My 'Childish' Trip Report - 40 years late!

[Bugs]

Twaff, you are a star. I am loving this report.

 

Sorry you didn't like South Africa, but not surprising being time the that you were there. I was a few years younger than you, and was also outspoken about the dehumanizing system of exploitation. We were all so positive when the Rainbow nation was proclaimed, but sadly this new government is also failing its people.

 

However, I still remain positive and proud to be South African and my heritage.

 

When; ... Note "when" you do come back here make sure that you look me up.

[twaffle]

However, I still remain positive and proud to be South African and my heritage.

 

When; ... Note "when" you do come back here make sure that you look me up.

 

 

I would be proud to part of South Africa too, I have never blamed citizens of a country for the way its' government (or even the majority of the inhabitants) behave. I will get there because we really want to do a self drive and I think SA will be a great place to start and we will come and visit your game farm (but won't shoot any of your animals! )

[Jan]

Twaffle, what lovely photos of the Mount Kenya climb. All I've managed is the view from several locations and the

 

view from the plane to Kenya. You are doing a wonderful job. I wish that I had such fantastic photos in my family

 

archive.

 

 

Jan

[twaffle]

Now I am going to finish this thing because it is making me melancholy as I near the end. I have put on some stirring classic music to take me through.

 

One more Geological trip, this time to Lake Bogoria (used to be called Lake Harrington … apparently!).

 

Lake Bogoria

 

 

The camp grounds.

 

Can't resist a last picture of Mt Kenya … she's beautiful!

 

And one last car for Game Warden.

This Alfa came back to Australia with us, but was sold when Dad started getting too many speeding fines.

[twaffle]

As part of my research for this project, I have re-read some old letters from my parents, sent to me at boarding school.

 

I worried that I was getting so many memories muddled and came upon a letter from my mother (26 Sept ‘71) and then one from my father (2 Oct ‘71) which illustrates that we all have ‘memory’ issues, even when relating the same incident within hours or days of it happening.

My mother:

“We have just had an exciting half hour. Daddy lit a fire and then put an old box on it to burn and the chimney caught alight. Outside there were flames and sparks and the top of the chimney was red hot. We had to get the hose and Daddy stood on the ladder and poured water on the roof and chimney. Now all is well.”

My father:

“One night your brother stoked the fire up so vigorously that the chimney caught on fire and we had large flames shooting out from the top. It took a long time to extinguish and in the end I had to climb up with a ladder and hose. Eventually, after we had all become pretty wet and dirty it was out.”

 

Our time was running out. There was talk in the family of packing boxes and last minute good-byes. I was sent instructions not to bring many clothes out to Nairobi on my school holidays as I needed to take so much stuff back with me.

 

We had one last 'grand safari' which took us to Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro. I remember the lodge at Ngorongoro as it was the first time I was allowed to have an alcoholic drink with dinner.

 

Lake Manyara

 

A pride of tree climbing lions.

Pool with a view.

 

Olduvai Gorge

[twaffle]

Our lodge at Ngorongoro

 

The crater

 

Another view

 

Flamingos in the crater

Various animals in the crater

Black rhino and calf

A battle scarred slide of an elephant

The crater walls from the bottom

Jackal on the run

 

This last photo is of a waterfall in the Aberdares.

 

Although we had a few months after this trip, I can't find anymore of Dad's slide boxes. Maybe one day I'll find them and be able to post a postscript.

 

 

"I am sitting in the car hugging the dog hoping tomorrow will never come. Tears run down my face and I try to hide the sobs from my parents. Today I am leaving my home, my friends, my precious animals for the last time. I have to go back to boarding school and then my parents will pack up the house and leave for Australia to our new life. I feel like my heart will break. I hate this travelling alone. I head through customs waving a last goodbye to my parents as the doors close. On the plane I bury my head in the stuffed koala I am carrying, I can’t possibly stop the tears now. There are very kind people sitting near me, obviously concerned at my distress but what can I tell them. They wouldn’t understand. Adults think that children will get over anything, but I will never get over leaving the home and country I love. It is a cloudy day and I can’t get a last glimpse of Kenyan soil but then, out of the clouds and piercing the blue sky above rises the snow covered peak of Mt Kilimanjaro … not Kenyan but near enough for me. I turn my head looking through every available window until my neck hurts and I can see it no longer."

