Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Juliet to the Aunties 18 May 1976 –

During the holidays we went for lunch with some friends (the Temples who we met through joining the Mountain Club of Kenya) who live in a big house with a lot of ground. They have 12 horses – I rode one called Oliver. They have 5 rabbits which are kept on their verandah. In their dining room they have a big tank of tropical fish. In the tree outside their house lives a troop of monkeys and under the house was a family of mongooses which weren’t killed because they kill the rats that eat the horse food.

Letter from Judy to Jane (Bonner) 24 May 1976 –

We were down at the Mountain Club the other evening when I saw pinned on the notice board an application for membership from one John Robberts whose name seemed vaguely familiar. After some thought I remembered that you had known someone of that name at Exeter and I decided it was unlikely that there would be two John Robberts with mountaineering tendencies. Unfortunately he (according to the application form) and his wife Sheila live some 100 miles from Nairobi so I asked our good friend Brian who also teaches at Alliance (Girls) and is a Committee Member if he knew anything about him. It turns out that the Robberts are quite friendly with he and Guri and have known each other for years – in fact they met while enjoying their common hobby of mountaineering at Southampton University so I said “You must have known Jane Tyas then?” so Brian replied that he certainly had. I said I couldn’t remember you ever mentioning anyone called Brian so he said he was always known as Taffy in those days – Taffy Thomas. He was most intrigued that I had known you for years and told me all kinds of entertaining things about that long ago time. He and Guri (who is Norwegian) have been out here about 10 years and the Robberts for some time – the R’s have children nearly as old as ours but the Thomas’ are only 4 yrs and 1 yr. Graham does a lot of climbing with Brian. It’s a small world.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 2 July 1976 –

Graham’s birthday coincided with a supper evening at the Mountain Club and a slide show of the Leviathan trip in which Graham figured largely, so he had the unusual pleasure of having Happy Birthday sung to him by about 60 people !

Letter from Judy to Caroline & Martin 20 July 1976 –

We went to the Temple’s farewell party last week – they are still trying to sell their hoards of assorted animals. A large part of the evening was spent trying to climb the stone chimney breast (this was largely an MCK affair) including a dramatic climb inside the chimney by Graham in spite of the fire below. The Temple kids rushed for paraffin and more wood but failed to do any damage! It gave the chimney a good sweep anyway.

Letter from Graham to John Temple 4 Oct 1976 –

I have let my conscience intrude sufficiently into my life to send you £20 for the rope. You must be rejoicing already; getting money for old rope ! It has proved useful as I expected. Last weekend I made my second climbing trip to Hell’s Gate and enjoyed a couple of routes. The harder one was ‘Vertigo’, with quite a hard first pitch. Mark Savage led it, for the second ascent as far as anyone knew. As there is a shortage of nuts and wedges here I have been making some out of brass. They look very pretty but are much heavier than aluminium. However they are not excessively heavy if drilled with holes (in the case of hexentrics). Doug Scott and his friend gave an interesting slide show last Friday at a well attended MCK meeting. I am terribly envious of people who can go to high altitude without being ill. Judy and I went up the Simion Track (on Mt Kenya) in August but didn’t get far past the Liki North Hut. There are perhaps more rock climbers going out frequently : the Asian lads are quite keen and will be glad to get some of my beautiful hardware.

Nuts made by Graham which he still has in 2020. He says “The nut removing tool was a completely new design which used an adjusting screw mechanism which I found at the scrap metal yard where I bought bits of aluminium alloy tubing from aircraft landing wheel assemblies. No-one else had invented a nut removing tool. Ian Howell took mine back to the UK to show people in climbing gear shops and they expressed interest. Later someone made simple tools for sale but nothing extendable like my version.”

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 30 Nov 1976 –

We had a pleasant weekend on the occasion of the annual Mountain Club barbecue up at Lukenya. It is an ideal place for this kind of occasion and about 50 of us camped up there and enjoyed cooking and eating our meal over a charcoal barbecue – fortunately it was a perfect evening. Of course the children had a marvellous time and enjoyed the unaccustomed treat of staying up late with their various friends. At midnight, in accordance with Mountain Club tradition we all trooped off to a climb called ‘Wide Chimney’ – a crack about 5 ft wide which was duly ascended by those feeling competent to do so. Of course Graham being a caver found no problem in climbing in the dark !

Letter from Judy to Lisbeth & Peter 15 Dec 1976 –

Our main hobby is still rock climbing at which we have become fairly proficient. Graham recently did a major climb which is reputed to be the best in Africa – 700ft of nearly vertical climbing which took them 5 hrs.

A school project done by Helen in 1976:

Letter from Judy to Tony & Barbara 18 Jan 1977 –

The Mountain Club goes on as ever – there seems to be a vast amount of climbing activity at the moment. Don Whillans is here this week but seems no longer the personality he was. He went climbing at Hell’s Gate but only drank beer and didn’t climb at all which was a bit disappointing.

Letter from Judy to Caroline & Martin 8 Mar 1977 –

Graham achieved instant fame in the Mountain Club by not only dragging me, Guri and Faith (by unanimous choice the two most attractive females in the club) up to Lenana and back, but also spending two nights at the Met Station with us all in one small tent ! In point of fact, of course, it was us that dragged him up, but anyway a good time was had by all !

Letter from Graham to Tony & Barbara 10 Mar 1977 –

We have been climbing often and sometimes walk on the Ngong Hills on Wednesday evenings. I climbed ‘Party Grooves’ for a second time with Robin Harper but most of the time I climb Severe or VS grades. I like to have an easy time. Last weekend we went to Iain and Vera’s wedding – very enjoyable. We had a swim in the Allan’s pool near the end of the reception. It was a perfect day and everything went well. In the evening a crowd of us went with the happy couple to the casino. After waiting over an hour for our meal to be served and listening to slow, boring music Judy and I gave up in disgust. Those who stayed were treated to better music later on and they had a good time in general. I preferred The Sombrero where we went with Iain for a stag night.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 26 May 1977 –

Last night we had 23 people to supper at our house. Every Wednesday a lot of people from the Mountain Club go walking on the Ngong Hills starting out at about 5pm and returning to their cars at about 7:30pm. There is a road going to the top of the first knoll and from there onwards it is walking. Most people go to the highest peak which is five little peaks away from the first – this is only about a mile and a half. After the walk people go to someone’s house for a meal which is paid for by MCK but prepared by the wives. Last night was our turn but Guri Thomas also did it. We expected about 18 people but many more came and I had to slip out and borrow some more glasses. There was sweet and sour pork, coleslaw, rice, bread and butter and for pudding pineapple crumble, plum tart, custard, cheesecake and a cape-gooseberry tart. Cape gooseberries are nothing like ordinary gooseberries but are about the size of a 1p coin and a mustard yellow colour. They grow on a very tatty, big bush and around the berry is a papery cover which when the berry is ripe turns from green to brown.