Whenever Graham had work to do at the Kiboko research station we stayed at Hunter’s Lodge. It was just next door, and the hotel manager allowed Graham a key to the back garden gate so he could come and go on foot rather than driving the long way round. The Lodge had been built around the late 1950s for the big game hunter, John Hunter. It was sited near his favourite waterhole, beside the Nairobi – Mombasa highway, just north of Makindu, and this was the place he chose for his retirement after a long career as safari guide and game controller.
At some time in the sixties the site was expanded into a motel with a small block of architect designed guest rooms overlooking the pool. (In his day, Hunter had dammed the Kiboko River that fed the waterhole and so created a garden lake). For a time the place had a heyday, being the weekend spot for British expatriates, or the main overnight stopover for anyone driving to or from Mombasa. Then the highway was improved with a layer of tarmac, and the clientele drove on by.
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When we stayed there in the ‘90s it was unusual to find any other guests. The Lodge staff anyway had their own regime that ticked over nicely irrespective of visitors. Now and then some Kenyan government agency might hold a seminar there or an overland truck might be allowed to park up and its occupants to camp on the lawn. Once I met an Israeli water engineer who was consulting on a nearby project. Otherwise, my main companions by day were Joyce the chambermaid and an astonishment of birdlife.
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And vervet monkeys.
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The vervets kept a keen eye on us. They soon learned we had supplies in our room – especially highly desirable bananas, and packs of raisins and nuts. We brought these to make up for the limited Lodge menu of cheese sandwiches, omelettes and steak and chips. But any unguarded moment and there would be a raid. I once came out of the bathroom to find three monkey faces peering up at me from under the bed.
The vervet in the header had clearly pounced while I was distracted with some bird watching out on the lawn (viz. empty binoculars case). And with over 200 local species, the distractions were many – from tiny malachite kingfishers to the giants whose diving technique seemed set to empty the pool. There were also pied and brown hooded kingfishers, ibis, storks, herons and weaver birds, and once, a lone pelican that dropped in from who knows where.
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Days at Hunter’s Lodge were like a waking dream, soundtrack the high-tension whine of insects, muffled rumble of trucks along the highway, clatter of stork bills up in the fever trees and sometimes the chime of a bell calling the gardeners and chamber-maids to their tea breaks.
You could be forgiven for being distracted in this place! Good for you going with a red that isn’t the color.
I was v. pleased with the ‘red-handed’ 🙂
I am applauding you for finding a non colour red 🙂
Am taking a bow, Becky. I was v. pleased when it popped into my head.
well!
What a great memory Tish!
Thanks, Anne.
Plenty of reds here Tish, but the title is brilliant! Cheeky monkeys! The Hunter chap was a bit off though “In his day, Hunter had dammed the Kiboko River that fed the waterhole and so created a garden lake” – how dare he! Did the waterhole dry up then?
I think he created more of a diversion than a stoppage. There was some kind of sluice arrangement at the road end of the garden.
Oh. Ok. Did any animals come to his lake?
Rumour had it that a leopard lived at the other end, but we never saw or heard it. Somewhat strangely a crocodile arrived there in ’94. No one knew how. But I take your point, he did create his own domain out of wilderness.
You wouldn’t want to run into either of them!
I was thinking the same!
Sounds like a dream to me..
I love ‘an astonishment of birdlife’. It seems as if that could apply to all the wildlife that came into your lives then. It must have been quite hard to be suitably irritated with those mararauding vervet monkeys. Such charmers!
Yes, they were hard to scold, apart from when one stole a packet of something it didn’t like and emptied it up in a thorn tree.
🤣
I love that ‘astonishment’ too, Tish. Golden days and opportunist monkeys!
You summed it up, Jo.
Wow, what memories!
There is such contentment in your Kenyan retrospectives Tish that the reader can only enjoy the observations of being back there in the 90s with you as seen through the colours of old film photos
P.s those Vervets evidently belong to the red hand gang!
p.p.s. Goes to show how surnames can be deterministic!
I feel I’ve the makings of vintage newsreel i.e. back in days of Armand and Michaela Dennis whom I followed avidly as a child. Michaela was in her 80s and living in Nairobi when we were there.
As for Mr. Hunter – he certainly more than lived up to his name – appalling head count on local rhinos – both at the behest of the colonial admin, settler ranchers and the Akamba farmers. The elephants in the locality did not fare well either.
oh yes I used to be an avid fan of those two – Africa in black and white whereas your vintage is colourful!
p.s. research says she was a dress designer before her love affair with safaris and Armand
She was extraordinary. Also a ‘double’ for Deborah Kerr for the action stunts in King Solomon’s Mines.
you are a mine of information! – v. interesting 🙂
Ha! Michaela wrote a few entertaining little books about her life and travels. Definitely a ‘can do’ kind of woman.
oh goodness going off him even more now!
Me too!
Love reading about your African life Tish. Great memories
You describe your stays at the lodge so vividly that I could almost believe that I’ve been there too! The monkeys are great fun (as is your choice of title 😆 ) and the bird life sounds amazing!
I so wish digital cameras had been around back then – i.e. to capture more of the bird life…
Wonderful Post Thanks
this is such a wonderful post – have enjoyed it so much and a great square title too 😀
Thank you, Becky. So pleased it hit the spot 🙂
I think I would have a phobia about monkeys – though they do look so cute.
Baboon are the real thugs when it comes to theft. Now they are scary at close quarters.