Africa: A Little Taste of England in Africa

We are up at 6:30 a.m. to take advantage of the sunrise. Some low clouds and mist hinder our viewing. Chantal and I get in some shots before we head over for breakfast.
View of the Main Lodge and environs (QT Mov 2.3MB)

View of the back forty looking toward the main lodge

After breakfast we head over to the stables where some of the guests get saddled up for a ride out into the tea plantation. We jump into the car and head over to hear a talk about the coffee they are growing. The elder Fox is a wealth of information. The advent of several large coffee combines have driven the prices into the ground. A grower gets $0.50 per Kg of beans. When it gets to the supermaket the Kilogram is worth $15 and by the time it gets to Starbucks, it is worth $180.

We continue on to a portion of the tea plantation and await the folks on horseback. Our group busies itself with shooting the location

View of the Tea Plantation (QT Mov 1.6MB)

Jeff gives a long talk on the finer details of cultivation of tea. We learn about Indian and Chinese plants and that the top three leaves are harvested. The plants will keep growing and the top three leaves can be harvested many times throughtout the year. Every four years the plants are pruned back commpletely. They rotate the pruning cycle so that only one quarter of the plants are trimmed on any given year.

Mwanga taking advantage of a cellular signal.

The horsey set arrives on the scene

The horiculturalist in his element. Mr. Fox learned his trade in the 1930’s from one of the early German colonials.

We head back to the lodge for lunch and then out to documents some of the other activities available on the Highlands Farm. Our first stop is at a small lake. The big excitement here is trout fishing. A family from Canada has been having some luck fly fishing.

View of the fishing hole.

The angler at work.

Here is the one that got away just before it escaped back into the drink.

Dad dives in after the special fly that Jr. has managed to get caught on the bottom.

Dad manages to bring the fly up with his foot. I haven’t met many anglers that are this dedicated.

I putt around the lake in a canoe with Hanif. A quick lesson on the finer points two person paddling, and we are on our way. There are lots of birds at the upper end of the lake. Looks like coots and maybe mallards.

View of the canoe and crew (QT Mov 1.2MB)

After our work at the lake is completed, we head back over to document a game of croquet in the secret garden area. In true English fashion, gin and tonics are provided and things get a little more lively. Hanif takes the game.

Pre-game warm-up.

We continue on shooting around the area and get some of Jeff and Alex golfing. Towards dusk, a few of us come back for a couple more rounds of croquet. Hanif manages to win or come in second in all the rounds. We are finally forced to quit when it gets completely dark.