Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Stills from ciné film taken in our minibus while we were out on game spotting drives. Top right: Helen in the middle of eating her breakfast ! We often went out early, taking our breakfast with us, so as to enjoy the cooler part of the day. Bottom right: Juliet ruefully smiling having got cross… Continue reading Spotting Game.

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… Continue reading Trips to Hell’s Gate.

Letter from Judy to Caroline & Martin 20 Sept 1976 – Christine and David (Meyer) were ambushed and beaten up about 100yds from the gate of Alliance Girls School by a gang who put rocks across the road and hefted stones through the car window. Fortunately another car came up before too much damage was… Continue reading A Nasty Incident.

This incident has been re-told many times in our family, but we can find no written documentation of it dating from the time – we suppose perhaps it was not something to write home to grandparents about, and by then (we think it was around Sept 1976) diary writing had become sporadic. But Helen found… Continue reading Finding a human skeleton.

Letter from Judy to Jo 5 Sept 1976 – Graham started teaching last week and Juliet, Helen and Fiona went back to school this week. Our proposed move to Upperhill School turned out to be a fairly unscrupulous bit of manipulating by the authorities – schools short of A level staff are always angling for… Continue reading Third school term 1976.

Letter from Juliet to Grandma & Grandad 31 Aug 1976 – As you probably know we had a good flight and have arrived safely. We landed at Rome where lots of people got on. We left Heathrow late but landed in Nairobi a little bit early ! After about an hour of flying they brought… Continue reading Juliet, Helen & Fiona return to Kenya.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 14 Aug 1976 – By the time you receive this the children will have left you to go to Winsley but I am sure they will have had a marvellous time in Littlehampton – thank you for your part in this and hope you have had no hitches.… Continue reading Mombasa without the children.

Reminiscences by Judy & Graham: We always enjoyed driving down the difficult stone road into the nearest wilderness from home, the Kedong Valley which is part of the great rift valley. The dry heat of air and the dust which leaked up into our minibus flavoured the atmosphere of adventure and strangeness. For hours we… Continue reading Olorgesailie Prehistoric site.

Letter from Judy to Tony & Barbara 15 June 1976 – We’ve had a foul little dog – a kind of caricature of your dog Mac – living in our garden – it is a real toadeater – the children keep saying how much nicer it was when Mac was here ! Anyway the foul… Continue reading A dog, a bushbaby and a horse.

Letter from Judy to Caroline & Martin 6 May 1976 – Well this is the first day of term. No, Graham is not at the staff meeting – he and Silas Matende are still working on the timetable – perhaps this will convince Wangai that they are so incompetent that someone else had better do… Continue reading 2nd School Term 1976.