Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 14 Mar 1977 –

We have booked up a house at the coast, at 420 South, for the first week of April which we are sharing with a friend and her two girls who are 10 and 11. We decided to splash out a bit for our last holiday and certainly a good house with fridge and air conditioning will be very pleasant if it is hot and humid which it’s quite likely to be in April. We may stay on and camp if we are enjoying ourselves and the weather is good.

Diary entry by Helen 31 Mar 1977 –

I woke up feeling very excited because it was today that we were going to Mombasa. We did a lot of horrible packing which wasn’t nice at all. Dad went to a staff meeting and after he had been there for about two hours we went down and waited for him. We climbed some trees while we were waiting which was good fun. We had a picnic lunch at Hunters Lodge and then drove on to Mtito Andei. We had an ice-cream which tasted delicious and cooled us down a lot. At Voi we had a coke and then we went on to Mombasa. We went over the Likoni Ferry at dark and saw a huge sailing ship – it had lights all around the four masts and looked really nice. We went another 32 kms and then reached Diani Beach thankfully.

Letter from Graham to Valerie & Graham 31 Mar 1977 –

We are now in a cottage by the sea south of Mombasa. Yesterday school ended for me and we travelled down after the end of term staff meeting. I find a 300 mile journey rather hard although we were quicker in our Ford Escort than we would have been in the minibus. The sea has been coming in and the rest of the family are having a lovely time out there. Helen has just come up to tell me I should go in because it’s so lovely. It really is so beautiful. Warm sea, constant sunshine and all my cares lost to the wind, completely forgotten in the remoteness and peace of the seaside.

http://www.fourtwentysouth.com/ as viewed on 14 May 2020 :

Four° Twenty’ South is named for the latitude – it is almost exactly 4 degrees and 20 minutes south of the equator – as there were no landmarks in the forest which covered the area in the 1960s when the property was bought by Ken & Margaret Martin. Now, still owned and run by the Martin family, Ken & Margaret’s daughter Hilary lives on the property with John Lockhart Mure. Some members of the staff are the third generation of their family to work here. 

Diary entry by Helen 1 Apr 1977 –

This morning as soon as we woke up us three children went down and swam in the sea. It was quite warm and we saw a lot of fishing boats. After lunch we went swimming again, jumping over the waves, and it was great fun.

Diary entry by Helen 2 Apr 1977 –

We woke up early because Mum and Dad were going to Mombasa to collect the Charitys (our friends) from the station. As soon as they came back Heather and Jackie came down to the sea and we had much more fun than usual.

Letter from Graham to Grandma & Grandad 3 Apr 1977 –

Swimming in the sea is lovely – it’s calm and warm and we can get in deep enough to swim without walking far. Today I think the children were in for at least 5 hours. Local men have been round selling freshly caught fish, vegetables and souvenirs – baskets, big sea shells and model boats like the ones they go fishing in. Next week we will be camping by the sea a few miles from here with a less luxurious style of living. Tonight the moon is just about full and it is rising overhead – I never expected it but the moon goes overhead at the equator just as the sun does. There is a cool breeze off the sea, rustling the palms and making a gentle background noise together with the waves out on the reef.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 22 April 1977 –

