Wellsprings of Time - Realview

digital media at its best made in kenya for the world issue 27 - december 2012/january 2013 

Kenya 

In The Niche 

In Days Gone By 

Wine of the Month 

Guest Photo Gallery 

Special Reader Offers 

Wellsprings of Time 

Africa House Revisited 

The Best & Worst of Tanzania 

Who Murdered Lord Erroll? 

2 travel news December 2012/January 2013 December 2012/January 2013 travel news 3

our opening shot 

Another stunning image by one of our favourite photographers Barry Koenecke - click HERE to contact him 


contents 

the news 12 

wellsprings of time 20 

the best & worst of tz 31 

coastal currents 44 

in the niche 46 

miscellaneous ramblings 54 

wine of the month 58 

resident specials 60 

in days gone by 62 

who murdered lord erroll? 68 

the inside edge 78 

guest photo gallery 80 

book reviews 86 

speaker’s corner 88 

 

Media Partner 

On The Cover 

Kapishya Hot Springs Lodge by 

Storm Stanley 

Publisher & Editor 

Tony Clegg-Butt 

Marketing & Sales 

Design & Editorial Consultant 

Editorial Contributors 

Alison Clegg-Butt 

Jolene Wood 

Anthea Rowan, Julia Lawrence 

Steve Shelley, Jane Barsby 

Juliet Barnes, Storm Stanley, Bryan Harris 

Photographic Contributors 

Storm Stanley, Warren Samuels 

Paolo Torchio, Barry Koenecke 

Kenneth Shannon, Juliet Barnes 

The opinions expressed by contributors are not 

necessarily those of the publishers who cannot 

accept blame for errors or omissions. The publishers 

do not accept responsibility for the advertising 

content of the magazine nor do they promote or 

endorse products from third party advertisers. 

©2012 Travel News (Kenya) Ltd. 

All rights reserved. 

Contact us: click HERE 

The Kiwis do get carried away with their rugby!! A brand 

6 travel news December 2012/January 2013 new A320 decked out for World Cup Rugby 2011. December 2012/January 2013 travel news 7

8 travel 

news Decemberer 2012/January 2/ 

2013 

December 2012/January 2/January 2013 

travel news 9

editorial 

letters 

Ok, so now you all know about our new zoom feature and, of 

course, you know that this little digital mag is 100% connected. 

Click on any link or advertisement and go visit our advertisers' 

websites, with direct links within most of our stories. 

Happily this is our largest edition to date; and even more happily, advertisers in droves 

have come on board in record numbers. They know like you do that we are doing 

something that ticks most of the boxes. Our reach quite frankly shocks me everytime I 

look at the numbers - but enough of self-promotion. 

We welcome back Storm Stanley who this month tells of her trip in words and images 

to Shiwa Ng'andu in northern Zambia, made famous in Christina Lamb's book Africa 

House. Ever since I read the book, a great African story well told, I wanted to go there 

and Storm's article has rekindled those thoughts. 

Columnista's Duncan Mitchell and Steve Shelley tell the good story; the new amendment 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

nonetheless. 

 

 

 

Tony Clegg-Butt 

PS - this is what the 

new zoom tool looks like... 

Travel News is my favourite magazine. I 

must admit that I do print it out once in a 

while to take on my travels. 

I always leave a copy where I know 

fellow travellers will pick it up and enjoy 

it. The photos in the November issue are 

wonderful. Thanks for keeping this going. 

You asked about a counting problem in 

Florida (US Presidential election). Maybe 

I should volunteer. 

Lots of us went to absentee ballots this 

year. I guess we slowed the process down. 

Our ballot papers were six feet LONG; 

on average it was taking each voter 45 

minutes to vote. 

There was a great website that explained 

all the proposed amendments. However, 

how many people take the time to 

understand what they are voting for? 

Keep up the good work. I have a doctor 

who wants to travel to Kenya and I will send 

her the current issue of your e-magazine. 

Sally Gorham 

Melbourne, USA 

As always, the latest edition is a welcome 

lump of nostalgia for me. 

However, a couple of items are a little 

awry! 

The New Stanley never was "close" 

to Mansion House! Close to Torr’s, 

Woolworths and E.A.A., and the statue 

of Lord Delamere, (none of which remain 

now) but not Dave Singer’s restaurant (on 

top of Mansion House). 

Plus, in the Old Houses section... please 

not "Thompson’s Falls"! The explorer 

would turn in his grave if he read it! 

I arrived in Kenya in 1947, and spent many 

wonderful years there, before heading 

south in 1970. 

Keith Elliot 

South Africa 

Ed - Thomson Falls I would have spotted 

a mile away; I didn't. The buck ends here, 

my apologies for same. 

As far as Mansion House goes, it is and 

was and remains 'close' to the New 

Stanley. It is today's Jubilee Insurance 

House, where my GP used to be situated 

and is no more than a 2-3 minute stroll 

away — that in my book is close. 

Just to make 100% sure, I asked John 

Lloyd a well-known estate agent of yore 

 

and to quote him, 'It took no more than a 

couple of minutes to get to Bacchus' — 

which was a watering hole of note in the 

New Stanley a long time ago. 

Okay, I will give you the fact that Mansion 

House is “close” to the New Stanley! 

I remember now why I thought it was a long 

way away. After a hard month in the bush 

in 1953, I had a weekend pass in the big 

city. I parked my Land Rover somewhere 

near the Stanley, and joined the lunch 

time crowd at the Long Bar; some hours 

later I emerged and, you guessed it, could 

not remember where I had parked. It was 

a hell of a long trek, going round in circles, 

until I found the vehicle, beyond Mansion 

House towards City Hall. 

Glad you agree with me on "Thompsons 

Falls". I worked for the K.C.C. there in 

1951, and also served in the 5th Battalion 

of the KAR. 

Keith Elliot 


the news 

This image is doing the rounds of the internet purporting to be on the 'Island of Lamu'. 

Nice, but surely this cannot be right? Looks great though, doesn't it? 

Cash in if you are on a delayed 

 

Compensation 

 

the 27-country European Union are entitled 

to between €250 and €600 for delayed or 

 

The Luxembourg-based European Court 

of Justice said passengers deserved to 

be compensated for delays of more than 

 

three years ago. 

Karibu Kenya 

Accommodation Guide 

A new accommodation guide to Kenya is on 

the market. At 536-pages, it is, packaged 

in its own canvas carrying case. Tamara 

Britten’s guide, Karibu Kenya, offers a vast 

range of hotels and lodges, some way off 

the beaten track, ranging from low budget 

to luxury. In bookshops soon or available 

immediately from Amazon. To contact the 

author, click HERE. 

 

have similar penalty levels. 

This is in addition to all individual airlines 

denied boarding compensation for 

 


the news 

British & Irish Lions Tour Australia 2013 

Uniglobe Let's Go Travel Sports have only four platinum match tickets + 4-star 

accommodation packages left for next year's British & Irish Lions Tour to 

Australia. 

Includes: two nights accommodation in 4-star hotel pre and post matches in Brisbane, 

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match tickets. 90-minute pre-match party in each city plus on-site staff. Airline tickets 

from Nairobi to all three cities from US$ 2,456. 

First Test 22nd June - Brisbane Second Test 29th June - Melbourne 

Third Test 6th July - Sydney 

Click HERE to enquire... 

Cost-effective advertising 

solutions that reach your 

target with immediacy. 

Click HERE to advertise 


the news 

MOMBASA 

Morani's 

Is a new restauant located on the 

Ol Pejeta Conservancy. 

Located in the Moroni Information 

Centre and named in honour 

of Ol Pejeta's most famous 

ambassador. 

Open from noon to 6.00 pm 

seven days a week it serves both 

African and Western dishes. 

Discounted park entry fees when 

dining 

Bookings are strongly 

suggested. Click HERE to book. 

Bublé Live at O2 

Thursday 4th July 2013. 

There are plenty of reasons to love Canadian 

singer songwriter Michael Bublé – and plenty 

of reasons to book this stunning opportunity to 

see him sing live at the O2 Arena. With over 22 

million albums sold worldwide, multiple awards, 

three No 1 hits including Home, Everything and 

Lost, Michael Bublé has more than earned his 

place as one of the most popular and revered 

artists of this decade. 

Enjoy fast track VIP entrance, 3 complimentary 

drinks during the evening, VIP seating and 

viewing, plus exclusive access to the O2 VIP 

bar and food stalls all night – there’s no better 

way to see Michael Bublé perform. This is an 

experience you won’t forget. 

Click HERE to book or for more information 

E-mail: reservations.mombasa@tamarind.co.ke 

Tel: 254 41 4474600/1/2 Web: www.tamarind.co.ke 


the news 

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have given him a name - Fred, perhaps as in Fred the Bed! We asked this question last month: 

who knew elephants slept lying down and why? No winning answers to date. 

Click HERE to visit the Great Plains Zarafa Camp website 

 

 

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KFC is hugely popular in Japan during the festive season, 

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TANZANIA 

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P.O. Box 38568, 

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Phone: +255 (22) 2296755 

Email: tanzania@jwseagon.com 

Website: www.jwseagon.com/tanzania 

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feature 

Wellsprings of Time 

by Storm Stanley 

Located on a bend of a gently 

 

Northern Province of Zambia is 

a small, friendly, family-owned 

and managed lodge, Kapishya 

Hot Springs Lodge run by the 

late Sir Stewart Gore-Browne’s 

second youngest grandson, 

Mark Harvey, of Africa House 

fame, on Shiwa Ng’andu Estate. 


Shiwa is about as remote as it gets, 280 kms from the Tanzanian border, 750 kms from 

Lusaka and 32 kms off the Great North Road, halfway between Mpika and Chinsali. The 

natural hot springs, after which the lodge is named are bath temperature and effervesce 

out of sand rich with silicates, calcium and magnesium, helping to soothe tired muscles 

after long distances. Shiwa Ng’andu takes its name from Lake Ishiba Ng’andu which 

means in the local Bemba language. 

Kapishya Hot Springs 

In the early 1930s Sir Stewart and his young wife Lorna (25 years his junior) shared 

 

wattle and daub weekend retreat for the family in the 1950s. Since the 1980s it has had 

to earn its keep evolving from self-catering bandas to lodge. There are six secluded 

 

and a swimming pool. Campers are welcome in the adjoining campsite and provided 

with hot showers and a barbeque area. Optional excursions include game-drives, bird 

 

Dinner is served en famille at a long table in a rustic double-storey chalet built out of 

Mubanga and Mulambwa logs. The cosy ambiance and doting presence of 

the guests' glasses is conducive to swapping tales of recent adventures, none however 

are as intriguing as the story of the Gore-Brownes and the Harveys. Hearing about their 

 

Livingstone himself criss-crossed this territory, taking compass bearings from Nachipala 

Bareback Hill in 1867. Back then the lakes were crawling with crocodile and his dog 

Chitane was eaten by one. Shiwa Ng’andu was relatively unknown outside Zambia until 

the advent of Christina Lamb’s bestseller Africa House (a family biography). 