 

THE END

[Geoff]

Great work Twaffle.

[Game Warden]

Thanks Twaffle, feels like we have grown up with you.

[rickmck]

A bit like sitting in your living room with you, watching a slide show of your youth from from a Kodak Carousel slide projector... That was great!

 

Cheers,

Rick

[kulkulbelle]

This has been a stunning thread. I really did feel like I shared a lovely part of your childhood. I can see we were relative contemporaries, and little things - Aran jerseys, the many and varied cars brought a smile to my face. Alas, the closest I ever got to Africa was Daktari television shows on the black and white box in provincial New Zealand living room.

 

Thank you for sharing this with us so vividly. The whole thing has been wonderful and all the way through I was reminded so much of Elspeth Huxley's "Flame Trees of Thika" - one of my all time favourite books.

 

Twaffle, again - thank you, thank you..... *hits back button again*

 

Keep it up, I will be F5ing constantly for the next installment.

[Guest nyama]

THE END

[Hebog]

Twaffle,

 

I feel like I usually do at the end of a good book, wanting more but happy of the journey I've just completed. Thanks for letting us join in.

[Patty]

This is wonderful, twaffle! Thanks so much for sharing with us.

[twaffle]

Thank you, I had fun.

[Atravelynn]

Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

[Jan]

Twaffle,

 

Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou.

 

 

Jan

[twaffle]

Who would have thought that I could add more to this report but just yesterday I received a message from a new member (Mike Mac) who found us here at Safaritalk via a search which linked to this report. With his permission, I have copied an excerpt of his letters to me. I hope you find it interesting! I have encouraged him to post some photos which he hopes to do when he has time to scan them.

 

 

 

"We seem to have trodden in each others footsteps across Africa. I was born in Uganda and lived in Tororro, Mbarrara, Fort Portal, Kampala and so recognise so many of the places you have shown. In Kampala I lived on top of Kololo Hill (Ridgeway Drive), then on Kintu Road and went to Nakassero Primary School.

 

The reason I came across your post was because I did a google search on Toni Nutti. I also visited her island on the Kagera and like you have some pics (taken by my parents) in about 1962 which I will in due course upload. In addition I have some old 8mm cine film of her and the island including the basket/ bosums chair from the river bank to the island. I do recall a story whereby my father and others had to rescue her from her island when the Kagera was in flood. There used to be a foot bridge, but it was swept away - hence the bosun's chair contraption. At the time of the rescue her island was being flooded and she was being menaced by crocs and literally was wadding around her bungalow shooting at them trying to get at her !!!!

 

The island was at KIKAGATI. I often went there with my father who was a Uganda Electricty Board (UEB) engineer and he commissioned the hydro electric scheme there. President Museveni in the 1970’s (as an invading rebel) blew it up !!!! I have read recently that a new hydro electric scheme is to be built soon, I believe they intend to dam the river. I also remember monster crocs on the Kagera !!!!! If you have any other info on Toni Nutti I would love to know of it. Someone in the 1970's planned to write a book on her, but I have never been able to find out if it was ever published. She was a colourful Karen Blixen type character, she came out to Uganda in the 20' or 30's from Italy to marry an Italian Count but the marriage failed - I believe he was a drunk, womaniser, spendfrith etc (shades of Count von Blixen) and so she left him and led a colourful life as a pioneer type women who was highly enterprising, independent and self reliant. Big Game Hunter, Honoury Game Ranger, tea planter, cattle rancher, hotelier were all in her portfolio of enterprises. In WW2 she refused to be interned as an 'Enemy Alien' and anyway knew the Governor, local District Commissioner etc and they knew better than to take her on! I believe she eventually ended up with an ex- Kings African Rifles officer who had retired to Uganda and they set up on her island. She was quite an outspoken women and not a believer in the ability of the newly independent emerging African countries to govern themselves and I believe she was deported sometime in the late 60's by President Obote and died in 'exile' in Europe (presumably). If you have any other info on her I would to hear it.

