grandma and Grandad we had a favourite record, Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ which we have been wanting for years because our lodger John in Bristol had it. We had a little foster baby called Michelle who used to jig up and down on the floor in time to ‘Cecilia’ on it. She jigged to that song only.
Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 3 Jan 1976 –
The evening we got home from our trip to Meru first Daddy was sick, then Mummy was sick, then Fiona who kept Daddy (who had more or less recovered) up until 1am being sick 5 times. I was also sick once but Helen escaped it. It must have been from staying at Miramati. We were all practically better by the morning but Mummy and Daddy are still not 100%.
Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 7 Feb 1976 –
Enclosed are several photos we took over Christmas. Excuse the large expanse of bare flesh but when the temperature is in the mid-90s one tends to dispense with clothes ! In the background of the banda picture you can see the acacia thorn trees which are about the only trees that can live in these hot dry areas (apart from the baobab and the doum palm which only occur in very restricted areas) and which give very acceptable shade, slightly marred by the large number of inch long thorns scattered on the ground underneath. We had large hornbills, small woodpeckers, weaver birds and glorious starlings living in our trees and monkeys quite often too.
Weaver birds – thanks for the pics Nik Borrow and Travel Aficionado on Flickr.
Juliet's Kenya Days blog 