Preface: Fred had conducted a number of tours for Dr. Martin Luther College. In 1997, on the eve of his retirement, he and a geography teacher, Professor Earl Heidtke, collaborated on an African tour. Fred was to do the preliminary work of planning an itinerary and consulting with travel agencies. Earl then would take over and conduct the tour. Our goal was to perpetuate travel study tours after my retirement. Grand Circle Travel agreed to modify their safari trip to accommodate college students and still retain their reduced group rates. Group Travel Directors of Minneapolis then matched the price, itinerary and accommodations. We agreed to use this local agency and they served us well. Students could take the tour for 4 college credits in the areas of history or geography. Four days before departure Fred and Prof Raddatz had just returned from a tour of the Balkans (Romania & Bulgaria) and were both extremely ill with a respiratory illness. Raddatz was placed in the hospital; Fred was advised not to travel but to take needed rest. Fred ignored his doctor and left on this trip anyway. Reservations had been made for both him and Annette -- and he was going no matter what.
The narration that follows coincides with my videotape so there may be some confusion between the pictures and photos on the right with the script on the left.
Wednesday, June 11th.
Our entourage of 20 departed Minneapolis International Airport on flight 38 to Boston at 12:20 in the afternoon From here we connected to Kenya.
Thursday, June 12th
The first order of business in Nairobi was to check in at the Norfolk Hotel and to have an evening candle-lighted meal in a porch-like setting at the
Delamere Restaurant on the premises.
The Norfolk Hotel is the best hotel in Nairobi and it has a great history. In 1904, it was at the Norfolk that all new arrivals gathered, then men with the money, ambition and foresight to found a Colony, for Kenya as a country has only existed since the turn of the twentieth century.
This Kenya Luxury hotel, with its cool resting rooms and hot and cold baths, was civilization in the bush. People who lodged here included Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt.
Friday, June 13th
Our hotel windows opened up to a beautiful view of the inner courtyard of the Norfolk. Our early risers were already out there enjoying the birds and flowers.
Everything about the hotel reminded us of the early British influence of the colonial period -- for example, the traditional garb of the doormen, the Elizabethan half-timbered architecture around the entrance...
and the traditional English breakfast of eggs, bangers, lean bacon and fried tomatoes.
Our friendly guide, Maurice, who would accompany us throughout Kenya, arranged a walk to visit the nearby National Museum. Here he is shown with Annette.
The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) is a governmental body maintaining museums and monuments in Kenya. The NMK was founded by the East Africa Natural History Society in 1910; the Society's main goal was and is to conduct an ongoing critical scientific examination of the natural attributes of the East African habitat.
Besides natural history, the museum housed collections of paintings of Africans...
... and other artwork.
We met outside with Maurice to head for the City Market Place. Vendors eagerly sought our attention and negotiated sales. Annette said she felt they were too pushy. Maurice explained that their livelihood depended on sales.
After a busy day at the market place, we had a formal 7:30 pm dinner at the Ibis in the Norfolk Hotel. A piano player played soft music for us as we ate. Our meal was topped off with an exotic dessert.
Saturday, June 14th
Today was another free day of leisure in Nairobi. We watched a monkey in our courtyard and relaxed. Allan and Rachel Stelljes at right.
All of us joined Maurice for a tour at the Kazuri Bead Company. Each bead is shaped by hand, by one of the 350 local women employed by Kazuri. The beads are then polished and kiln fired, painted and fired again before being strung into a necklace. The Kazuri Bead Factory, located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, is unique in that it is Kenya’s first visitors’ attraction of its kind, created for and by women. Founded by Lady Susan Wood in 1975, the company is known for its beautiful, hand-painted beads made from the authentic clay from the Mt. Kenya area.
Wood started the bead business on the Karen Blixen estate with just two single mothers, but soon, more women joined the workshop. All of them were poor, abandoned by their husbands or widowed by the AIDS epidemic that is engulfing Africa.
Presently, about 120 women, mostly single mothers, work at the facility. The absence of a formal education has not deterred these women from successfully managing their growing tourist attraction and lucrative gift shop. Naturally, Annette found an attractive necklace and match ear rings at the gift shop.
We met Lady Susan Wood who had started the company and she invited us to see her yard and flower garden as well as her homestead.
Our van then headed to the Karen Blixen Museum.
The Karen Blixen Museum was her home "Mbogani" between 1917 and 1931, and at that time in the middle of a large coffee plantation of about 2000 Ha (5000 acres). It was donated by the Danish government and opened in 1986, following the popularity of the 1985 movie, Out of Africa.
An ambitious lad seeking donations walked out to our group to show us a chameleon he was holding in his hand.
The next exciting stop for us explorers was the Langata Centre. Here we could walk up to an elevated platform and hand feed the Rothschild giraffes at the appropriate level.
Pat Bowar enjoyed the activity...
... and Fred was there to record the event.
We stopped for a late lunch at the Utamaduni Center. This restaurant and craft center was opened by Dr. Richard Leaky in 1991. A carved face of an African situated by the door was beautiful.
That evening a number of us went to the French Cultural Centre to watch African acrobats. The performing group was called Ushikamano. Very interesting program with daring feats. Then we returned to the Norfolk hotel for rest.
Sunday, June 15th
Following breakfast we prepared for our long awaited trip to Amboseli National Park.
