By Tamara Britten

When I arrived in Kenya at the age of four, I never dreamt I’d later establish a personalized travel service in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania.

Arriving at Four

It was such an adventure. Arriving with my father and mother and baby sister Sophie into Nairobi’s airport, being picked up by one of my father’s new colleagues and driven across Nairobi, exploring our sprawling house and lush garden, and trying to sleep with strange sounds all around.

Kenya was the land I fell in love with: the rich red soil, golden savannah, astonishing animals and colorful birds. It was the place I learned to swim. The warm waters of the Indian Ocean were perfect for that. And it gave me the first friends I truly knew beyond my family.

Early memories: playing hide-and-seek with Sophie in the coffee plantation beyond our garden; the acrid smell of exhaust as buses exhaled plumes of blue smoke; the laughter of the ladies in the kiosks as I tried my first words of Swahili.

Later, of course, it all became normal. We crossed the equator regularly driving between our house and our friends’ farm. We went on safari in the school holidays, sleeping in tents, lulled to sleep by the grunts of hippos in the river beyond. We celebrated Christmas in the hot dry season, decorating the tables with crackers beneath the Jacaranda tree.

Tamara playing hide and seek in Kenya 1975.

A Lion in the School Playground

A few things still came as surprises. There was the day a lion got into the school playground, and we were kept in our classrooms for the whole day. There was the day we arrived at the airport to find…

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