We left for Mombasa exactly three weeks ago yesterday and although we now have only our car and no minibus we all got in it with all our gear for camping. The drive down to Mombasa only took about 7 hours because in our new car the average speed we travel is 65-70mph. As soon as we got out of Nairobi I noticed how green and lush it was compared to the brown, burnt grass in December and the cows were alive and fat which is a much nicer sight than the dead or skinny cows. It was like this all the way to Mombasa and there were a lot of puddles by the roadside so there had obviously been a lot of rain. We passed the well recognised towns and villages, some with mosques or temples and one, Sultan Hamud, where there always seems to be a new crop of maize growing. We stopped at Hunters Lodge, as always, for lunch. We had to cross the Likoni Ferry to get to the cottages called 420 South. I was surprised to see how posh and large our cottage was. It had two double bedrooms, a large kitchen, a dining/sitting room and large verandah – there would be plenty of room for 8 of us! In each bedroom was a large wardrobe in which we could fit all 5 of us children. Jackie, Heather and Faith came down on the train over Friday night because their Dad doesn’t have a holiday. Heather, Helen and Fiona slept in one bedroom, Mum and Dad in the other, Faith on the sofa in the living room and Jackie and I on the verandah. One night when we were sleeping it started raining and we woke up and pulled all the verandah chairs in front of us, but still we got wet so the next night we put plastic cushions as a wall leaning against the chairs and got some plastic raffia mats which we pulled over us when it rained – we kept dry ! The cottage was only a short distance from the beach which was a long stretch of sand at low tide. We could swim whatever height the tide was at because of lagoons although when the tide was covering the rocky area we wore takkies (plimsolls) . While we were swimming with Faith she showed us how to balance standing on Dad’s shoulders while he held us by the ankles. Then when the big waves came in we got washed off. Later, when we were at Twiga we learned to do it without him holding onto us and he walked along with us perched there. The safe thing about it was that if we fell off we only fell into the water. While we were staying there we went to Mombasa twice. On the first trip we had to wait a long time for the ferry because Mzee Jomo Kenyatta was coming (in fact he didn’t arrive until late afternoon and this was the morning). We did all our food shopping and bought postcards. For lunch we went to the Manor Hotel where we had a four course meal for very good prices but all the same it was expensive for 8 of us. After lunch we went sight-seeing. We went to several temples, one of which had been recently decorated and painted. There were lots of statues of people with four arms and outside one temple was a statue of a white cow which is a sacred animal in some parts of Asia. There was a lovely incense smell. We also went to a perfume shop in the Old Town. Here there was a middle-aged Asian man who obviously loved, and was very proud of, his perfumes. He was a very fat but kindly man who puckered his lips when he spoke as if he had difficulty pronouncing the words. The shop was like many of the houses in this area with a finely carved wooden Arab door and with windows set high above the ground. We entered and Faith gave him a photo she had taken at Christmas in his shop and he looked very pleased. The room seemed to be made of glass cabinets in which there were millions of bottles, large and small, with different shades of yellows, browns and mustard coloured perfumes each with its own lovely name. On each of our wrists the shop-keeper placed a different type of perfume, each having its own exquisite scent. On Dad’s wrists he put two very strong, masculine types of perfume, one of which was called Musk which I think exactly describes that type of scent. There were some flowery types with names likes Narcissus. In the end Mummy bought one called Topaz which is neither too flowery, masculine nor oily. The shop-keeper told us that none of his perfumes had alcohol in them and so you could leave the lid off the bottle for months before the perfume disappeared. It had been well worth our while going as it had been very interesting. The second time we went to Mombasa we went to a sweet shop where they sold Arab sweets. This was also in the Old Town. All the sweets were jelly-like and had a lot of sugar and nuts in them. We bought 250g of two types and ate them within two days. That day we also went to Fort Jesus. We had great fun walking along the battlements and going into the watch towers, various rooms and dungeons. Where there had been barracks there was now a museum where we read about how the Portuguese had built a fort because of Mombasa Island’s good harbour and how the Arabs came and the Portuguese were besieged for two years until at last the Arabs took the fort. The Portuguese re-took the fort again but found it in near ruins and didn’t rebuild it.

Next we went to the fruit market – this was a large kind of hall where there were lots of stalls selling pawpaw, pineapple, grenadillas, passion fruit, mangoes, cashew nuts etc.

Diary entry by Helen 4 Apr 1977 –

This morning we all did some more packing (which was horrible) because we were going to Twiga campsite. Eight of us with all our luggage couldn’t fit in our car at once so we went separately. Dad drove Heather, Jackie, Fiona and I to the campsite, then we put up the two big tents. Then he went for the others.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 22 April 1977 –

After a week at 420 South we went camping at a place called Twiga (which means giraffe in Swahili) at Diani Beach. This campsite had an amazing amount of trees providing lots of shade and a home for some vervet monkeys who stole two bananas from our car while the boot was open !

The reef here was much closer and at low tide we could walk out to it without getting wet. It seemed very funny to walk out without getting wet and then come face to face with enormous, frothing waves !

At this campsite there was a bar, restaurant and kind of common room with an old billiard table on which Helen, Heather and Jackie had some fun. We had fish and chip meals in the restaurant for 10/-. There were a lot of funny tents and minibuses that had driven overland from places like England and Switzerland. We saw a two storey tent and two minibuses with tents pitched on the roof. One Swiss van had a tame baby Vervet monkey that followed his owner like a dog and came to people for protection instead of running up a tree. He came and jumped on my shoulders when a dog came towards him. On Easter Sunday we hard boiled 5 eggs and we each decorated our own and rolled it down a slope. I had to roll mine twice before it broke ! We each got a bar of chocolate because Easter eggs are far too expensive.

Diary entry by Helen 8 Apr 1977 –

Brian and Guri came this afternoon with their children Kari and Roy. Roy is only 2 and Kari is 4. I had a nice time looking after Roy but I sometimes think Kari is a pest. When we are camping I always think we have nicer food because we have things like tinned pears which I love.