Annette and Heather watched Van 1 being loaded in front of the hotel.
We drove on a paved road to Namanga, but that marked the end of normal roads. One visitor wrote: “Namanga is about 60 km from Amboseli on a very bumpy, heavily corrugated dirt road that could pop the eyeballs straight out of your head.”
Finally we reached Meshanani Gate, the entrance to Amboseli National Park.
Soon we came upon our first wild life -- the famous Amboseli elephants
... and warthogs.
Lodge for the night.
Our Ol Tukai Lodge had a wooden walkway to the entrance and lobby area.
Our lobby area ceiling consisted of a network of poles.
From the porch of our rooms could be seen wildlife,
like this herd of elephants just outside the electrified fence.
After lunch at the lodge, James, our capable driver took us on our afternoon game drive.
The removable roof panels were taken off the vans. The Endorfs, Mike,Lisa, Penny and Earl popped out to view game with their binoculars.
Sightings included water buffalo, elephants, wildebeests, gazelles, ostriches and
spotted hyenas.
The “roads” took their toll on our tires. Today we experienced the first (of what would be many) flat tire. Fortunately, it was in full view of numerous feeding elephants, Kori Bustards and a crowned crane.
That evening, after dinner at Ol Tukai Lodge, we were treated to with dances and songs from the Masai. In traditional fashion the men leapt into the air with their feet together while the women bobbed up and down flapping their broad beaded neck pieces.
Monday, June 16th
Our early morning drive began with the rising of the sun. The vans pulled out of the Ol Tukai compound for another quest of Amboseli wildlife viewing. Our opening treat for the day was a mating dance ritual of crowned cranes.
Today we were blessed with our first lion sighting, a female who walked around for us. We also saw elephants with their babies, a hippo
and many, many zebras.
Rachel and Allan Stelljes rejoined our safari today. Back in Nairobi Rachel had gone to the hospital for observation and tests. After being treated she was flown here to Amboseli.
Our next game drive introduced us to a family of black-faced monkeys, veruets, cape buffalo, Egyptian geese, warthogs and crowned cranes.
An optional meet-the-people visit to a Masai village was offered to those interested. The Masai have largely managed to stay outside the mainstream of development in Kenya and still maintain their cattle herds.
The trip took us over a volcanic strewn area. The Endorfs enjoyed the ride.
The homes of the village were arranged in a circle with a broad clearing in the center. All of the dwellings were constructed of branches covered with dried-out cow dung.
The natives sang for us and invited our members to join them. Then the tribal men illustrated their jumping ability. Alan and Earl joined them.
We walked over to a shady spot where young school children were having school lessons.
They sang for us and demonstrated their scholastic ability.
Our afternoon game drive began around 4 pm.
As we prepared tom leave, I taped monkeys climbing on the buildings of the lodge. Some of the cheeky monkeys walked up to our cabins.
Flat tires were the norm. But we saw all sorts of wild life.
And the majestic Mt. Kilimanjaro with its snow covered peak.
Back at the lodge, Fred called it a day
Tuesday, June 17th
We loaded the van for our journey to Tanzania. Early that morning we departed through the gates of our lodge. We observed heron, egret and kingfisher along the road. We arrived at the border town of Namanga and were met by vendors selling beautiful woodcarvings. They pressed hard for sales.
It was time to say good bye to Kenya and our wonderful Kenyan guide and drivers.
After spending June 18th to June 25th in Tanzania (covered in Part II), we returned to Kenya.
Thursday, June 26th
Well rested after our return from Tanzania, we were ready to embark on our own in Nairobi Pat Bower had discovered a working tea farm that was open to visitors. Just 20 miles north of Nairobi was Kilambethu Tea Farm which proved well worth a visit.
What was especially appealing about this venture was that we would met the owner, Evelyn Mitchell. She stepped out on her porch to greet us. This 88 year-old woman was still a lively story teller. Her father, Mr. McDonnell started tea farming here in 1918. Her late husband had served many years in the service of the Kenya Police.
Mrs. Mitchell gave us a personal tour of her beautiful flower garden and well kept grounds.
Fred took time to smell the flowers.
Then we were invited into her home for a tour. She served us dinner around the dinning room table. She was assisted by her trusted servant,whom she summoned regularly with the ring of a bell. After dinner her servant served aromatic Kenya coffee as well as some of the farm's own tea, accompanied by homemade buttery cookies.
She told us how her grandparents had come to Kenya from Britain in 1903, shortly after the first white settlers arrived, and her father purchased the farm — some 300 acres of virgin forest — a few years later. He cleared most of the forest and tried a variety of crops — flax, coffee, pyrethrum, maize — but without success. When a friend sent him some tea seeds from India, he found the crop that would succeed. The tea flourished and Kiambethu. Farm, Mitchell said, became the first to produce it in East Africa.
She instructed her servant to take us over to see the workers picking the tea leaves. This work had to be done by hand because of the delicate nature of the leaves. They plucked the top two leaves and bud from each plant.
The father of Evelyn Mitchell had been very active in the community here in Kenya. He founded a large girls’ school and built the local church. To the right is All Saints Church (Episcopal) which he also designed. He personally did the woodcarving on the altar, choir stalls and the balcony.
His grave site was located in the cemetery. Evelyn’s story was so vivid, we felt like we knew him.
GO ON TO 1997 AFRICAN SAFARI PART II TANZANIA
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