Whatever one may say about Kenya, both Sue and I loved Kericho, the tea heartland of the country. The hotel we were staying in was seedy, rundown and a real disappointment. But we couldn’t say the same about the town per se. Situated in the wet highlands of the Rift Valley, it is a green-laden paradise. That green has a rather unique appeal to the eyes, a translucent kind of emerald, if you know what I mean.
Sue, my mobile chatterbox encyclopedic friend and alter ego, had mentioned that the tea town was christened after a brave Masai chief who was slain by the Gusii tribe during the 18th century. She had also let on that next to India and Sri Lanka, Kenya happens to be the largest tea grower. And we were here, right inside the tea heartland of Africa surrounded by a vast mossy green carpet as far as the eye could see.
We started out early the next morning to go to the Ruma National Park. Our hotel had arranged for a jalopy and a driver to take us there and had even packed some sandwiches and tea in a flask for us (earning some redemption in our eyes). We went through a couple of fishing villages going past some beautiful coastlines. The park is picturesque and beautiful like most parks but what I admired most was the numerous species of antelopes, particularly the Oribi (among the smallest in the antelope family) we got to see. We also saw some rare birds like the Blue Swallow, Fish Eagle, and White Egret.
The next day being a Saturday we went to a disco at the one of the world’s best hotels, Mid-West Hotel. We first went to the bar at a place called Urwa Inn where there are some nice pool tables and relatively inexpensive beers. Both Sue and I let our hair down and danced all practically night. The discotheque at the Mid-West Hotel is pretty safe compared to quite a few others.
The emerald greenery of the town certainly held us spellbound over that one weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment