When we have visitors they help us make sure that we take some holiday and explore some of this beautiful land. Over new year we headed up the Rift Valley for a few days to Nakuru, where our Nairobi neighbours have a rose farm.
On the advice of the Rough Guide we took the old Gilgil Road for part of the way and it was a lovely spot to stop for a picnic.
Caleb insisted that we took the same route home again as he loved climbing these rocks so much!
Lake Elemetaita is in the background
Kembu cottages (www.kembu.com) were about a 2.5 hour drive from Nairobi and located in lush green farmland.
Guess who spent a lot of time sitting in that chair with a book!
Or you could laze on a sofa on the verandah and watch the birds
Two, slightly blurry, superb starlings
We loved the fresh milk delivered to our fridge each day
And the log fire laid and lit each evening
The kids were very happy in the garden
And there were even easy tracks to walk - I just wish we could have stayed a whole week (or two!)
Lots of dahlias were grown in the gardens
Which we later learned were for dyeing wool. The Kenana Knitters project was set up by the Nightingale family who own this farmland. It now employs 300 local women and they have a great range of homespun, natural dye products that are sold in Nairobi and exported to the UK.
You can also have a tour of the dairy farm
Robin was in his element - cows were the wrong colour for a Jersey-man, but they are still cows!
Here's some milk for the babies
They have learned to drink it through a hose. Buster the dog took it upon himself to guard our family (and get our kids over their fear of dogs). When we got home Bethanie even said, "I miss Buster"!
We were so happy to have the opportunity to visit Prakesh and Purnima's rose farm. They do all they can to look after their workers and it is a welcome source of employment in the area. Most of their roses are exported to the UK.
Deborah and Purnima
These red ones were being carefully pruned in order to get maximum yield for Valentine's Day.
As usual "pile of dirt=happy kids"
Well decorated local shops
We all came back to Kembu afterwards for some of their stone-baked pizza.
All too soon it was time to go home. This time we also detoured past the Meningai Crater - the largest in Africa. Hard to capture on a photo - it was BIG!
"The Place to Shop"
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