 

a year. 

Manasha River 


Shiwa Ng’andu Estate comprises several diverse habitats: Miombo woodland, riparian 

and Afromontane forests, grassy glades (known locally as 

a lake and river. Several endemic bird species occur here and it is a recognised IOB - 

important bird area. Conservation efforts have recently been enhanced with a game 

fence and a re-stocking programme under the new name Mansha River Wildlife and 

Flora Management Area. 

Shiwa Ng'andu Manor House 

Mark Harvey shares his family history with us, beginning with his indefatiguable 

grandfather and prodigious parents, and even his own life, which is full of safaris and 

adventures. Mark spent some of his childhood growing up on the Estate, early school 

years at Whitestones in Zimbabwe, followed by fourteen years education in England. 

Despite Zambia’s fortunes waning in the 1980s, he turned for home and took to safari 

guiding and from the 90s managed the lodge. One gains a sense of the passion and 

pride Mark has for Shiwa Ng’andu and for the communities sharing the land. 

He is keen to emphasise that his parents, “Did as much if not more for the Shiwa 

Ng’andu Estate as his grandfather did”, sponsoring the education of many Zambians. 

Mark recollects his childhood at Shiwa Manor House, the view from his window looked 

out onto the front lawn and an avenue of Italian Cypress trees and beyond to the satin 

blue sash of Lake Ishiba. Unfortunately, on the days we were there, the hills and valleys 

were full of a smoky haze from the widespread practice of burning. 

On the drive from the gate through the 23,000-acre estate we saw a herd of kudu, 

Cookson’s wildebeest, Kafue lechwe, oribi and impala. The marshlands are festooned 

with water birds and clawless otter. There are several hides from which to observe 

Sitatunga, in fact they are so plentiful that the Harveys recently translocated several 

to the Lower Zambezi in return for a herd of thirty-seven eland and thirty-four sable 

antelope. 


While Shiwa House is a stately ancestral seat, Kapishya’s setting is more tranquil, 

especially the demerara coloured Mansha River percolating gently over granite boulders. 

Sitting beside the river sipping sundowners or an early morning cup of tea while whitecheeked 

bee-eaters make acrobatic arcs catching insects, with golden weaver birds 

plaiting intricate palm nests – it couldn’t be more sublime. 

Shiwa Manor House 

A century ago in 1914, an aristocratic Englishman Sir Stewart Gore-Browne stepped 

onto this land and began an enduring legacy. While on a tour of duty as a cartographer 

on the border between Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo in 1911, he discovered 

his “personal paradise”. 

Shiwa House became the lifelong project of the indomitable colonial, whose brick-making 

expertise and DIY skills were self-taught from studying the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 

and he baked every brick to construct the house and many of the estate buildings in situ. 

We are invited for an early morning cup of tea and a grand tour of the house and 

gardens. Sir Stewart’s favourite place was the library which spreads across a 30-foot 

room upstairs, with comfortable deep armchairs dotted around, chests dark with time 

display albums and memorabilia, large oil portraits of relatives stare back down the 

years at you. 

The house fell into disrepair after Sir Stewart’s death. His eldest grandson, Charlie and 

his wife Jo began painstakingly restoring Shiwa House to its stately grandeur in 1999, 

and alongside the usual farm routines the house is now run as an exclusive lodge. 

Sir Stewart, conscientious of African aspirations for autonomy, is the only white man in 

post-independent Africa to have had the honour of a state funeral. President Kaunda 

travelled from Lusaka to give the main eulogy at his graveside on a hill above the house 

in August 1967. 

Completely different in style from Kapishya Lodge, Shiwa Ng’andu Manor House is 

surrounded by paddocks and a stable yard, 70-metre tall eucalyptus tower over the 

 

 

Within its African setting, the house exterior is part Mediterranean villa with colonnaded 

porticoes and cloistered courtyards and part Edwardian Manor – there is walled ladies’ 

garden and tennis courts. The interior décor is elegant English country in style, complete 

with four-poster beds, antique silver and Spode porcelain and slightly lopsided hunting 

 

 

the semi-tamed garden lawn. There is something pleasingly familiar about it, evocative 

of Clouds, Giraffe Manor or the Aberdare Country Club; over time Shiwa Manor House 

has blended into its landscape. 

A road less travelled... 


Back in Kenya, I visit Angela Sutton, Sir 

Stewart’s younger daughter who reminisces 

about Shiwa and her father. 

Although she has been living in Kenya for six 

decades, Angela pensively mentions that she 

would like her ashes scattered on the Mansha 

River, her favourite place on the Estate. 

On route to Shiwa Ng’andu you can retrace 

Livingstone’s footsteps; his memorial is near 

Kasanka National Park at Chipundu. It marks 

the place where he succumbed to malaria and 

dysentery on his ill-fated last journey, after 

wandering for years in search of the source of 

the Nile. His heart is also buried here – adoring 

Chitambo villagers relinquished his body 

reluctantly, but removed his heart and placed it in a wooden box under a Mpundu tree 

(). Livingstone’s faithful attendants, Susi and Chuma, then carried 

the remains of his body over 1,000 miles to Bagamoyo on the Tanganyika coast; it was 

 

How to get there: Shiwa is approx 800 kms from Lusaka, and 280 kms south of the 

Tanzanian border just off the Great North Road. It has its own airstrip and can be easily 

 

generally in good condition so it is possible to self-drive and experience the beautiful 

Zambian countryside on the way there. Airstrip GPS co-ordinates: 1110’ 15. 27 S and 

3136’ 02. 85 E. An interesting alternative method of getting to Shiwa is on the Tazara 

Railway, with two trains a week in either direction from either Dar es Salaam in Tanzania 

or Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. Get off at Mpika... 

Book to Pack: Africa House by Christina Lamb; 1999 

Book to Borrow: Black Heart: And the Politics of Multi-Racial Zambia, by Robert I. 

Rotberg, 1978 (the not so well-known biography about Stewart Gore-Browne). 

Click HERE to visit the Estate's website 

Click HERE to visit Shiwa Safaris 

The Luangwa Valley spans the length of Eastern Zambia, and both South and North 

Luangwa National Parks are located within it. South Luangwa National Park was 

described to me as Zambia’s premier park. The Luangwa River meanders through the 

 

lagoons. It is rich in wildlife and popular as a destination for walking safaris. The valley 

is home to Thornicroft’s Giraffe, an endemic species and is also recognised as an 

important bird area. 

North Luangwa National Park is described in the Lonely Planet Guide to Zambia as 

being ideal for those ’. A two-hour drive from Shiwa 

Ng’gandu, here black rhino have been reintroduced, and there is a 2,000 stronghold of 

Cookson’s wildebeest. 

 

 

Luangwa Valley with the Muchinga Escarpment forming a backdrop. 

Further off the beaten track is Kasanka National Park, Zambia’s only privately run game 

reserve. It is managed by a trust and proceeds from tourism made tangible for the 

surrounding community. It is situated within the Bangweulu wetlands famous for whaleheaded 

storks () and its annual fruit bat migration. 


Chumbe Island - one of the best... 

Twenty-Three Years: 

Half My Life 

When people ask ‘Where are you 

from?’, it’s hard to remember 

I’m not actually from Tanzania 

- though it feels that way. I did 

a lot of my growing up there 

(marriage, motherhood), a lot 

of my growing old (marriage, 

motherhood). A lot of miles - 

 

by Anthea Rowan 

TANZANIA 

The Best and the Worst of 


Many of those miles were documented for this editor. 

 

which rise and plunge lushly inland from Tanga, was written for Travel News ten years 

 

was undertaken in 1996, a madcap adventure between jobs; we drove from Arusha to 

the Cape and back accompanied by our two children, a four-year-old, a two-year-old 

and – though we didn’t become aware of it until the Caprivi Strip – a third in the making. 

 

tin bath, we clambered, exhausted and miserable, into clammy cold sheets. 

Worst Meal 

The nauseating fried egg breakfast on Lake Malawi wasn’t the consequence of a tummy 

bug. Rather an imminent tummy bulge. It took us three weeks to reach the Cape as 

we meandered through Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe (where there was still fuel and 

farms, when Zim was Africa’s bread basket and not her basket case). Botswana less 

meander, more madcap dash as the authorities permitted us a two-hour transit visa to 

race through the Chobe towards the Caprivi. 

From Namibia, where we discovered there were more of us on board than we’d imagined, 

we arrived dusty, exhausted, exhilarated in the Cape. It took us six days to drive back. 

Like pigeons or post-hack ponies, once our noses were turned in the right direction, we 

bolted for home. Husband’s post-trek anecdotes included the one about putting petrol 

 

vasectomy he’d purchased Down South (the consequence, indubitably, of a decision 

reached after too many hours in a car with wife and growing brood). Friends tried not to 

 

 

Since then, since the late nineties, all the Tanzanian travels I have made have been 

 

pee-stops and the interminable games of I Spy) in company of Husband and/or Three 

Children. I haven’t always been a graceful or responsible maternal travelling companion, 

more spit on tissue than Wet Wipes, my picnics more Out of the Packet than Organic, 

my holiday choices have not always been as well received by the team as I had hoped 

 

the Getting There not just the destination. 

Enough of the preamble and on with the journey: my editor directs, ‘The Best and the 

Worst of Tanzania’. Happily, the worst are easier, much easier, to identify. And far fewer. 

 

The Soni Falls Hotel in the glorious Usambaras was not a Happy Family experience. 

We stayed by default having misjudged our timing. We ate chicken (that, morbidly, came 

complete with rigor mortis curled feet) and damply oiled chips; in the absence of a 

needed beer, (you try that hairpin-bended road in the dark with three Squeakers all 

demanding to know ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ when you haven’t a clue yourself) we 

drank cheap gin with Sprite (for there was no tonic water which bothered us but not the 

children: ‘We don’t like it anyway', they helpfully informed us and then fought over whose 

Aishi....... 

