Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Judy to Jo 28 Mar 1976 –

We have been enjoying ourselves doing some climbing recently. There is a lovely range of hills about 20 miles south of Nairobi, part of which is owned by the Mountain Club of Kenya with lots of good climbing rocks. Graham has been getting in training with the rest of the caving group for their 10 day trip underground at Easter and I and the girls thoroughly enjoy clambering around too. We have got quite hardened to the heat in the middle of the day and there is always a lovely cool breeze in the evening and early mornings there.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma and Grandad 2 Mar 1976 –

This weekend because it was Helen’s birthday we stayed at home. Helen had her school friend Pamela to stay. On Sunday we drove out to some huge rocky hills called Lukenya where we met some other people who belong to the Mountain Club of Kenya. We had a lovely time scrambling up the cliff-like rocks and watching people using ropes to get up and abseiling. I felt that I wanted to do it too. It was a lovely place and next weekend we’re going to camp there.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma and Grandad 15 Mar 1976 –

Last weekend we went camping at Lukenya Hills. We camped up on top and climbed without ropes on some hard bits. We then drove to the bottom and climbed up. Helen and I went up quite a hard slope and went in some sort of tunnels and caves. We had to be very careful because we were very high. One car got a puncture and didn’t have a spare tyre so some friends lent them theirs, then on the way back the people who had lent their spare tyre got a puncture too ! We took the lady Francoise and their baby Alison to their house while Jim stayed with the car.

Letter from Judy to Jane & Malcolm 29 Apr 1976 –

We have been members of the Mountain Club to which the caving group is affiliated for some time, so Graham has been doing quite a lot of climbing finding his years of caving useful experience. I suppose basically he has the confidence necessary to climb really well so has been able to learn in a short time to the amazement of the real climbers. At Lukenya there are climbs of all standards and a good camping place too. The kids have got very good at scrambling about and love the camping and freedom to roam.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 9 June 1976 –

We took advantage of the Bank Holiday on June 1st to go to Lukenya with Brian and Guri for a bit of climbing. Juliet at last plucked up courage to do a real climb and very creditably managed a pitch of 30ft called Humpty Dumpty – she was very pleased with herself and went round telling all her friends she had climbed a ‘Severe’. Actually grading of climbs is quite ridiculous as climbing has changed so much in the last fifteen years – much more difficult climbs are attempted now because of improved technical aids and what was graded ‘Severe’ then is now reckoned pretty easy. Actually I have been impressed with the safety precautions taken by Mountain Club members – I suppose as almost all are married and have families larking about for kicks is not encouraged. After Juliet’s climb nothing would do but that Fiona and Helen should do a climb properly roped up so we had to go off and find a suitable crag for them – we felt 30ft was a little high for Fiona although she insisted she could do it !

Stills from our ciné film. Top left: Judy on the top of Lukenya, top right: Judy pulling in rope on top of a climb, middle: Juliet trying to get up a big chimney in the rock, bottom: Judy and Helen at the top of a rock face.

Letter from Judy to Tony & Barbara 15 June 1976 –

Graham has been climbing quite a lot with various people including Robin Harper last Sunday at Lukenya when he dislodged a hornets’ nest on a new climb, the results of which made him quite ill.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 16 Sept 1976 –

We went down to Lukenya yesterday and all enjoyed ourselves doing some climbing – as usual it was peaceful and we had the place quite to ourselves. Graham has been busy making climbing ‘nuts’ from hexagonal brass bar so he was able to try them out as he is hoping to sell some to other climbers. I shall be glad when the house stops resounding with sawing and drilling of metal !

Graham put some of his brass drillings into this bottle, made it into a lamp and gave it to Juliet as a present in Kenya. In 2020 she still has it, except that it is now a candelabra.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 27 Sept 1976 –

Yesterday we went to Lukenya Hills which I expect you have heard of before. We went with our friends Guri and Brian Thomas who have two small children Kari and Roy. We had a lovely time sitting under an acacia tree and had a picnic dinner. We went down at the bottom of the cliffs instead of up the top which is where we went last weekend.

