Africa Escapades Homestay

Africa Escapades Homestay hugs the slopes of Aberdare ranges, near Aberdare National Park, accessible through Shamata or Mutombio gates, east of the Great Rift Valley. The area around Wanjohi is Bushi, Miharati, Ndemi, kariamu and Olkalou. The area around Naivasha was one of the first to be settled by white people and one of the hunting grounds of the hedonistic Happy Valley set. The area also includes Thomson's Falls. Geoffrey Buxton, the first colonial farmer in the area, had moved up from the dry arid Rift Valley with its meagre rivers and a relentless dusty wind that gave Gilgil its name. And so, after finding his ideal farming country, he called this new haven 'Happy Valley'. Happy Valley was the name given to the Wanjohi Valley in the Kenya Highlands, where a small community of affluent, hedonistic white expatriates settled between the wars. While Kenya's early colonial days have been immortalised by farming pioneers like Lord Delamere and Karen Blixen, and the pioneering aviator Beryl Markham, Happy Valley became infamous under the influence of troubled socialite, Lady Idina Sackville, whose life was told in Frances Osborne's bestselling The Bolter. The era culminated with the notorious murder of the Earl of Erroll in 1941, the investigation of which laid bare the Happy Valley set's decadence and irresponsibility, chronicled in another bestseller, James Fox's White Mischief. But what is left now? In a remarkable and indefatigable archaeological quest Juliet Barnes, who has lived in Kenya all her life and whose grandparents knew some of the Happy Valley characters, has set out to explore Happy Valley to find the former homes and haunts of this extraordinary and transient set of people. With the help of a remarkable African guide and further assisted by the memories of elderly former settlers, she finds the remains of grand residences tucked away beneath the mountains and speaks to local elders who share first-hand memories of these bygone times. Nowadays these old homes, she discovers, have become tumbledown dwellings for many African families, school buildings, or their ruins have almost disappeared without trace - a revelation of the state of modern Africa that makes the gilded era of the Happy Valley set even more fantastic. A book to set alongside such singular evocations of Africa’s strange colonial history as The Africa House, The Ghosts of Happy Valley is a mesmerizing blend of travel narrative, social history and personal quest. Depending on the season, you may participate in milking, planting, and weeding, harvesting or land preparation. Grazing and cooking are part of the shared responsibilities. Meals and accommodation provided at the host home. Spend afternoons doing village walks and visiting nearby shopping centers/ market. Enjoy evening at the fire place with a talk from the old village men narrating the good old days of Happy Valley, how the Wall Street recession of 1920’s led to decline of agri-tourism in this area and other mesmerizing village stories. ~Welcome to Africa Escapades Homestay Experience~