I got to see Karen Blixen’s tin opener ...
Some people get to see the Elgin marbles, some people get to see the Rosetta stone and I get to see kitchen implements from the 1950’s.
I’m being facetious. The Karen Blixen house is very interesting. One of the better things to do in Nairobi. It was time travel back to the Colonial days - of pink gins and pith helmets, of big game hunters and coffee plantations.
I two days to kill in Nairobi between the Masai Mara and travelling down to Tanzania and rather than wander the streets of the city centre I took a taxi out to Ngong for about 1500 schillings return trip. Every taxi driver in Nairobi knows where it is or your hotel can fix you up with an excursion.
The fame of the Karen Blixen is due to the book ‘Out of Africa’ published in 1952 and the 1985 film. I must admit I do watch it for the John Barry soundtrack rather then for Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. Most of it was filmed on location outside Nairobi in the house that Isaak Dinesan (Karen Blixen) and Denys Finch-Hatton shared for much of their lives. It’s in the west of the city in a lovely part full of bungalows, gardens, parks and racetracks. A real contrast to the congested and busy streets of the centre.
The house is set in expansive grounds and is built out of stone. It has a terrace and louvre doors as well as beautiful gardens. Entrance is 800 schillings and for that you get a charming human guide to show you the interior. I read Sara Wheelers book about Denys Finch-Hatton "Too Close to the Sun" so I knew a little bit about the subject but the guide was invaluable. The real Denys Finch-Hatton didn’t look like Robert Redford – he was long, stringy and bald as a coot.
Isaak Dinesan is famous in Denmark and her face is on the 200 kroner note. She came to Kenya to escape the crippling Danish aristocracy by marrying the wastrel Baron Bror Blixen. The coffee plantation was on land which gave no yield. Bror was never there mostly partying with his cronies though he did manage to give her syphillis – she had to take small amounts of arsenic for the rest of her life. So she had a thirty year affair with Finch Hatton who died in an air accident in Tsavo.
The guide explained all this as he took me around. The house was interesting as it was half authentic and half fabrication. Most of the heavy furniture was imported from Denmark. But there was an awful lot of furniture left by Universal Studios which made photos problematic due to Copywright. But there were a few things which caught my attention, the original gramophone, lion and leopard rugs and a kitchen which had the original implements.
I like the way she had to indicate to Finch-Hatton whether she was "in the mood". Lights on for yes, lights off for no..
Saucy minx!
From journal Kenya’s Capital – the Safari Hub of Nairobi