The prospect of a Sunday in the company of the children, all under ten at the time, whilst 

Husband did busy important Hunting Shooting Fishing things with the boys, inspired 

me to take them on a writing gig to the Protea Aishi Hotel at Machame on the slopes 

of Kilimanjaro. After the children had screamed at each other in the pool and trampled 

 

us by a pool attendant into the ground, I herded them into lunch in the dining room, 

where I ordered Children’s Surprise with French Fries. When it arrived, three children 

with verbal diarrhea suddenly became constipated, stared at their plates and middle-fordiddle, 

the most eloquent of the trio, announced loudly, ‘Well, that IS a surprise’. It was. 

Fries, peanuts and biscuits. Where was the Green? I wanted to know. The kids didn’t 

 

liberally doused in tomato sauce because their mother was going to get her money's 

worth) I asked them what they thought of the hotel. ‘I like the roof’, proffered Little Miss 

Mouthy. The dining area boasted a high vaulted thatch, ‘It’d be good for mice’ (which 

one imagined must scurry down in the dead of night and gather up all the Surprises 

children had left for them?). The hotel’s manager wasn’t very pleased when he read my 

review. I reminded him that all Sunday Lunching guests must be considered discerning 

even when they trample towels into the grass and get high on Fanta Orange. 

Worst Romantic Getaway 

 

is part of the Asili Africa Group and veddy veddy nice. 

Husband and I stayed here by default. (We do a lot of that – not always entirely our own 

fault). I ought to have guessed that the trip wouldn’t work given an inauspicious start: I 

was dispatched by Travel News to review a Zanzibar hotel. 


And so to the best. If you had a single long weekend to spare, where 

would I recommend you go in Tanzania? What are the not-to-miss-ifyou-get-the-chance 

destinations? 

Chumbe Island. Without a doubt. As a romantic getaway (where Matemwe so 

miserably failed), for the great food, the kikapu-coziness of their eco friendly bandas 

or, indeed, as a family adventure, one that even the teens can’t fail to be impressed 

 

a good thing given it has been described by an eminent marine biologist as one of the 

most spectacular coral gardens on the planet. 

Matembwe Beach Village 

On arrival on the island it quickly became evident that the hotel I was to review was not 

 

 

determined Spanish PR rep, ‘But you can imagine how good it will be’. No. I couldn’t, 

just because she showed me a state-of-the-art kitchen, to anticipate mouth-watering 

cuisine; I could not conceive an atmosphere in a place populated by Zanzibari builders 

rendered inert in the heat; just because the hotel had a bar, I could not guess at the 

prices? The extent of the wine list? And just because there were bedrooms, how could 

I picture them fully furnished and decorated where now they stood as shells? 

And it is all so gloriously accessible: a short boat ride from Zanzibar and then an easy 

swim from Chumbe itself and there it is, this extraordinary underwater world of vivid 

colour, myriad movement and corals that have sustained and look as if they’ll carry 

on doing so. Coupled with the island’s history, its old architecture and the new, the 

enormous coconut crabs that inhabit this little place and you’ve got an out of world 

experience, happily dislocated from the rest of the world, literally (no cell connection, no 

internet), which makes the complete escape a soul-restoring one. 

Whilst overnighting on the island is First Prize, a day trip is easily accommodated for a 

fraction of the cost. I mightn’t have felt inclined to fork out to stay there with three teens 

in tow but as an adjunct to a Stone Town visit, absolutely. Chumbe’s management will 

ferry you to and from the island, give you a delicious lunch and equip you to explore an 

unmatched underwater landscape. 

No, I insisted, I could not write it up. I was dispatched crossly without 

a place to stay. 

We sought at that point to explore the island and struck upon Matemwe Beach Village 

 

have guessed: inauspicious beginnings. Dinner, where the wine list was devoid of our 

choice (the cheapest, predictably) was served in the company of several fatly swarming 

Blue Bottles; a bedraggled baboon was chained up outside the hotel and the beach 

bedecked with all manner of unmentionables. 

 

I suggested it would be unwise of her to press that I write her hotel up. Furiously she 

dismissed me as a whinging Pom who didn’t know anything about the challenges of 

 

years on the continent) given my own 100-years of familial history. Occasionally one 

must immerse oneself in the warm glow of smugness. 

But I let her off the review. Until now. For now – ten years later - I feel she must surely 

have been safely dispatched and the hotel a great little place, a theory endorsed by 

recent rave reviews at TripAdvisor. 

The Best - Chumbe Island 


sweatbox of Dar. And with that, with that single recuperative, soul soothing visit, the 

 

affectionately remembered ever since. In the interim, I made many, many subsequent 

trips with our children as they grew up. 

I didn’t know anything about the Wild West until Husband accepted a job in Tabora. 

Tabora I asked, where’s that? Though I had a vague notion it was somewhere far 

away, for my grandmother had talked about Tabora in the context of her onetime home, 

Urambo. When she lived in Urambo, she told me, the priest came to say Mass all the 

way from Tabora. That wasn’t an impressive story until I got to Tabora and discovered 

Urambo was 100-kilometres away. 

And relocating to a place that far away, so far away that it was a six-hour drive to a pound 

of butter, lent a quite different perspective on Tanzania. Suddenly Katavi was no longer 

out of reach, and Lake Tanganyika within manageable grasp. We visited both regularly 

and they complement one another perfectly. And once you’ve got as far as one, frankly, 

you might just as well head on to the other. Whilst a day, days even, separates them 

from the rest of the civilized world, they’re a relative spit apart. 

Katavi National Park lies in the south-west of Tanzania, to the north of Rukwa and 

east of Lake Tanganyika. At almost 4,500 sq. kilometres it is Tanzania’s third largest 

park, after the Serengeti and Ruaha and – indubitably – is much more isolated than 

either. Katavi receives as many visitors in a year as Ngorongoro Crater does in a day. 

It’s less expensive than Ngorongoro to visit too and you can camp anywhere you like. 

View from the Lodge 

There are camps and lodges but they’re not the family friendly cheap kind that you might 

be after if you have a team like mine travelling in your determined wake. 

In our three of four Katavi trips we experienced some of the most startling wildlife 

encounters we have ever done: we watched a plover chase an inquisitive hippo off her 

nest; we watched a baby hippo innocently trying to introduce himself to a hyena and 

then we watched his mother telling the hyena exactly what she thought of that idea and 

we witnessed crocodiles throwing themselves off banks six feet above the Katuma River 

back into the water. Katavi is a two-day drive from Dar es Salaam or Arusha. When you 

get there, camp if you’re poor or stay in Nomad’s Chada Katavi if not. But whatever you 

do, don’t be tempted by the park bandas at Sitalike; they’re grim and spider infested. 

The predictability of the camp’s unfussy ordinariness, interiors which, until a revamp and 

even then to a degree, smacked of the comforting familiarity of the 1970s game park 

destinations of my childhood: the swimming pool, deep and cold and an eternal energy 

burn off for over exuberant children, the tents, another throwback to a simpler childhood 

where tents were neat canvas A Frames and not acres of swag and net, with their little 

verandas from which you can watch the birds and the squirrels and, especially, the view. 

The lodge sits on a bluff overlooking the Tarangire River and provides a perfect perch 

from which to watch game gently meandering to and from the water, elephant enjoying 

 

over whose turn it is to use the binoculars next. I think I loved it as much for the view in 

front of me as I did for the hindsight into my own growing up that it lent. 

 

The last of the mega-herds of buffalo are in Katavi 


Tent interior - Lakeshore Lodge 

Lake Tanganyika is the longest, at 677 kilometres, lake in the world. It is the second 

deepest, after Siberia’s Lake Baikal: at its deepest point, fossil waters lie at 1,436 metres, 

a staggering 358 metres below sea level. Despite being smaller than Lake Victoria, it 

boasts greater volume: it holds an estimated 18% of the planet’s fresh water. 

And, at around 20 million years, it’s one of the oldest lakes on earth and boasts 250 

species of cichlids, the fastest speciating genus on the planet, meaning the swiftest to 

adapt to a changing environment. The water’s gin-clear so you can snorkel and observe 

 

View from Chada Camp - Katavi 

 

around the bush on a quad bike, you can lie on the beach and watch the Congo emerge 

through a gauze of haze on the other side. Each time we went we stayed at Louise and 

Chris Horsefall’s pad: Lakeshore Lodge. It’s worth it for the food, the space, the beach, 

their fabulous hospitality and their local knowledge not just of the lake but of Katavi too. 

Katavi and Lake T are no mean feat, they’re far away and the roads aren’t always as 

kind as you’d like them to be; they’re getting kinder but to be avoided during the rains. 

If you do get as far as that wildwayoutwest though, you can congratulate yourselves on 

the Road Trip of a Lifetime. You won’t be disappointed. It presents the opportunity for a 

safari of yesteryear. 

 

Click HERE for Lakeshore Lodges 

Click HERE for Tarangire Safari Lodge 

Click HERE for Chada Katavi. 

Anthea Rowan now lives in Zambia. Her blog, The Reluctant Memsahib, 

is well worth a visit - click HERE to go there 

Lakeshore Lodge - Lake Tanganyika 



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coastal currents 

duncan mitchell 

The little Cessna was bouncing around so 

much on landing at Ngorende Mara airstrip 

for me to see it properly, but the glimpses I 

had out of the starboard window showed it 

to be absolutely massive. 

How humongous, I only discovered as 

we stepped out of the plane onto terra 

. Immense great purple and black 

thunderheads soared way above the 

heavens in the west. As if to signal our 

 

bolts of lightening into the vaulted sky, 

which cracked and roared with thunder. A 

massive curtain of black and silver rain fell 

 

follow. 

It is never easy driving the wet and slippery 

black cotton soil tracks that criss-cross the 

Mara plains. The engine screams in fourwheel-drive 

as the steering takes a mind 

of its own, slide-slipping and skidding, 

 

declared to our driver that I don’t do mudpushing 

any more, so he was extra careful 

not to get us stuck, especially in the more 

remote parts. 

Something magical happens to the Mara 

after the rains. The soft, almost English, 

countryside take on the subtle hues of the 

setting sun, rainbows arch the grass plains 

and teasingly end just over the next ridge. 

To add to the park-like greenery, dainty 

impala ladies skip and skitter over the 

wettest patches like schoolgirls trying to 

keep their black bootee socks dry. 

There’s forever the tangy barnyard smell 

of sodden animal fur and wet dung. We 

passed thousands of wildebeest, hunched 

shoulders facing away from us, cold and 

disinterested. 

 

Lodge, as always well appointed and 

furnished eclectically by our host Riccardo 

Orrizio, an international journalist of 

renown, author of books such as his faceto-face 

interviews with the world’s dictators 

from Mugabe to Castro to Ceausescu. 

