Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 9 June 1976 –

Last weekend was the Mountain Club Annual Dinner at Safariland, Lake Naivasha where we stayed in December. We had a pleasant stay there – it is a beautiful place to camp. On the Sunday Graham and I nobly led a walk for the non-climbing members and took them through Hell’s Gate gorge to the steam project which we had visited previously. It was even more spectacular as in addition to two steam jets blowing out through six foot openings at great force, they were also boring at a small distance away and showering the area with boiling water and foam so that it looked as if some kind of weird snowstorm had taken place. Although there was a pleasant cool breeze blowing we realised how high the temperature was when we got near the steam area – the extra humidity made the air unpleasantly sticky. The children decided to stay at Safariland and with the unaccustomed luxury of a 20/- note in their pocket indulged themselves in swimming, riding and drinking ice-cold ‘pop’.

Letter from Judy to Tony & Barbara 15 June 1976 –

As John Hull had checked out from Safariland and gone back to Nairobi Graham was ‘volunteered’ to do the walk to the steam project at Hell’s Gate. Fischers Tower was assaulted in all directions by assorted would-be climbers and Iain A and Ian H got stuck 40ft from the top of a new climb and had to do a 125ft free abseil down again.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 23 Oct 1976 –

Last Sunday we went to a place called Hell’s Gate which is near Naivasha. The main part of it is a gorge which was an overflow for Lake Naivasha in the days when it was joined to Lake Elementaita and Lake Nakuru. Nakuru and Naivasha are roughly 30 or 40 miles apart. We went to an area of Hell’s Gate that was just a wild area with some high cliffs and a volcanic plug called Fischer’s Tower. At this place there were a lot of hyrax which are small, about the size of a large rat. They have no tails, small beady eyes and long snouts. Their body is covered in long, but not shaggy, brown fur with a white streak on its back. They were quite tame at this place and we fed them with some bread while mummy took some photos.

Two other families came – Jack and Faith Charity and their two children Jackie and Heather and a Japanese couple Kunji and Emiko Maeda and their children Satoshi and Go. They came so that they could do some climbing practice – they climbed to the top of Fischer’s Tower and did some other climbs.

Letter from Judy to Malcolm & Jane 15 Dec 1976 –

Next weekend we are climbing at Hell’s Gate – or at least, Graham is – most of the climbing there is HVS standard and quite serious, the Main Wall being 500ft high so rather beyond my capabilities. We camp at Lake Naivasha where the children can horse ride or swim and be safely left to their own devices for the day if they don’t want to come to Hell’s Gate so it’s always a popular place to go. A few weeks ago Brian Thomas took Graham up ‘Olympian’ which is supposed to be one of the classic climbs of Africa which provided excellent spectator sport for all of us watching. The 5 hours the climb took seemed to rush past. We saw a series of caving slides the other evening which made Graham very nostalgic – he says he’ll go back to caving in Britain tho’ I hope we’ll be able to do some climbing too.

Diary entry by Helen 18 June 1977 –

Today we went to Naivasha and camped at Safariland. I think the road there is beautiful with lovely scenery. It is very bumpy though. All of us went to Hell’s Gate walking in the afternoon. We walked right along on top of Main Wall going up one side and down the other. It was a lovely walk, not too hot and we saw lots of interesting butterflies etc.

Diary entry by Helen 19 June 1977 –

Today we went for another walk at Hell’s Gate and had a simply gorgeous time there. We walked along the road (leaving the car at Main Wall) past Springs Wall (another climbing place) to the Gorge. It was quite a long way, about 3 miles one way. It was a very interesting walk and I collected a few stones to bring to school. The gorge was fascinating with lovely birds, stones etc. I think it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to.