Stills from our ciné film. Clockwise from bottom left: Judy climbing. Kari, Helen and Fiona at the camp site. Helen and Fiona at the camp site. Fiona climbing with Juliet assisting. Helen climbing. Helen on rocks above the campsite with tents and our minibus visible.

Diary entry by Juliet 8 Jan 1977 –

We did not come to Lukenya until after lunch as we had to sort our school books ready for going back to school next week. At Lukenya Dad saw lots of bottle tops so he told us we could get 1 cent for each top we found so that if we wanted 1 shilling we would have to collect 100 tops ! We are going to count them tomorrow morning.

Diary entry by Juliet 9 Jan 1977 –

This morning we all went climbing on a cliff called Gumshoe Face. While we were climbing Dad took a cine film of us, all except me, but I didn’t mind. Then as we were sitting down afterwards we saw two cars going to the South Picnic Tree where we had arranged to meet some other climbers. Daddy drove the van there whilst we walked down. It was very nice but scrambly. We got down before Daddy arrived. We had a good time playing while Mum & Dad climbed on ‘Snake’ which is on Main Face. We didn’t go back home until 7pm and just before we went we found that Jack and Faith Charity’s Citroen car had broken down and their other friends with spares had not waited but gone on so we had to run down to the main road and stop them. In the end we got the Citroen going and on the way home our generator stopped working so we stopped at Jack and Faith’s so Dad could mend it. We got home at 9:30pm but we had had a good time.

Reminiscence by Helen in 1980 –

The ‘South Picnic Tree’ was a normal picnic spot for meeting friends and climbing. No-one ever camped there. The access to it was a murram track that led to three different farms, one at the top, the other at the north of Lukenya and the last near the Mombasa road. This track was not in very good condition and often the thorn bushes would grow over the road and scrape the passing cars. On many occasions we had to cut them down as our minibus was taller than cars. The actual picnic spot was under a very large acacia tree. These trees grow with a very flat top with branches spread out which makes the tree cast a lot of shade, ideal for a picnic spot. You could only climb a little way up this tree as there were too many thorns to avoid. Underneath the tree were thorns which had fallen off and a few nettles too. It was bare earth otherwise and very good for playing on. I think I liked going to this tree best, although I did like the top site too. The ‘camping site’ at the top was quite different. For one thing, there was no clearly defined area to camp in. Up here everyone camped where they pleased, although one part never changed – the barbecue place. This was on a long, flat rock which had blackened patches on from the fires. There were also fireplaces made from stones, often looking a bit shabby from disuse. The Lukenya Hills had originally belonged to Miss Irvine but now the Mountain Club of Kenya owned part of it. MCK wasn’t only mountain climbers but rock climbers too. Lukenya had a great deal of rock suitable for climbing on and we went there about once a month. At the campsite was a big heap of rocks we called the ‘Big Rock’ or ‘Humpty Dumpty Rocks’. We climbed all over it so knew it by heart. At the very top was a flat area from which we spied on people. I think there was only two ways up; one a steepish slope going under a little arch into the middle of the rock, and the other way was at the back facing the road coming up. There was a chimney somewhere which we were too small to do. Just about the only animals around were baboons and hyraxes. There must have been some small cats for we saw their dung in places. The baboons lived in groups and travelled around by day. They climbed all over the rocks, often in places where people could not go, because they could climb so well. In some places they made the rock very slippery so that it was very hard to climb. Hornets and bees had their nests in the rock faces which was a great hazard to climbers. The advice on meeting hornets on a climb was to keep still; with bees it depended where you were – near the ground jump and run, high up either climb very fast or remain absolutely still even if stung. I remember once Dad got stung by a hornet – it looked very painful ! The vegetation was almost semi-desert with shrubs and bushes. Depending on whether it was the wet or dry season, the sparse grass that grew would be light greeny-brown or plain brown. In the dry season the area looked very dry indeed. In the wet season everything grew greener and a few flowers came out, some of them cactus flowers. There were quite a number of cactuses at Lukenya. I remember one especially – the juice in it was very bitter and the taste lasted in your mouth for ages if you got it on you. We kids always said that you could put it on your nails to make sure you wouldn’t bite them (this was aloe). We had special places that we often played on.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 2 Feb 1977 –