As before, on our short walk to our elevated 

chalet we were greeted by the Saruni 

resident eland, which escorted us along 

the pathway, carpal bones making that one 

and only eland click with each step. 

The Mara is quiet at this time before 

Christmas. There was only one other 

couple staying at the Lodge, American 

honeymooners who ordered room service 

and rarely ventured out. After the rains, 

our three-night stay was hot water bottles 

and thick duvets for Mara nights, with a 

clear blue sky during the day that focused 

sunrays like a magnifying glass. 

Our early game drives started wrapped in 

jerseys and and ended cringing 

for any scrap of shade under the Land 

Cruiser’s canopy. 

But it was worth it? 

I have been going to the Mara for three 

decades and I think this is the best I 

have ever seen this amazing place. At 

the begining of our game drive, we slowly 

made our way to a low valley, which the 

early sun had warmed, well before the 

shaded hills and thick bush. It was alive 

with birds. We sighted the rare 

barbet on virtually every low bush, along 

with tchagras, chats, waxbills, starlings, 

mousebirds, weavers… Every feathered 

being, it seemed, wanted a place to sing 

and skip in the early morning sun. 

We headed for the plains and made 

breakfast in the umbrella shade of a 

solitary desert date. We could hear the 

distant plaintive grunts of wildebeest with 

 

crested a rise and the ridge dropped to 

a long, sloping plain, ending in a distant, 

dark green, riverine forest of green-heart, 

 

We stopped and took a deep breath in awe. I 

 

thousand wildebeest on the plain before us. 

Most were stooped down on out-sized 

shoulders grazing the red oat grass to the 

consistency of a golf green. Occasionally 

a group would suddenly, and inexplicably, 

burst into a humping run, and then, as 

though they had forgotten why they were 

running, halt and continue their neverending 

chaw at the grass. 

Down on the tree line there certainly lurked 

a couple of leopard watching as we were, 

but with a hunter’s hungry eyes. I knew 

there were lion because afterwards as we 

forded the little stream in the thick trees, we 

found a solitary male lion with handsome 

MGM looks. Also cunningly hidden on the 

edge of the ridge we discovered a hyena 

den, and nearby we passed a heavily 

pregnant female slowly swinging her way 

toward the underground lair and the other’s 

hungry cubs. 

Later, we took to the hills behind Saruni 

and discovered beautiful secret valleys 

with small herds of elephant, buffalo, eland 

and impala. It was all so magical, that for 

once, I did not mind the medieval death 

knell rattle of cow and goat bells! 

Duncan Mitchell is a retired gentleman 

 

 

 


In The Niche 

Kate Tourism 

Your monthly guide to 

emerging travel & tourism trends 

with Jane Barsby. 

In the wake of the publicity surrounding the Duchess of Cambridge’s topless photographs, 

wealthy tourists around the world are begging to be allowed to stay at the Chateau 

, the retreat in the south of France where the intrusive pix were snapped. 

The Mermaid Restaurant at the Silverton Casino - Las Vegas 

In the Dive Bar in California, meanwhile, there is a 7,500-gallon tank where mermen 

and women perform, while at The Wreck Bar at the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale, a team 

of mermaids offer a half-hour performance in the hotel pool during which they swim 

 

 

The Silverton Casino offers a Mermaid Restaurant with a 117,000-gallon saltwater 

 

Jailhouse Rock 

If you’d like to be locked up for the weekend, choose from one of a new range of 

prison hotels, such as the 140-year-old Liberty Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, or the 

Malmaison Oxford Castle Prison in the United Kingdom where you can request a double 

cell in the A-wing of the original prison. 

 

Always at the forefront of crazy tourism trends, the USA has come up with yet another: 

mermaid tourism. In Montana, for instance, suitably proportioned ladies are employed 

to don mermaid costumes and swim around in a pool. Naturally it has glass walls that 

open onto the bar, and mermaid, Daryl Hannah, has made a guest appearance. 

In Denver, a team of 8 ladies billed as the Mystic Mermaids make guest appearances to 

order. Typically, they dive into the tanks and swim with eels, sea turtles, snappers and 

 

Restaurant in the Liberty Hotel - Boston 


Voulez vous couchez avec moi çe soir? 

What will it take to make you sleep with them? You’d be surprised. 

Increasingly desperate, the hotels of the world have embarked upon a race to see 

which one can offer the wildest gimmicks to lure you into their beds. They include; 

 

shower, or with baths in the middle of the room), and retro appliances (record players 

with a selection of vinyl). Other seductions include: 

Coco Cabanas 

These are private beach- or pool-side canvas enclosures designed to replicate mini 

nightclubs. They offer hot and cold running bar and restaurant services 24/7, WiFi, 

private movies and widescreen TVs. The disco pool: apparently it has underwater 

‘super-surround-sound speakers’. Why? So that you can dance underwater, stoopid. 

Lie on Linen 

The higher the thread-count, the better the hotel? So they would have you believe, 

with ‘400 threads per inch’ representing the Chanel of sheets. According to the 

experts, however, any sheet made with a two-ply yarn will be sleep-friendly, while the 

exceptionally high thread-counts may result in the sheets weighing you down. Ultimate 

in the sheet-style stakes, it appears, is the provision of pure linen sheets. 

Pillow Talk 

Any hotel worth its salt these days offers a pillow menu. In the old days it used to be 

fairly basic: feathers or foam, hard or soft. These days? Choose from 

 

Turndown Treats 

Trends are veering away from the provision of chocolates at turn-down and towards the 

provision of personal poems, stories and weather forecasts. 

Butlers 

 

an e-butler to help your guests get online, a BBQ butler to grill your steaks, a boot butler 

to refresh your skis, and a sunglasses butler to maintain your eyewear. 

Sniff and Blink 

Spas and aromatherapy have been done to death. Now the truly hip hotel pumps mood 

 

with mood-enhancing coloured lighting (chromatherapy). 


All those hoteliers keen on keeping up with the trends must now declare themselves 

‘pet-centric’. This means that not only are their guests encouraged to bring their pets, 

but also that they can enjoy walking services, pet-friendly check in, ‘plush pet bedding’, 

toys, treats, pet room-service menus and pet spa treatments (including pet pedicures 

and a choice of in-room canine rubdowns). 

Travel Trends 

According to a travel consumer report commissioned by EyeforTravel, based on 

 

consumer behaviour is changing. 

People are increasingly making their travel bookings by mobile devices. 20% of all travel 

bookings in the USA are made by phone or tablet. 

 

media to make decisions on travel plans. Consequently, increasing numbers of travel 

companies are working with Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Baidu, and Renren to sell travel. 

 

According to IBM, Big Data is key. According to their spokesperson, Greg Land, ‘Today, 

 

 

That said, 38% of those interviewed in a 

recent survey said they had not even heard of the term and of those that had heard of 

it, only 20% were using it. 

 

The 

 

dynamics into non-gaming environments’. So, for instance, InterContinental Hotels 

have launched the ‘Win It In A Minute’ programme, which allows you to win things over 

breakfast, thus proving that there is nothing new under the sun – remember the plastic 

 

Business Travellers Cutting Back 

It seems that the economic slump has impacted on the hitherto free-spending business 

traveller. Travel surveys have revealed that these days either the executives don’t travel 

 

dears. 


Young, Gifted & Travelling 

The WYSE Travel Confederation (World Youth Student Travel Conference), the world’s 

 

reveal that young travellers represent one of the fastest-growing segments of the 

travel industry, accounting for 20% of all international arrivals. They represent a global 

market worth US$185 billion annually - more than the annual revenue of Facebook 

(US$4.3 billion) and Apple (US$153 billion), the world’s most valuable brand. Meanwhile, 

UNWTO’s Secretary-General Mr.Taleb Rifai, whose organisation is supporting WYSE 

said, ‘Young travellers tend to stay longer and interact more closely with the communities 

they visit than the average tourist. As such, youth travel has emerged as one of the most 

promising paths towards a more responsible and sustainable tourism sector.’ 

 

 

industry report. The others are Mexico, Malaysia, Indonesia and 

Argentina. Sri Lanka has targeted one million tourist arrivals for 2012 and revenue of 

US$1 billion from foreign direct investment. 

Travel Speak 

What the travelling world has to say. 

The results of a survey by online travel retailer lastminute.com, which canvassed 1,000 

customers in the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Germany, have revealed the following 

facts about people’s holiday habits and perceptions. 

When asked, ‘Which nationality is the worst dressed and least attractive in the world?’ 

37% said the Spanish and Germans, and 31% said the British (22% of the British 

questioned agreed with this). The French and the Italians however both nominated the 

Germans. 

When asked ‘Which men are the most attractive?’, everyone nominated the Italians. 

When asked ‘Which women in the world are the most attractive?’ All nationalities (other 

than the Spanish) nominated the Italians. The Spanish nominated their own women, 

and only 5% of those asked nominated British women. Therefore Italians are the most 

attractive people in the world? 

When asked ‘Which nationalities drink the most on holiday?’, every nationality nominated 

the British, except the French, who nominated the Germans. 

A survey by has revealed that only 11% of UK tourists speak another 

 

 

Spanish. 74% of British travellers expect all those they meet abroad to speak English 

and 19% of all British travellers expect all signs abroad to be in English. 


miscellaneous ramblings 

tcb 

I think I shall end the year as I started it, 

having a good whinge about all things that 

inhabit our roads and the regulations that are 

foisted on us the motorists in this Republic of 

Kenya. 

The new Thika super-highway is indeed a 

masterpiece; it’s just that no one knows how 

to drive on it. How should we know, we’ve 

never had one before – a super highway that 

is. The outside lane is without question the 

place to be. Huge trucks stagger along it at a 

snail's pace, matatus head straight for it, then 

without signalling, head back to the inside 

lane to stop and pick up passengers. Just so 

you know, there are feeder lanes where all 

this should happen. Feeder lanes are meant 

to be one-way, aren’t they? But instead here 

they have been re-invented as wrong way 

shortcuts between super highway entry and 

exits. 

It is a zoo out there! 

No one is policing it, no one is offering 

advice, no one is doing anything about it, and 

does anyone really care? Driver education is 

required – we need all the help we can get. 

Please, Mr. Minister! 

Our boys in blue now have another string to 

 

(Amendment) Bill 2012. In its memorandum 

of objects and reasons, a sort of executive 

summary, it seems its primary objective is to 

ensure that when you sell a vehicle you turn 

in its license plates. Failure to do so results 

 

You also have to hand in your plates if the 

vehicle in question's insurance expires – you 

have 30 days to do the honourable thing! 

