Kenya 2, Naivasha to Arusha

Through the small railway bridge and up to the main gates, Pembroke House (my old school from days living in Africa) lay completely as I remembered, though the surrounding hills seemed to have diminished. Green due to the recent rains and impeccably kept, the playing fields crept out down to the loose vegetation of the African bush which in turn led up to the shear sides that determine the Great Rift Valley. Our stay in Gilgil with Sam Cooke, the new headmaster, saw us kindly invited to a barbeque further up the valley, during which numerous kind invitations were offered, most notably a coffee farm up on the Ngorongoro Crater by Leon and Aideen Christianarkis. Our drive the following day to Lake Naivasha led us past the infamous Happy Valley Club, to meet the recently televised Cycle of life team, who having cycled through the Kalahari were embarking on their last leg. A group of five including the fastest person to cycle arounnd the world, Mark Beumont, we were very lucky to question them on certain points of the Kalahari before enjoying a combined photo shoot for Tusk. We all returned to the Campbell-Clauses’ following this meet for the night. The following morning we left for Borana, friends the Dyers’, estate North East of us. Driving past Treetops and through endless wilderness we eventually arrived. Set upon a small kopje their lodge had enviable views of their private safari reserve. That evening we drove out up to a favored sundowner haunt, overlooking a waterhole. With the sun dying, the animals and the flow of iced beers, Kenya was assured of its position as a favorite and certainly a place to return to. A further couple of days were spent here game driving and enjoying the Nanyuki club, the latter inducing many drunken injuries from the surrounding thorn trees and the pool.
From the freedom of Borana and Naivasha we drove south to Nairobi, staying with Jane Barseby in Karen. Though Nairobi was congested to bursting point and we were forever finding ourselves trapped in traffic, drinks at the Norfolk reflected the old Kenya we had seen earlier. A last supper in Carnivore, one of Nairobi’s last big game restaurants, saw us dining on crocodile and several Bucks before we continued onto Tanzania the next day. The following evening we returned to our traveling routine, staying in Arusha’s Masai camp. It proved to be a very colorful set up providing all the essentials. However our stay here was extremely fleeting, serving merely as a springboard for the eight hour push up to Leon and Aideen Christianarkis beautiful farm on the edge of Ngorongoro crater. Their stunning coffee farm perched on the edge of the park enabled us to have an unbelievable sundowner overlooking elephant territory, setting an amazing introduction to Tanzania.

Rob