It was no accident that the ‘Out of Africa’ story and film came into being. The unsurpassed beauty and spectacular landscapes of a raw country straddling the equator formed a crumble in molding the life of a Danish countess giving her the background and experience that produced such a masterpiece of descriptive writing. Kenya as a nation covers 582,646 square kilometers of contrasts where arid deserts and lunar landscapes vie with glacial ice and snows, dense and verdant forests, a necklace of lakes, rich savannahs, and a sparkling tropical coastline. The hot humidity of the coast, frosty mountain nights, dry burning heat of the northern deserts, sunny days, bracing evenings in the uplands, and a superb climate overall provide the perfect climate mix that invigorates and exhilarates every visitor to this to this great nation. Man was born on the Eastern shore of Lake Turkana according to recent fossil evidence. Subsequently, Kenya became the point of contact in Africa between the stone age and civilization spreading down into the continent from the Mediterranean, being followed by a profound culture change about 100 AD. Additional immigrations and influxes of diverse ethnic backgrounds created over 40 fascinating tribes of Kenya, who today make up the population of some 24 million diverse people.
The massive fracture line on the earth’s surface running 5000 kilometres from Jordan to Mozambique, so tangibly visible in Kenya, is the Great Rift Valley with its length like a necklace of lucrative pearls, together with a series of volcanoes which stud the valley floor. A giant mantle, the central highlands, spreads on both sides of the aberdare mountains and provides a rich agricultural land with dense forest. It is here that one finds the great farmlands of tea, coffee, maize, wheat and pyrethrum, and it is here that one enjoys the bracing air, ebullient activity and restful scenery.
Up in the north lie the arid rugged lunar landscapes where withered thorn, scrub, sand and lava rock provide the background for a few hardy nomads who eke out a living in a land where rain is a rarity. One’s sense of distance is lost as the great land stretches dramatically to he horizon and disappears in a faint blue heat haze. 480 kilometres of sparkling white Kenyan coastline stretches from the Somali border to that of Tanzania. Long pristine beaches, free from crowds, with a protective fringe of coral reef provide warm shallows and lagoons where one may conduct a leisurely pursuit on the beach, or simply lie in the tropical sun and tan. The privilege of solitude on a vast beach is a rare experience in today’s world. Alternatively, one may wish to enjoy the challenge of deep sea fishing where world records are a normal thing. With turquoise sea as an environment there is a multitude of activities; water skiing, scuba diving, sailing, coarse fishing, wind sailing or just pottering about. There is a plenty to do or alternatively, if one wishes to do nothing, what better atmosphere? The vast wildlife attractions which are contained in some thirty-seven national parks and reserves provide an ideal and unique viewing of Africa as it was before the advent of civilization. Nature in the raw. It can be seen on the rolling savannahs, from the hides cleverly constructed alongside water holes in the forests, or more specifically on the edge of the internationally famous Serengeti plains at Masai Mara. Here, like clockwork once a year, occurs one of the most astonishing sights in nature as millions of wildebeeste and zebra follow the timeless ritual of migration moving in search of fodder as they have done since time immemorial.
Service from a happy and compatible people combined with sophisticated Accommodations of architectural distinctions, modern communication facilities, a riot of colour provided by the grand artist, nature, with a parade of wildlife that has no comparison, all come together to provide a holiday of a life time, offering a great opportunity to escape from the artificiality of the twentieth century civilization, and a return to Africa – the real Africa.