The second objective of the Bill is to 

 

offences in order to deter those offenses 

 

’. 

Speeding, or known here more accurately 

as Overspeeding, comes under the spotlight 

with some pretty serious penalties, perhaps 

rightly so. Enforcement has always been 

the issue, and this new regime in no way 

 

 

most certainly going to reach new levels of 

ridiculousness. 

Interestingly, ‘a highway authority shall 

 

 

We don’t have many of those right now, do 

we? So, no sign no speed limit? Hardly, but 

it does beg the question. 

Roadblocks now require notice in a Gazette, 

 

may 

…' 

the use of the word may opens up all sorts of 

interesting scenarios. Shortcuts, or in local 

 

‘ 

 

 

 

 

not less than Kshs. 30,000/-, or both. 

You’ll need your eyes tested to take a driving 

test and every time you renew your licence. 

The modalities of how this will happen is 

best left to your imagination. 

Matatus come in for some pretty well 

deserved heavy handedness. Drink driving, 

if convicted, attracts prison terms of not 

 

Kshs. 500,000/-, or both. 

Is there a reason why the 

terminology of not less and not 

exceeding is used almost in the 

same breath? 

Apart from uniforms, matatus will be 

 

Kshs. 20,000/-, ask no questions tell no lies, 

then Kshs. 5,000/- per passenger on board 

over the limit. Special name badges are 

now mandatory for drivers and conductors 

and will be issued by the Registrar of Motor 

Vehicles. 

Perhaps the best idea to come out of all of 

 

both driver and conductor as opposed to 

current commission payment system, which 

is loosely based on the number of trips and 

customers carried per day. How this will 

work in practice boggles the mind. 

 

a provision for the police to issue tickets 

 

there is even on the reverse an Admission 

of Guilt section, which would allow you to 

 

necessity to attend. This we all know doesn’t 

happen; 'something small' preferred or a 

Police bond paid on the spot, usually in the 

region of Kshs. 3,000/-, but now rumoured 

to be Kshs. 30,000/-, accompanied with a 

 

working day. 

In the amended Bill, ‘ 

 

document showing the offences set out in 

 

in a summary form, and the document shall 

 

’. 

Just imagine being hauled over, a smiling 

 

akin to a menu. Added to that is that the 

 

 

enforce all laws. Crikey, more mouths to 

feed! 

I’ll end on a happy note – certain segments 

of civil society are taking the Government to 

court to stop this nonsense. Let’s hope they 

succeed, matatu strikes aside! 

Click HERE to read the new Bill. 

I wish you a happy Festive Season and a 

magic 2013. 

Please drive carefully and obey the law… 


56 travel news December 2012/January 2013 December er 2012/January 2/Ja 

ar 

2013 

travel news 57

wine-of-the-month special offer 

Until now only available in 

upmarket restaurants and clubs 

NEW 

Now exclusively available to our readers! 

In case lots only (12 bottles) 

Kshs. 17,400/- per case 

Free delivery to most of Nairobi. 

Click HERE to order. 

TCB says, 'Here is an Aussie red that is real value for money. Its online 

price in Oz is A$ 15.00 (equiv Kshs. 1329/-) Here we are selling it for Kshs. 

1,450/- per bottle - case lots only. A brilliant 2007 shiraz from Celestial Bay 

Wineries in the Margaret River region of Western Australia. A great taste 

for the good times. This is an incredible wine at an incredible price, and 

you can’t buy it in the shops, so buy it here today'. 

Offer valid while stocks last. 

James Kinuthia arrived in Australia 

in 2004 to pursue a BSc at Murdoch 

University in Perth. Four years later, he 

not only had a double major in Biological 

and Environmental Sciences, but had also 

developed a keen interest in Australian 

wine. 

Today he is the proprietor of Makkin, 

a company that exclusively distributes 

Australian wine. 

So how did he develop an interest in wine? 

James explains, “We did odd jobs during 

the holidays to make some pocket money 

 

at a remote country town called Boyup 

Brooke in the famous Margaret River 

region, well known for its wineries. 

Back home, he noticed that there were 

few Australian wines in Kenya so decided 

to turn his hobby into his business. 


esident specials .....................................................................by 

Drive-In Safaris 

Sleeping Warrior Lodge 

Lake Elementaita 

Right next door to Nakuru NP on the 

Soysambu Conservancy the warrior 

sleeps. Its new heated horizon pool has 

views to die for. Drive time from Nairobi 

2-hours. 

Includes: One night full-board 

How Much? Kshs. 15,950/- per person 

sharing (valid until 31 st March 2013, 

Festive Season excluded) 

Conservancy fees not included 

Click HERE to enquire 

Swahili Beach 

Diani Beach 

Save 5% 

This new resort 

 

 

Wilson to Ukunda available on request. 

Afrochic Boutique Hotel 

Diani Beach 

Stay for 4 nights and only pay for 3…. 

This small boutique beach hotel is all of 

10-rooms big. Each room is equipped with 

satellite television, DVD player, safe, minibar 

and tea & coffee facilities. Nonstop 

 

request. 



sharing (valid until 2 nd January 2103) 


Oltukai Lodge 

Amboseli National Park 

Christmas & New Year Special 

The lodge is surrounded by endless 

plains and, after the rains, shallow lake 

land. All cottages face the open plains 

 

backdrop. The decor is rustic and 

comfortable and each room has its own 

small veranda. Drive time from Nairobi 

6-hours. 



sharing (valid 23 rd December – 2 nd January 

2013) 

Park fees not included 


 

Finch Hattons 

Tsavo West National Park 

This camp is one man’s dream: to offer 

guests a unique opportunity to relive 

the golden era of safari with elegance, 

 

surrounded by the spectacle of the great 

African wilderness. Drive time from Nairobi 

5-hours. 



sharing (valid 16 th December – 1 st April 

2013) 

Park fees not included 


On most Drive-In Safaris, you can 

 

Please ask for air options. 

 

Il Ngwesi 

Northern Rangelands Turtle Bay Beach Club 

Self-catered or full-board 

& now for something completely different. 

The Lodge located on the Group Ranch of 

the same name has six individual ensuite 

bandas, a large communal sitting area and 

dining area and a swimming pool. 

You can book the whole lodge on an 

exclusive use basis, self-catering, to a 

maximum of 12-adults and 6-children or 

alternatively you can stay individually on 

full-board. 

Included: 

How Much? Exclusive basis as above 

Kshs. 65,550/- per night or Kshs.12,825/- 

per person sharing on full-board (valid to 

31 st March 2013) 

Conservancy fees not included 


Includes: One night half-board 


sharing (valid until 24 th March 2013, 21/12 

to 2/1 excluded) 



Century-old houses on Soysambu 

by Juliet Barnes 

in days gone by 

Literary oracles such as Elspeth Huxley have not devoted many words to describing 

old Kenyan houses which - 100 years ago - were purely functional. The 3rd Baron 

 

hut – no doors, no windows. As Huxley says, “he gave more of his heart to his dreams 

and schemes for the growth of his adopted land than to his wife’s happiness”. Priorities 

were 15,000 sheep, battling diseases, parasites and predators; and exchanging parcels 

of well-watered land with arid acreages adjoining Soysambu, increasing its size and 

piping water across to the dry regions. 

 

 

 

building still stands, albeit in a semi-derelict state, surrounded by a former stable yard – 

now housing, a small shop and clinic for farm staff. 

In 1911, Delamere imported three pre-fabricated houses from Norway. Presumably 

these came in panels, transported by ship and then train. They would then be lugged 

to their present sites, probably by ox-wagon, from Elmenteita Station - now a police 

station. The railway later diverted through Gilgil, but a little-used road from Elmenteita to 

 

through cuttings and past a derelict red-brick station. 

 

 

Stud House, probably so-called when Diana, Lady Delamere employed racehorse 

trainers. 

 

erected circa 1911 

The largest pre-fab is near the Meroroni River, close to Delamere’s original hut. Elspeth 

Huxley describes the latter, looking over parkland dotted with acacias towards the lake, 

 

Country, 1935). Today the lakeside forest has thickened, obscuring the lake, but the 

house still looks over open woodlands, replete with wildlife. Annie Dunn, who has 

lived in this pre-fab for 35 years, says Delamere’s wife had this house built during his 

absence, so she could have doors and windows, not to mention the outdoor extension 

of a kitchen. 

In 1911 Lady Delamere, nee Florence Cole, had a nervous breakdown, returning to 

England to recover. 

The 3rd Baron Delamere 


They certainly never had any more children. Jim involved himself in various enterprises, 

some of which were more successful than others, such as the Blue Posts Hotel at 

Thika. In 1906 he built a home on 80 acres he’d bought in Spring Valley: Masara had 

 

Elspeth Huxley as a “ramshackle wooden bungalow, with a veranda running round”. In 

photographs, it resembles the Elmenteita pre-fab. 

Margaret’s strict upbringing excluded school, but included a playmate: a black-maned 

lion, initially bottle-raised on milk and egg. Paddy grew into a large and indolent lion, 

inclined to roar at night, while Margaret grew into a portly woman who adored dogs, cats 

 

went down in history when testing Masara’s new porcelain bath. An oilskin had to be 

thrown over a stuck and distraught Margaret before the servants were allowed in to 

prise her out. 

Beryl and her father regularly stayed at Masara when visiting from up-country, often 

riding with the Sunday Hunt In 1911, Paddy pounced on young Beryl, then went on the 

rampage, killing a horse and two cows before he was caged for the rest of his life. In her 

book 'West with the Night', Beryl’s chapter on the incident is titled “He was a good lion”. 

An Indian employee and the arrival of Elkington with a whip saved her, adding that her 

father had pre-warned her: “A domesticated lion is an unnatural lion – and whatever is 

unnatural is untrustworthy.” 

Norwegian pre-fab today, previously lived in by Elkington 

First stone and pumice building on Soysambu - stables and barn 

In 1912 Delamere took on the management of Soysambu, assisted by Boy Long. At 

 

forced to go to England for medical treatment, during which time his wife ran the farm, 

this is possibly when she had her house built. She certainly didn’t enjoy it for long: two 

days after her husband’s return that same year, she died. 

Delamere kept busy. His local knowledge was vital during the War, but by 1917 illness 

had forced him back to run Soysambu - single-handed. Even if he lived in the prefab, 

which isn’t certain, his neighbour and brother-in-law, Galbraith Cole, felt: “There’s 

somewhere a sort of bareness about D’s surroundings that I can’t explain.” Another 

neighbour described Delamere’s dwelling as dreary and depressing. 

