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Our morning started at 7:30, early enough to avoid the closed roads and traffic for a big charitable marathon. The beginning of our drive followed the route from yesterday, which I sort of recognized.
Our destination was the up-scale “Karen” district and the
Karen Blixen Museum . The
writer’s long-time house has been preserved and restored more-or-less as she left it. A young guide told us the history while we gazed at the long, low house set in a park-like garden. Karen Blixen still evokes a lot of respect here; before leaving, she ensured that “her Kikuyu” were settled on reasonable land. Inside the house (no photos allowed), the rooms displayed a surprising number of her artifacts, considering she sold up when she left, an almost bankrupt farmer and coffee-grower. Natural and personal disasters had plagued her farming. The kitchen was equipped with a wide variety of hand-made tools, pre-figuring our modern kitchens. Heavy carved wooden furniture, such as cabinets, tables and chairs, furnished each room. Many photos were on display - of her husband and of her lover,
Dennis Finch-Hatton . Her own paintings on the walls showed considerable talent, portraying local people and their emotions. She was an independent woman in
a colonial setting in the early 1900s, which gave her a fulfilling but hard life.
As we drove on the highway out of the city, we saw modern urban sprawl well beyond the Nairobi County line. Thousands of low-rise and medium-rise apartment buildings were under construction to house the workers in the city. Some construction sites were stalled because of the effects of the covid pandemic, but the impetus to meet the demand for housing is strong. Almost everywhere market stalls with bright fruits and vegetables catered to the workers; houses had their own verdant gardens. Household furniture made from
African Ironwood was abundant, showcased at the side of the road. Most people commuted miles and miles to work in Nairobi.
Eventually, the urbanization subsided, and we were amongst large and small farms. A single small farm might have fruit and vegetable crops, chickens, perhaps turkeys and a few cows. Orange and mango trees were in season, full of fruit. Near the town of Thika, Del Monte has a huge pineapple plantation.
I asked about a large cactus-looking tree growing across the landscape. It was
Euphorbia Candelabra , a plant that has extremely toxic milky latex inside the branches,
responsible for both accidental and deliberate deaths. The branches grow in a uniform pattern, looking pruned for effect, but they are not. With knowledgeable handling, the branches can be used as a sturdy wood.
Along the way, Lucas talked about politics and the commercialization of religion. He considers independent evangelical preachers a cultural and economic disaster. This reminded me of Wole Soyinka’s Nigerian novel,
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth , in which corruption in evangelical religion is a pivot point to exposing corruption in the state. Lucas also talked about the two-year drought that is drastically reducing feed for cattle and making farming difficult. Cattle along the road-side were indeed thin.
As planned, we had a boxed lunch at a rest-stop. The quantity of food was large, so the unwanted packaged items were collected for people who needed them. While stretching my legs, I discovered a yard with a few chickens, a few ducks and a few turkeys – dinner for the family, no doubt.
On our way again, the land became more rural. The soil was laterite (iron bearing), and lots of it was exposed because of the construction of a second set of lanes for the highway. The building
Mango trees
One of many fruit farms of good roads is done by the Chinese, under fairly onerous conditions that all governments for decades to come must meet or lose the property. The Chinese intentions are recognized as being rapacious, but at least they are enabling countries to open-up their economies. Mid-afternoon while heading south, we crossed the equator, announced by a fleeting sign.
The last ten miles of travel were on a corduroyed gravel road, jouncing us in the heavily modified Toyota trucks. The guides and drivers are proud of these trucks; the industrial scale modifications shocked Toyota when they discovered what was being done. The standard 4X4 truck was cut behind the driver’s seat, and a strengthened cabin for more passengers was added, complete with a pop-up roof for clear game viewing. A longer drive shaft was substituted, and new panels manufactured. The work was done with great care and yielded functional and attractive results. The windows all opened for viewing game, and the roof can be raised to let passengers stand to take pictures. I joked that I was four-inches too short for this convenience, and Lucas said to take off my shoes and stand on the seat. The extra height worked very
Goat herd
Munching on the way side well for distance shots, although much of the game was close enough to take good shots out the open window by my seat. There are seven tourists in our group, and we have two vehicles, making everything very comfortable. While Lucas is travelling in one vehicle, in the other vehicle the very knowledgeable driver takes over the commentary. Official guides and driver/guides have all be trained in a national two-year tourism program.
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Isabel Gibson
non-member comment
Your description of the small but comprehensive farms reminded me of Costa Rica, where our guide pointed out that the base quality of life was pretty good, even in what looked to us like rural poverty. Farms grew rice and beans and all sorts of fruit and vegetables, and had a few chickens and pigs or goats. Education and health care were paid through the tax base. Income from work was low, but it mattered less than a North American would expect. You saw a wide range of things on one day, even without the mini-safari yet to come. I had to look up the hyrax (it sounds like a Dr. Seuss character) and was delighted to find that its closest relatives are the elephant and manatee. Wow. That's quite a wide range, too.