We had a barbecue at Lukenya on the evening of Juliet’s birthday and although it was really a climbing club occasion, no-one objected to her celebrating her birthday at the same time. Several of her friends were present, and she knows the climbing people anyway, so a good time was had by all. It is a beautiful spot, a ridge of hill with a steep drop on 3 sides standing some 500ft above the surrounding plains. We get used to long distance views here, and days when we can only dimly see the Lukenya ridge some 40 miles away from our house are very unusual. From Lukenya itself it is occasionally possible to see Mt Kenya over 100 miles away in one direction and Mt Kilimanjaro over 100 miles away in the opposite direction, and views of well over 100 miles all round are normal. As you can imagine it is a popular place for a barbecue and the children are happy to spend all day climbing and exploring the endless outcrops of rock. Fortunately there are no lion or leopard in the area so the only danger is from snakes and they are only too anxious to keep out of the way of noisy children. The other day when I was walking alone I saw a klipspringer which is an antelope which only lives on rocks and is rarely seen though not, I think, terribly uncommon. I don’t know who was more startled, him or me ! They look quite different from the ordinary plains antelope so I was able to recognise it instantly.

Diary entry by Helen 27 Mar 1977 –

We went to Lukenya this morning which was very nice. Our friends came and I went off to climb on the rocks with Heather. We had a lovely time and went on a ‘journey’ which involved a jump which was quite scary. We took a long time and got to lunch late but as it was a picnic one it didn’t matter. I was hungry so ate a lot. We had to take the little children for a walk which was horrible as we had planned to go by ourselves. Afterwards me, Juliet and Heather hid from Jackie, Fiona and Kari which was fun. Then we did some more scrambling over rocks.

Letter from Graham to David 6 May 1977 –

Our favourite place to go recently has been Lukenya. It is wild, rugged country where we climb on the rocks, anything up to 200ft although most climbs are less than this. The children amuse themselves, usually in the company of other children. One of the main pleasures is being with our friends but I think I could enjoy myself just on my own, communing with nature as a restful contrast with working and living in a manner so far removed from nature (except human nature – plenty of that around – too much sometimes). A friend suggested I should try climbing and I took to it straight away. After years of caving I found I already had reasonably good techniques and quite strong nerves. Nowadays I don’t need strong nerves because I usually climb with less able climbers and I find climbs which are well within my capabilities.

Diary entry by Helen 21 May 1977 –

Today we went to Lukenya which was nice and I enjoyed myself a lot. Juliet didn’t play with me so I played with Fiona. We went exploring and climbed a lot of rocks. It was a bit boring except for climbing because I had gone almost all over there before. It would have been nicer if Heather and Jackie were there but it was still fun.

Diary entry by Helen 22 May 1977 –

We went to Lukenya again and took Heather & Jackie and their two friends. It was rather a squash in the car but it was worth it. (us 3 plus 4 = 7 children in the back of an Escort ?!! Some were probably in the boot as it was an estate car).

Diary entry by Helen 10 July 1977 –

Today we went to Lukenya for probably the last time. We went for a walk right along to the end. I enjoyed it a lot and did quite a lot of climbing on tiny rocks.

Letter from Juliet to Nanny & Grandad 18 July 1977 –

Last weekend we went for the last time to Lukenya and enjoyed ourselves exploring with our friends up on the rocks. We walked with Mum and Dad to the camp site at the top and then walked along to the end of the rocks where we could see the Mombasa road down below us. From the Picnic Tree below we could see a hollow in the rock where two Egyptian vultures had made a nest. They were enormous birds and flew beautifully.