Jim Elkington certainly lived in the Meroroni prefab from the beginning of 1921, although 

he may have leased it from a much earlier date. He died prematurely almost exactly 

four years later, as a result of gunshot wounds - whether these were accidental remains 

a matter of conjecture. Elkington is mentioned in many books, partly for instigating the 

Masara Hunt, complete with pedigree horses and English hounds, and partly for his pet 

lion Paddy, who mauled the young Beryl Clutterbuck, later Beryl Markham. 

 

1905, with his wife and nine-year-old daughter, Margaret: the latter had been conceived 

out of wedlock back in 1895, when he was only 20. Thus he’d hastily married Rachel 

Kavenagh, eight years his senior. Rachel, after a labour and delivery, which nearly killed 

her and the baby, supposedly vowed never to sleep with her husband again. 


Paddy’s life imprisonment was certainly served in part at Elmenteita: Elkington called 

his Elmenteita house Bussilungun; the origin of this name remains a mystery. One writer 

described the house as being six miles from Elmenteita railway station, which would 

be roughly right, heading directly cross-country. After the War, Elkington continued 

farming coffee at Masara, growing barley for the brewery, and staying involved in the 

horseracing world until, fed up with the latter, he moved to live at Elmenteita in 1921. 

“Mrs Jim”, as Rachel was doomed to be known, seems to have remained at Masara. 

The same year, Mrs Kathleen Tatham-Warter visited her sister and brother in the new 

Kenya Colony. She met, stayed with and had an affair with Elkington, and the following 

year had his baby, back in England – her eighth child. An ex-nanny of the Tatham- 

Warter’s, safe from the eye of scandal, brought up Ann. Back in Elmenteita, Elkington 

was drinking heavily - often with the hard-drug dealer, Frank Greswolde Williams, who 

co-habited with Beryl for a time. 

Kathleen revisited Elmenteita in 1924. Elkington, allegedly now off the booze, tried but 

failed to persuade her to leave her husband. On 22nd January 1925, the shooting 

incident occurred and Jim died at Kijabe Hospital. There were murmurs of suicide, even 

murder, but a court of inquiry exonerated Kathleen. Jim was buried in Naivasha, while 

Boy Long shot Paddy. As Beryl pointed out, at least he was an excellent shot – he and 

Delamere had to shoot so many lions on Soysambu. 

Today the 5th Baron Delamere relates how his parents stayed in the pre-fab with 

his grandfather. When the table began to wobble, they thought a dog was beneath, 

scratching itself, but when the lights began swaying too, they realised it was a minor 

earthquake – common in the Rift Valley. This would have been after they married in 

1923 and after Elkington died. The 5th Baron also had a house at Loresho, where he 

spent an increasing amount of time pursuing his passion for politics and in between his 

travels. 

Ann Melrose, nee Meredith-Warter, visited Soysambu in the 2000s, to see the old 

wooden house where her father had died, just before his 50th birthday. Apart from 

the addition of a veranda, it probably looks much the same, now looking out towards 

the rocky ridge where the 3rd Baron was buried in 1931. After 14 years alone, he’d 

remarried. Life in Loresho was a far cry from the hut: lavish entertainment – his guests 

including Royals and a daily round of golf. “Loresho was a delightful perch,” Elspeth 

Huxley wrote. Delamere’s death, she says, was a loss to the entire continent, and his 

burial attended by a mix of mourners: from farmers in khaki shorts to formally dressed 

 

A hundred years ago, Lake Elmenteita had hippo, which disappeared for many decades 

until heavy rains in 2012 raised the lake levels just short of their highest in a hundred 

years. Now the hippos are back, while according to a herdsman, an old bull buffalo often 

lies beside the old man’s grave. 

 

 

HERE). 

Paddy - Elkington's 

famous pet lion 

circa. 1924 

There’s nothing about all this in Delamere would have been more 

interested by the death of Sir Robert Coryndon, around the same time, Governor of 

Kenya from 1922. 

After Kathleen’s husband died in 1928, Ann was brought up with the Tatham-Warter 

children. She was never validated as half-sister by Margaret Elkington, and only saw her 

 

father’s full name had been James Llewellyn Meredith Elkington. 


Who Murdered 

Lord Erroll? 

In spite of the current brouhaha of divergent views, Bryan Harris believes the identity 

of the killer is no longer in doubt especially following recent conversations with Juanita 

Carberry, the last surviving witness to the goings on at ‘Happy Valley’ more than seventy 

David years ago. Begg and Jimmy Bird ride out. 

Can there really be anything new to say about the murder of Lord Erroll? 

Logic says not, but a series of articles and letters in recent issues of claim 

to shed yet more light on the mystery. Palle Rune, backed by Errol Trzebinski, makes 

the case yet again that Britain’s secret service agency, MI6, staged the murder. This 

is based on material imparted to him in the 1990s by his friend Ray Cuthbert, since 

deceased, but fails to explain why he has remained silent for so long. 

Brezoni’s grave 


The Life and Death of 

Lord Erroll in 2000. It was the two articles combined with an impending re-examination 

into the murder by visiting journalist, Adam Edwards of London’s Sunday Times, that 

prompted me to look again at the various takes on the mystery and to have a series 

of telephone conversations with Juanita Carberry, the last surviving member of Happy 

Valley. Juanita, now in her mid-80s, comes across as a friendly and sprightly lady living 

quietly in London who, despite failing eyesight, keeps up with ongoing developments 

in the Lord Erroll saga. Her semi-autobiography, , has been reissued 

in paperback and I am very pleased to have been given an autographed copy. 

 

ear, killing him instantly. Later in the day, a spent 0.32 calibre bullet was found lodged 

 

Muthaiga Country Club, the 22nd Earl of Erroll, known to his friends and acquaintances 

as Josslyn Hay, ‘Joss’ for short. 

In his book, published in 1997, Smith recounts the events that 

followed. He had been born and raised in Kenya with the result that he, alone among the 

 

had been established, Smith put two and two together and assumed that Erroll had 

started his fateful journey from the nearby home of Sir Delves (Jock) and Lady Diana 

Broughton, a reasonable assumption given that Joss and Diana had been conducting 

a very public affair. Smith then drove himself to the house in Marula Lane, some three 

 

watchman. 

The watchman told Smith that he had seen Broughton climb into the back of Erroll’s car 

 

not seen Broughton return during the night hours but had seen him depart shortly after 

sunrise as had Lady Diana and June Carberry, a family friend and Juanita’s step-mother, 

all in separate vehicles. Later, when Inspector Arthur Poppy, who had been placed 

in charge of the investigation but who spoke no Swahili, attempted to take another 

statement from the watchman (who spoke no English) he declined and clammed up. 

 

assist in the investigation and was so heavily cross-examined by Broughton’s counsel 

during the subsequent trial, that his important evidence was not taken into account. An 

 

that Erroll had died as a result of an ‘accident’. 

The murder, the most famous in Kenya’s colonial history, has been debated endlessly 

ever since and been the subject of several books, articles, a BBC TV drama titled The 

and at least one movie spin-off, primarily because no one has ever been 

convicted of the crime. All this is ‘old hat’ but an account in a British newspaper that 

claimed to throw new light on the murder, the Rune and Tzrebinski articles, together 

 

refresh you about the Earl’s history and how he came to be in Kenya. 

For the uninitiated (and the forgetful) this is how it all began. At around 3.30 am on the 

morning on 24th January 1941 in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, the body of a white man 

in military uniform was found slumped in the passenger foot well of a rented Buick car 

by two dairy workers. The location was close to the junction of the Ngong and Karen 

roads, still a major intersection to this day. The car, with headlights ablaze, was in 

danger of tipping into a murram 

 

Chief Inspector Herbert Lanham, arrived on the scene they soon established that the 

man had been the victim of a gunshot wound. 

Josslyn Victor Hay was born in London on 11th May 1901, just before the end of the 

 

who one day would inherit the title of the 22nd Earl of Erroll. Joss and his younger 

brother and sister, Gilbert and Rosemary, led a pampered childhood in Europe where 

their father held positions at the British legations in Brussels, Vienna and Berlin, but 

particularly at the family estate called ‘Slains’ in Scotland. An early photograph of Joss, 

aged two, shows him dressed in girl’s clothes, a not uncommon practice for the time 

apparently, but this appears to have had no effect on his sexual orientation because, as 

we shall see, he was decidedly heterosexual throughout a life devoted to the pursuit of 

women. 


Idina Sackville at 22 

It was inevitable that Joss would follow in the family tradition by attending Eton, England’s 

premier public school, but his career there was cut short upon being discovered in 

with a chambermaid. The offence might have been tolerated but for the 

fact that the lady was married and old enough to be his mother with the result that he 

was caned and then dismissed. However, a pattern had been established. Academically, 

Joss was said to be highly gifted, excelling at mathematics, Latin and Greek as well 

as modern languages, including German, so he must have completed his education 

 

marks, he was immediately appointed Private Secretary to the British Ambassador in 

Berlin in January 1920, aged just nineteen. 

Joss’ job seemingly allowed plenty of time for visiting the glamorous cities of Europe, 

particularly Paris, and it was here that he conducted an on-off affair with an American 

heiress, Alice Silverthorne who, in 1923, married a French aristocrat, Count Frédéric 

de Janzé, about whom more will follow. Another Paris conquest was Idina Sackville, in 

later life nicknamed ‘The Bolter’, a notorious seductress, who had already married and 

divorced two husbands by the age of twenty-seven. She and Joss fell madly in love 

whereupon Joss threw up his post at the Berlin embassy so that they could attend the 

London season together. 

His parents were aghast, especially when it became apparent that he and Idina planned 

 

 

Gordon included 1,500 acres of land in Kenya’s lush Wanjohi Valley in the foothills of the 

 

it was this simple coincidence that gave rise to the ‘Happy Valley’ legend in later years. 

Idina had already been planning to make her home in Kenya and to build a house on her 

estate when 

her engagement to Joss was announced in the Tatler on 19th September 

1923. 

They were 

married four days later. In effect, Joss had burnt his boats, a promising 

 

social outcast with limited job prospects and he was cut off from whatever family money 

he might have been entitled to meaning, for a while at least, he would be completely 

reliant on Idina’s benevolence. 

