To be welcomed home is very special!

Saturday, March 26, 2016
Nairobi, Kenya
Over the past week we have learned one very important lesson: getting anywhere in Kenya takes twice as long as you think - or the GPS tells you!


To go to Nakuru, we had two choices when we left the horse farm at Timau - go back to Nairobi (about 200k) and then drive the 140k from there to Nakuru or take a dirt road, 58k in length, from the east to the west, and then join the paved mountain road down to Nakuru . The latter seemed the obvious choice and we were encouraged to do so by Clinton, our host at Timau. “It’s not too bad a road; just take it gently and you’ll be fine” he said.


7 hours later we found the Airbnb (not without difficulty) in Nakuru. The journey was indescribably awful with dreadful dirt and pot-holed tarmac roads and so we were dismayed when we were shown to our room. It was tiny, with a lavatory and a shower in the same glass-fronted cubicle, no air-conditioning or fan and it was extremely hot and stuffy. We were forced to sleep with the window open and were plagued with mosquitos all night. Dinner and breakfast were quite disgusting. We had booked to stay there for 3 nights - the plan was to explore Nakuru and Ainbakoi from there - but we checked out early the next morning. Our second experience of Airbnb (the first in Australia being equally as ghastly) so never again!


Even if we had been stoic enough to cope with the Airbnb, we certainly could not have coped with the driving! It took us about three hours to get up the highlands and another hour or so to locate Ainbakoi . Joss’s Iphone did a sterling job but we kept losing signal and got hopelessly lost on the network of dirt tracks in and around this tiny village.


Ainbakoi is where my grandparents, Ann ‘Marg’ and Pop ‘Bertie’ Lamb farmed from about 1936 to when the farm was taken over for Kikuyu settlement in 1962, when independence was granted. 1,200 acres of fertile land and 300 acres of rain-forest, 150 head of milking stock and a similar number of sheep, wheat stores, mechanical milking equipment, harvesters and tractors, as well as a beautiful, four bedroom house, was valued at just £39,000. So sad. Jill Kargaard, who lives in Greyton, South Africa and to whom I am very loosely related, had helped me with locating the farm and we think we found it! Thank you, Jill. We certainly located your granny’s farm (which is now a very smart school) and I will forward you some pictures. If we are correct, my grandparents’ farmhouse was converted into a dairy and is now processing all the milk from the many farms in the area . When I explained my quest to the security guard, we were immediately treated to a guided tour of the complete dairy! The employees thought it highly likely that the dairy was the original farmhouse. The other choice is a building which is also now a school, located on the higher road above the station. It was interesting to see that the railway line still operates, albeit spasmodically. My family used to travel on this train from Nairobi when they were visiting the farm. I don’t suppose the village itself has changed much since those early days; it is still just a cluster of little shacks - a general store, a co-op bank and a hardware store. What might be new is a single petrol pump and a vast number of buda-budas (motor cycles) used as local transport. The milk churns and other produce are still transported by ox-drawn or donkey carts, however. It was such an exciting experience and brought my uncle’s memoirs and my book ‘Beneath African Skies’ to life for me.


We headed a little further north to Nyuru where we had book a room at the Samich Resort for the night. It was spectacularly located on the lip of the Great Rift Valley with amazing views from the mountains down to the huge valley bottom below. So nice after the horrors of our Airbnb! We left early morning after a delicious breakfast served in the garden. The morning was beautifully warm but it is cool in the night in the highlands and we slept like logs - under a duvet for the first time in two months!


And so back to Nakuru where we had managed to locate St Christopher’s Church where my parents had been married in May 1941 . Nakuru is a huge, sprawling city but in those days it had been a pretty little town and the church stands in the old part of the town, in peaceful grounds, next to St Christopher’s Primary School. I doubt it has changed much and we were pleased to find a record of the past vicars. The Rev. Robert Jones must have married my mum and dad and indeed, we have a photo in the family album of the couple posing in the church porch which is easily recognisable today. Awesome to think if it hadn’t been for that ceremony, I wouldn’t be here today! The rest of Nakuru is big, noisy and dirty and is now the second biggest city in Kenya. We tried to find the maternity home where I was born but it was impossible to get anywhere in the terrible traffic. However I believe it is still there and they have a Facebook page - Nakuru Nursing and Maternity Home - if you are interested. We also spotted what looked like an ex-army camp which could well have been where my father was stationed (the Nakuru Small Arms Training School) at that time


We then managed to battle our way down through the traffic in Flamingo Road to Lake Nakuru which is now a game reserve. We had intended to visit it because we had been told the park is well stocked but at $140 and with only a few hours of the day left before we had to head down to Naivasha, we decided it was too steep a price to pay for a short visit. Kenya does not encourage tourism by charging these silly prices to visitors; we visited the Kruger National Park in South Africa for less than $20! 


We arrived at the Naivasha Kongoni Lodge late afternoon after another tiring drive but it was worth it. The setting sun over the lake was so beautiful; I shall never forget it. Giraffes, warthogs and buck lined the approach. We had our own little cottage set in the bush on the banks of the lake and we enjoyed a delicious dinner and breakfast at the restaurant which was just a stroll away . Again we were up early and after a refreshing swim, we set off for Nairobi. Good Friday and the traffic was awful - nose-to-tail over the mountains of the Rift Valley. It was really too stressful with hundreds of matatus (taxi vans) and lorries all fighting for position on hairpin bends to enjoy the amazing views down to the Nairobi plain and poor Mike was a nervous wreck by the time we hit the city. Thankfully, we had been given some excellent directions from our exchangers, Leslie and Tim Smyth, and we found our new home - a rather lovely old Colonial cottage - without too much difficulty. The housekeeper had prepared dinner for us and it was lovely to relax by the pool with large drinks after a very hectic day.


We have a week here in Nairobi before the final leg of our three month adventure in Mombasa. I know we are going to love living is this gorgeous spot and exploring the vicinity. We hope to find my Uncle George’s house where the family lived for many years, the house that my grandmother built for her retirement and the church in which I was christened.  Whenever I talk to the local people and tell them I was born here in Kenya they say 'welcome home'. It is so touching and they really mean it. 
 Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and we would both like to wish you a very happy day wherever you are in the world and hope to see you again soon.




Other Entries

Comments

Jill Kargaard
2016-03-26

Hi Gillie and Mike, your trip sounds amazing, if not quite hair-raising!! I'm so glad the directions helped and that you were able to locate Aunt Marg and Uncle Bert's farm as well as my grandmother's farm. Enjoy! Happy Easter!

Mike Garside
2016-03-26

Well done you two. You deserve medals for this determined exploration.

gillie.bowen
2016-03-27

Mike - we love every minute of it! Stumbled across a problem here in Nairobi - the road in which George built his house (Gorden Road) no longer exists; must have been renamed. However, we will overcome...

gillie.bowen
2016-03-27

It was amazing to find the farms. I will send you the photos I took of your granny's farm. Have a lovely Easter Sunday.

2025-02-10

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank