Karen Blixen and Out of Africa

Our Saturday outing began at the Nairobi National Museum.  We saw prehistoric skulls found in northwest Kenya, birds, mammals, and butterflies, and history displays.  Then we visited the Snake Park!

The snakes in Kenya either constrict you to death or poison you to death with venom.  Very few on display were "harmless"!

Then we drove to the Karen Blixen Museum where we learned her life story and toured her house.  The movie rights to Out of Africa restricted me from taking any photos of the interior.

Did you know she wrote 9 books?  She loved Kenya, and Kenyans loved her! She gave large parties, but she could not grow coffee on her large coffee estate.  If only she had know that her acidic soil needed lime, she would have been successful at coffee farming.  She painted some of the Kenyan natives who worked for her, entertained the Prince of Wales (Edward), and wrote books in 3 languages!

the only remaining coffee plant--the beans should be plump and red, not dried and black.

Phaustine was our personal tour guide--she was lots of fun!  This is a replica of the coffee roasting machine on the estate.  The coffee was then sent to Europe for more processing and then sent back to Kenya to be sold.