On arrival in Kenya and having taken stock of Idina’s land in the Wanjohi Valley, they 

decided to name their new home ‘Slains’, after Joss’ former ancestral family estate in 

Scotland which his parents had been forced to sell to cover mounting debts. The Hays 

 

hedonistic lifestyle for which the Wanjohi Valley soon became notorious. Both had a 

 

invariably married women considerably older than he. When not resident on the farm, 

the Hays could usually be found disporting themselves at Nairobi’s Muthaiga Country 

Club in the company of their aristocratic friends. 


Early in 1926, Idina had given birth to a daughter who the couple named Diana but was 

known as Dinan throughout her life. Because of the unusual hereditary laws attached to 

the Erroll dynasty, whereby the title attached itself equally to the male and female line, 

the Earldom would pass to Dinan (as the 23rd Countess of Erroll) to be inherited by her 

son, Merlin who became the 24th Earl upon the death of his mother. The Barony of Lord 

Kilmarnock had already passed to Joss’ brother, Gilbert. 

In 1925, and leaving their two daughters behind in Paris, the de Janzés arrived in Kenya 

for a health cure (Alice suffered from chronic bronchitis) that turned into a long holiday 

which allowed Alice and Joss to resume their sporadic affair and, using some of Alice’s 

wealth, the couple bought a house in Wanjohi. By now Idina and Joss’ marriage was 

fraying at the edges anyway and she decided to sell ‘Slains’, having decided on a new 

home called ‘Clouds’, a considerably larger house with multiple bedrooms which allowed 

 

Happy Valley’. 

Joss meanwhile was falling for Molly Ramsay-Hill, the rich wife of a local farmer who 

had built a glittering mansion called Oserian on the shores of Lake Naivasha. Molly was 

thirty-four to Joss’ twenty-six. Idina too was conducting a serious affair with a new man 

in her life with the result that both agreed to an amicable divorce in 1928, the same year 

that Joss succeeded to the Earldom as well as the title Lord Kilmarnock. The same could 

not be said for the divorce of Molly and her spouse, Cyril; nevertheless she managed 

to retain Oserian as part of the settlement and when she was free, Joss and Molly (who 

henceforth insisted on being addressed as Mary) were married in London in February 

1930. After an extended honeymoon, they returned to Oserian, which Joss nick-named 

the ‘Djinn Palace’ because of its opulence and Bedouin appearance, to resume the 

lifestyle of rich settlers. In other words, constant rounds of partying and adultery with a 

bit of farming thrown in. 

Perhaps out of wishing to have something useful to do and conscious of his new and 

exalted rank as the premier Earl of Scotland, or possibly out of sheer boredom, Joss 

started taking an interest in politics, and in 1934 became a paid-up member of the 

British Union of Fascists. The following year, after Benito Mussolini invaded Abyssinia, 

he resigned and instead was elected to the Convention of Associations, a curious name 

 

Council (‘Legco’), an advisory body to the Governor, which was regarded by many as 

too liberal. 

After four years of marriage, Joss was losing interest in his second wife and, unable 

to cope, Mary started drinking heavily and using a variety of drugs which led to a long 

and slow decline and her death in August 1939. By now, Joss was seriously involved in 

the affairs of the colony and was elected to Legco as the member for Kiambu and later 

appointed Deputy Director of the Central Manpower Committee. Upon the outbreak of 

war with the Axis powers, he was appointed to the Agricultural Production and Settlement 

Board. 

 

 

into the military as a Second Lieutenant with the acting rank of Captain and appointed 

Assistant Military Secretary charged with marshalling forces for the war against the 

Italians who were threatening to attack from bases inside Abyssinia. 

At about this time, Alice de Janzé, now alone, made another trip to Kenya, taking 

 

Frédéric by whom she had two daughters, and then married and divorced a wastrel by 

the name of Raymund de Trafford who she had shot and wounded, and herself also, 

on a train at Paris’ Gare du Nord on 26th March 1927. Regarded as seriously disturbed, 

she was acquitted at her trial of ‘wounding and causing bodily harm’ but was ordered 

 

France. Incredibly, she and Raymund were married in 1932, four years after the shooting 

incident, but later divorced. She died by her own hand in September 1941. 

Throughout the latter part of 1940, Joss was in a relationship with yet another married 

and older woman, Phyllis Filmer, but then, onto the scene came the Broughtons, and 

this changed everything. 

Jock and Diana were newly married and had been obliged to enter the nuptial state in 

order to facilitate entry into Kenya as, at the time, single women could be denied access 

to the colony. Jock had been granted land in Kenya under the ex-soldier-settler scheme 

 

junior. 


The marriage was fraught from the start as Diana had only consented to the match 

 

years (with certain provisions attached), whereupon the wedding ceremony took place 

 

Southampton to Mombasa). 

On arrival in Nairobi on 12th November, the Broughtons moved into the Muthaiga Country 

 

 

for all to see. Jock appeared to be completely sanguine about his wife’s dalliance, even 

appearing to go out his way to cultivate Joss as a close family friend. 

Within weeks, Joss was telling friends that Diana was the only woman he had ever 

 

to marry. On 12th January, the lovers slipped away for a clandestine coast holiday at 

 

known to survive. A few days following, Diana asked Jock for a divorce and on 20th 

January, Jock instructed his lawyers to initiate divorce proceedings. Two evenings later, 

Joss, Diana, Jock and June met at the Muthaiga Country Club for dinner and dancing, 

but it soon turned into an engagement celebration, which was ostentatiously toasted by 

Diana’s soon-to-be ex-husband, Jock. 

At around 10.30 pm, Joss took Diana off to a Nairobi nightspot on promising Jock 

that he would have Diana home by 3.00 am. June later claimed that Jock, by then 

 

 

loudly for others to overhear, ‘To think that a woman would treat me like this after being 

married for just two months’. 

Joss and Diana reached the house in Karen at around 3.00 am whereupon the couple 

made their fond farewells before Joss drove away. Within half an hour he was dead. 

 

Principal Sources 

‘White Mischief’ by James Fox published in 1982. 

‘White Roots in Africa’ by Frederick ‘Alf’ Smith published in 1997 

‘Child of Happy Valley’ by Juanita Carberry with Nicola Tyrer published in 1999. 

‘The Life & Death of Lord Erroll’ by Errol Trzebinski published in 2000. 

Feature article in the ‘Daily Telegraph’ of 11 th May 2007 by Judith Woods. 

'The Bolter’ by Frances Osborne published in 2008. 

‘The Temptress’ by Paul Spicer published in 2010. 

Wikipedia. 

Feature articles in ‘Old Africa’ magazine, issues 42 & 43. 

 


the inside edge 

steve shelley 

Well, is it the end of the world or not? 

I mean, it would be helpful to know if this 

is our last month on earth, the last time to 

read Travel News and all that. 

Mostly, end of days prophecies get a lot 

of media attention, I suppose because 

 

 

subject. But this time, all channels have 

gone quiet. 

Which worries me. Maybe this time 

something will actually happen. 

For a start, I am scheduled to be in Dar 

es Salaam on the date in question and if 

I knew it for sure, I might want to change 

the location from where I watch the 

apocalypse. A high mountain might seem 

more appropriate, with clear skies and no 

buildings to fall on us. 

It reminds me of 

whose plot involved investing a 

mere cent per year over the eternity of the 

universe. This ensured you could afford a 

front seat at Milliways, the Restaurant at 

the End of the Universe, where Marvin the 

Paranoid Android would hum Pink Floyd 

tracks as a cabaret, while black holes 

engulfed the cosmos. 

There was a live broadcast from the event, 

not sure how that would work in reality. 

This is not what I expect to happen. 

For a start, there is confusion over the 

timing. The Mayans and some indigenous 

North Americans appear to have forecast 

a date of 21/12/12 when, they say, the 

snake god Kukulkan will come around to 

devour us all and usher in the female era 

of Venus. 

Personally, it looks to me that 12/12/12 

would be a rather neater arrangement of 

 

to be in Dar. It would suit me better if the 

world could end a few days later. 

Or not at all. 

Then the issue arises: what about the time 

of day (or night)? Will it happen at 1200, for 

numerical consistency, or 1212? 

And if so, in whose time zone? This matters. 

It would be a shame for the world to end 

while we’re still asleep. Or that it drags on 

for another ten hours for the sake of the 

Americas. 

My mother-in-law keeps insisting that 

the end of days is indeed nigh. But then 

she goes and invests in property, which 

 

Her religious sect (Seventh Day Adventists) 

has suffered from the inaccuracy of such 

prophecies ever since their own founder, 

Ellen White, got it wrong in the nineteenth 

century, an event still referred to as ‘The 

 

But while the global media is staying clear 

of this one, there is plenty of indication that 

the world won’t continue as peacefully and 

sustainably as we might wish. 

Floods and hurricanes continue unabated 

in many parts of the world. Inter-communal 

violence is a growth industry, not least 

in our neck of the woods, as is religious 

hatred. It doesn’t stretch credulity too far 

to suppose that between the Arab Spring- 

 

and the still-unresolved Iranian nuclear 

saga, there is enough smoke to signal an 

 

On balance, I would quite like to see out 

2012. In any case, 13 would be a more 

appropriate number for the incredible bad 

luck that would be needed for the end of 

the world to actually happen in our lifetime. 

Worse, no one would be around to write 

about it. This may be my last article, then. 

But somehow I doubt it. If we do make it 

through the 12s, welcome to 

of 2013. 

Steve Shelley is a management and 

 

 


guest photo gallery 

Entrance to Etosha National Park 

 

 

@ work... 

This month’s guest photographer is BBC Big Cat Diaries cameraman 

Warren Samuels. Warren is a born and bred Kenyan, who has recently 

teamed up with Jonathan Scott to lead photographic safaris throughout 

East Africa. He also is an in-demand freelance wildlife and documentary 

cameraman. 

On a recent trip to Namibia, he lived for 6 weeks in a hide next to the 

waterhole you see in these images, in the Etosha National Park. He was 

 

has been studying methods used by elephants to communicate amongst 

themselves. 

Click HERE to contact Warren or click HERE to visit the Wild Vision 

Adventures website. 

These pages are offered FREE of charge to both amatuer 

and professional photographers in East Africa. 

Meaning we don’t charge you to display your work here 

neither do we pay you for the privilege thereof. 

Click HERE to send your images to us. 


My new best friend 

Low angle shot taken from hide... 

Rush-hour 

Norman No Mates - not very horny either... 


Etosha 84 travel sundown news December - what 2012/January incredible 2013 time of day... 