Diary entry by Helen 9 Apr 1977 –

This morning we went to Mombasa. We did some shopping and then went to the Manor Hotel for lunch. It was raining but I didn’t go under our umbrellas because the rain was cool and I was hot. We went to Fort Jesus and enjoyed exploring it. Afterwards we went along the Old Town streets to a perfume shop. It was very interesting walking around the streets but I liked the carved doors best of all. In the perfume shop Mum bought ‘Topaz’ and Faith got ‘Violet’. I thought they all smelt nice and if I bought any I wouldn’t be able to choose.

Diary entry by Helen 10 Apr 1977 –

Today after breakfast Mum boiled 5 eggs for us children and afterwards we coloured them with felts. I did a face on both sides but they didn’t look very nice. Just before lunch we rolled them down a slope until they broke. My one got dirty so I had to wash it under the shower. We had them for lunch and they tasted quite nice.

Diary entry by Helen 11 Apr 1977 –

Today after breakfast we went swimming again but we didn’t have the lilos because they were punctured. After lunch Brian took us to a place called St David’s pool where you can goggle. It was a long way and in one of the pools on the way was a scorpion fish. It was beautiful but when I thought of it stinging someone I thought it was horrible. In the pool there was a cave in one end and a hole which Brian swam through. I enjoyed myself a lot. On the way back we walked along the reef and saw all the lovely coloured corals which was nice.

Diary entry by Helen 12 Apr 1977 –

In the morning Mum, Dad and Faith took us all to the reef. We saw lots of fishes in the pools and coral too. At the reef we found two tiger cowries and a blue-mouthed helmet – they were all alive.

Diary entry by Helen 13 Apr 1977 –

This morning it was so wet we went to Mombasa. After lunch we went to see some temples. First we went to a Jain Temple. It was really beautiful with all its statues and things. The other temple was again beautiful.

Diary entry by Helen 14 Apr 1977 –

This afternoon we went to Leisure Lodge because Heather had to go to the doctors because she had a bad ear. First of all we went for a walk with Mum and Faith and saw a cave with bats in it. I hate the smell and the squeaking in caves with them in. Heather got some eardrops and tablets.

Diary record by Juliet of a song taught to us by Faith, Heather & Jackie Charity on this holiday (with a note that it must be sung with a Scots accent):

Diary entry by Helen 18 Apr 1977 –

This evening we had a really late supper and I got tired of waiting, but it was worth it. A man called Rob brought a fish he’d caught at the reef and he made lots of sauces to eat with it, two of them being mayonnaise with bits of lobster legs in and garlic butter. I really liked the fish and rice.

Diary entry by Helen 19 Apr 1977 –

This morning, just before lunch, we went to a place called El Capricho where our friends Guri and Brian are staying in a cottage. There is a swimming pool and of course we all dashed into it. I thought it was really nice to be able to swallow water or open your eyes under water without it hurting. We stayed for lunch and had fish the nicest we’ve had so far.

Diary entry by Helen 20 Apr 1977 –

Last night Heather, Jackie and Faith left which was sad. This morning we packed up and went home.

Letter from Judy to Elaine & Rod 28 Apr 1977 –

We’ve just returned from 3 weeks at the coast – the best holiday we’ve ever had I think. We went with friends Faith, Jackie and Heather and had much more fun than if we’d gone on our own. Faith loves dancing so we got into the habit of going out to the discos at the posh hotels almost every night and drinking and dancing til 2 in the morning. The kind of thing one can only do on holiday and quite a change for Graham and I. Unlike hotels in England, one can walk in any time of day or night – they are never locked up – and have a drink and wander around and enjoy the architecture and scenery. One memorable night we had a ‘pub crawl’ along the beach visiting the 4 hotels that were within 5 miles or so of us. We spent a week in a luxury cottage but the rest of the time camping so we were able to afford to drink every night ! We discovered that it cost no more to camp than to live at home and were strongly tempted to stay down there for even longer or even not come back! However, prudence prevailed and here we are again in cold Kikuyu.

Letter from Graham to Grandma & Grandad 1 May 1977 –

We are back in Kikuyu again after having a wonderful holiday at the coast. Nobody seemed to get bored, perhaps because we were with friends. We were with Faith and her two daughters Jackie and Heather who are delightful children aged 9 and 10. Regrettably Faith’s husband, Jack, does not get long holidays like me. He is a telephone planning engineer working here on an Aid basis from Britain. They are from Scotland and we became friends through the Mountain Club where Judy and I go on Tuesday evenings to drink and talk.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 4 May 1977 –

We had a lovely holiday and the weather was as good as can be expected in April. All five children got on very well and we didn’t have a single squabble all holiday I don’t think. It was nice that they were old enough to leave so that we were able to go out to the various hotels in the vicinity in the evenings when we felt like some entertainment. Many of our friends were at the coast as well so we had company whenever we felt like it.