 

I believe that you can see her island on the satellite picture on Google earth - at least it is the only substantial island that I could find – so I presume it was hers."

 

And from the second message.

 

"There were some other old timers there who I recall and who the ex-Uganda Mzungu’s have tales of, one was called Syd Holmes (could even be spelt Sid or Homes????) who was one of the first Europeans into Uganda at the turn of the 19th/20th Centuries – he was by all accounts an extraordinary man who had the most amazing cine collection. I remember siting watching enthralled of film footage taken probably just after World War 1 of a very pre European African society, tribesman, warriors, wildlife, early European settlement. Like Toni Nutti he did many things, hunter, ivory poacher, game/hunting guide to the visiting Prince of Wales (the King who Abdicated), planter etc. One of his early enterprises was that he ran a franchise to run mail from the rail head of the Uganda Railway (the railway of Man Eaters of Tsavo fame – the Lunatic Express{Mombassa to Kampala line}) to the Government Depts in Uganda. He had the first motor-cycle in Uganda. He was also a film extra in a 1920's/30's film 'sanders of the River' where he played the DC who was killed by the Leopard man (played by his brother who had been covered in black boot polish). My parents knew him in the 50’s & 60’s and he was still going strong as a ‘Mr Fix –it’ and trouble shooter for the UEB. I believe that in the late 60’s he went to Kenya to live with his brother (name not known) and may have died there. If you have any info on him I would be fascinated to hear – I have tried to research him on the net etc but so far without any luck. I would love to know what ever happened to his cine collection, it was quite extraordinary footage. Another old timer was a tea planter from Fort Portal called ‘Bunduki’ Gunn who employed a Witch Doctor as his ‘labour relations advisor’ ( funny old thing really, he never had any labour disputes, discipline problems, lazy workers, theft or vandalism) – his partner was I believe an Aunt of the American actor Jack Lemon.

 

I must urge you to return to Uganda. Go armed with your old pics and compare then and now – often little or no change!!! I have some lovely slides taken by my parents of the Mountain of the Moon Hotel in Fort Portal in the 60’s– when I visited in 1998, the only differences were that it now had a large satellite dish and that the trees had grown taller !!!!! My father was still remembered in FP. I found the place quite safe (usual tourist risks – mossy bites, but as I said the locals were so friendly). Given what Uganda went thru post 1970’s, you would be amazed at the rebuild/re-vamping that has gone on and the positive no blame (of Mzungu’s) culture of the Ugandans. I keep thinking of arranging a visit for the ‘kids of’ ie our generation who were there."

 

 

I can't tell you how much pleasure getting this information gave me. I have to search for my old photos now, to see if we were in the same class at Nakasero Primary School.

 

It is as if the mists of time have cleared momentarily and I gaze backwards with clarity for the first time in years.

 

Thank you Mike and I look forward to your own Ugandan thread complete with photos and movies.

[Atravelynn]

How wonderful this treasure is being shared so widely!

 

"...she was being menaced by crocs and literally was wadding around her bungalow shooting at them trying to get at her !!!! " Now that's adventure!

[scruffypuma]

Wow. My first browse on this site and I sat down for a quick read.........and found your "Childish" Trip Report. It was an incredible read. What an experience. Thank you so much for taking the time and effort, it was a wonderful experience to read your advendures!

[twaffle]

Hi Scruffypuma, welcome to Safaritalk and thank you for your kind words. Much appreciated. I look forward to your contributions here.

[Bugs]

Welcome Scruffypuma. It is such a special report - isn't it?

 

Well done again Twaff.

[twaffle]

Thanks Dikdik

[Nenette]

Hello Twaffle,

 

what a jewel of a "trip" report. It contains everything to make a good book out of it.

You should give it a try and write it in book form.

 

There are so few people who have this kind of memories!

Maybe a long break in a calm lodge in the kenyan bush might give you the inspiration

 

Best regards,

Nenette

[twaffle]

Thanks Nenette, I appreciate your comments.

 

I am spending a week in the Mara in January, perhaps I'll be hit by literary inspiration!

[Game Warden]

Twaffle, any chance of revisiting some of your old haunts? Perhaps take some comparison photos for a now and then type article?