December 2012/January 2013 travel news 85

ook reviews 

The Casual Vacancy 

by J.K. Rowlings 

The Harbour 

by Francesca Brill 

Rowlings fans will be interested in the 

 

guarantee her an assured readership. 

Predictions are equally likely that readers 

will be disappointed. Her characters are 

true-to-life, unfortunately, but the telling of 

the story leaves much to be desired, as 

its 503 pages make it long and frequently 

repetitive. Most of the adults are tainted 

characters. Those who are not, come 

over as wimpish and ineffectual. The 

adolescents, with a few exceptions, are 

no improvement. They seem to suffer 

distressing problems caused by obnoxious 

or unsuitable parents, and through torments 

 

The story opens with the death of Barry 

Fairbrother, who might just, had he 

lived, have been the story’s only ‘nice’ 

character. His death sets off far-reaching 

repercussions that couldn’t possibly have 

happened were he alive. It leaves his empty 

seat, the much coveted ‘casual vacancy’ 

on the parish council. Around this lacuna 

the plot unwinds. 

Rowlings’ description of parochial life in the 

west of England is accurate. There is the 

inevitable rift between Pagford residents 

and those regarded as incomers, while 

village gossips twitter incessantly about 

scandals in a neighbourhood where 

rumours are rife. The situation becomes 

tense when hate mail begins to appear 

via the internet on the parish council 

noticeboard, allegedly written by ‘The 

Ghost of Barry Fairbrother’. Who will 

 

 

climax during a birthday celebration. 

Rowlings’ writing about contemporary 

social life has a Dickensian awfulness 

about it: no details are spared on subjects 

such as teenage sex, drug abuse and the 

 

their progeny. Pathetic children in and out 

of care, coping with drug addicted relatives 

 

the assistance help or hinder? 

The book contains humour and tragedy. 

 

especially in Krystal, the promiscuous but 

basically decent teenager. The end is an 

anti-climax. Can the death of one good man 

really have resulted in so much irreversible 

tragedy? Rowlings may possibly hone her 

skills and produce something less tainted 

by human weakness, as an inherent strain 

of world weary nastiness runs through the 

entire book. Perhaps she portrays life as it 

is today, since is not the novel supposed 

to mirror contemporary life? Nonetheless, 

unfortunately this one remains a verynearly-but-not-quite-made-it 

book. 

In ‘The Harbour’ Francesca Brill tells 

a sensitive, beautifully written story – 

 

Hong Kong and the narrative begins in 

1940. Blasé, unconventional, talented 

Stevie, a young American journalist, is in 

Hong Kong with her Chinese husband, 

Jishang; enough in itself to raise British 

eyebrows. Despite the war’s seriousness 

for the British in Europe, Hong Kong basks 

 

few who realise what is about to happen. 

One such is Major Harry Field, who is 

in intelligence and wary of the coming 

invasion. Fighting the Japanese on the 

mainland are effete Chinese Republicans, 

and militant Chinese Communists, who 

 

the national enemy, the Japanese, who 

some years previous had invaded China. 

Knowing how hopelessly under-defended 

they are on sea, land and in the air, Field 

tries to convey the message that Hong 

Kong’s situation is dangerously critical. 

Nonetheless, even Harry who has 

spent happy years in Japan and made 

friends there, cannot anticipate the 

Japanese invasion’s utter brutality. It 

happens just before Christmas, 1941. 

Churchill, convinced that Hong Kong was 

impregnable, was horribly wrong. Already 

many British wives and children have left 

for Australia, Harry and Stevie have had a 

tempestuous, passionate affair, and Stevie 

has borne his child, Hal. 

Already established as a reliable journalist 

in the US, Stevie becomes involved with 

the internationally well-known Soong 

sisters. Madam Kung, the eldest, is living 

in Hong Kong in 1940 and grants Stevie an 

interview. Her youngest and more famous 

sister is married to Chiang Kai-Shek, 

and it is interesting to read of the corrupt 

Reviews by 

Julia Lawrence 

book reviews 

Republican regime, more concerned with 

its accumulation of wealth than the war. 

‘The Harbour’ is interesting, not merely 

because of the plot’s cleverness, but also 

because historically it is a reminder of 

that terrible era in history when Japanese 

cruelty reached unimagined limits, and 

people of all races were under strain as 

to how best to survive. Both Harry, now 

a Japanese prisoner, and Stevie still free, 

face private crises causing their own 

personal moral dilemmas. Will what Harry 

and Stevie regard as their failures destroy 

them? 


speaker’s corner 

jane barsby 

Enter the Dragon 

“The Chinese outbound travel industry is 

growing at a phenomenal rate, making it one 

of, if not the, most important market in the 

world,” says Reed Travel Exhibition Director at 

the World Travel Market Simon Press. 

The Chinese outbound travel market is well on 

the way to being THE most lucrative market 

in the world. Given that the Chinese economy 

will be the world’s strongest over the next 

 

per cent per annum, this is no surprise. The 

WTO (World Tourism Organisation) statistics, 

however, make startling reading. They show 

that by 2020 one hundred million Chinese 

tourists will be on the move with over forty 

billion US dollars in their pockets. According 

to WTO this is, as they rather coyly put it, 

‘encouraging foreign tourism authorities and 

businesses to treat the Chinese tourist more 

seriously’. 

You don’t say? 

How does this spirit of Chinese-friendliness 

manifest itself globally we wonder? In Europe, 

The European Travel Commission has recently 

launched its own Chinese website, which 

is just as well since Chinese online travel 

bookings are predicted to double in value 

between 2011 and 2016. Not content with that, 

the Commission is also actively ‘encouraging 

hotels, restaurants and shopping malls to 

display their signs in Chinese’. 

In Britain, a new campaign has been launched 

to attract Chinese visitors. It’s called ‘Visit 

Britain’ (hardly innovative) and, according 

to the press release, it features a Beefeater 

from the Tower of London and the MD of the 

upmarket department store, Liberty, both of 

whom issue personal invitations of a kind 

designed to appeal to the Chinese visitor. Not 

exactly show stopping you might say? 

At Frankfurt Airport, meanwhile, they’re 

busy coining it in the Chinese travel stakes 

by offering the free services of a Mandarinspeaking 

personal shopper to all Chinese 

passing through the airport. And, given that 

around a million Chinese already pass through 

Germany’s largest aviation hub, this initiative 

makes sound business sense. The personal 

shoppers, who are trained in both Chinese 

culture and Chinese preferences, also offer 

advice on how their protégées can reclaim 

their VAT. Clearly the service is a winner since 

increasing numbers of Chinese travellers are 

now routing themselves through Frankfurt just 

so they can enjoy the experience. 

Shopping, it seems, is high on the list of 

Chinese pursuits when travelling. A recent 

report by Euromonitor International predicted 

that Chinese tourists will spend US$36 billion 

on shopping when overseas in 2016, double 

their spend in 2011. What’s more, according 

to a survey released by of the 

USA, it’s the mainland Chinese who are the 

real high rollers. 

These super-shoppers spend an average of 

US$874 on each of their (frequent) shop-fests, 

which exceeds the spend of any of their Asian 

neighbours. As to their preferred retail therapy 

destinations, reports indicate that Hong Kong, 

Macau and Taiwan are top of the shops, 

closely followed by the USA, France, Japan 

and Italy. 

Shopping may be the activity of choice for 

the Chinese tourists, but they’re becoming 

increasingly open-handed in other areas. 

In 2013, for instance, it is predicted that the 

Chinese tourist will double their spending 

on accommodation, excursions and getting 

 

changing. These days, it seems, the Chinese 

traveller is increasingly electing to go it alone 

rather than travel in an organised group. The 

knock-on effects of this development are 

 

 

incidents – mostly due to their ignorance of 

foreign rules and customs. Secondly, the travel 

authorities in China have revealed fears that, 

in their opinion, many Chinese ‘do not realise 

that some of their behaviour is not polite, for 

example playing cards on the streets and 

making noises while eating’. 

In a bid to rectify this, the Chinese government 

has issued a list of do’s and don’ts to guide the 

ways of the lone Chinese tourist. Highlights 

are as follows: 

 

 

 

rule strictly. Do not cut through crowds; 

if you have to, apologise beforehand. 

When in Britain, do not cross legs 

while sitting, walk under ladders, open 

umbrellas indoors or joke about royal 

matters. 

 

 

 

In Germany, do not use the same knife 

 

wine or overload your buffet plates. 

In Switzerland, do not blow on hot 

food to cool it down. 

In Italy, do not jump into the fountains 

half-naked or sit by the sidewalk and 

munch on sandwiches. 

Finally, for all those interested in what is key 

to attracting the Chinese, the hit list goes like 

this: 

 

 

 

 

Provision of education as to what to 

see, what to do, what to eat in the 

destination. 

Provision of a hassle-free visa 

application process, since Chinese 

tend to leave the booking of their 

holiday to the absolute last minute and 

require visas to be fast and easy to 

obtain. 

Provision of fast internet booking 

options. 

Provision of low-cost carriers. 

So there you are, your access to forty billion 

dollars is assured. Shame about the jumping 

half naked into the fountains in Italy though… 

 

 

 


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Solar power for electricity and hot water with 

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Many indigenous tress to include mango, 

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registered. The house has a registered 

building permit. The access road from the 

Tanga/ Pangani road has also been surveyed 

and registered. 

Sold fully furnished on a walk in/walk out 

basis. US$ 195,000 Offers are invited for a 

quick sale. 

Click HERE to contact owners 

Unique Opportunity 

For Sale: Vipingo Ridge. Plantation-style 

bungalow on golf course, sited between 

2nd tee and 8th green. Architecturally 

designed, 4 en suite bedrooms, open plan 

kitchen to dining room, lounge, patio and 

 

stunning ocean views and spectacular 

 

own special features. 

Price guide: Kshs. 65m - contact seller direct - click HERE 

classified ads 

 

Stephen Mills latest coffee table 

book, has 

just been published. Perfect timing 

as it is surely a great gift idea for 

the forthcoming Festive Season. 

With over 500 original photos and 

maps it tells the story of the building 

of the Uganda Railway. 

Five years in the making, 

interestingly the same time it took 

to build the railway. 

Special signed by author copies - a 

special readers offer Kshs. 4,200/- 

p/p. 

Click HERE to order. 


our parting shot 

Christopher Cowell © 

Support Throttle the Bottle, a new campaign aimed at encouraging us all to better habits and awareness. Click HERE to visit their website or visit 

 

encouragement. Contributions are very welcome. Travel News supports this initiative best illustrated by Paolo Torchio's © image shown here. The full 

story will appear in our next edition.

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