Mount Kenya Safari Club
The Fairmont’s Mount Kenya Safari Club is set on the slopes of majestic Mount Kenya, with magnificent views of the snow capped 2nd highest mountain in Africa, the Club's 115 luxuriously appointed guest rooms, set in over 100 acres of landscaped gardens, offer a unique blend of comfort, relaxation and adventure. Originally the retreat of movie star and Club founder, William Holden, the Club's illustrious former members have included Winston Churchill and Bing Crosby. For those who wish to spend time relaxing at the Club, there are many recreational activities available: horseback riding, golf, croquet, a putting green, a bowling green, table tennis, swimming, a beauty salon, an animal orphanage and much more. To be able to relax and appreciate the superb setting, the personal attention lavished on all our visitors, the numerous activities and superb cuisine, one night is just not enough. Mount Kenya Safari Club is the ideal base for a truly superb holiday in Kenya. With some of the country’s finest attractions on the doorstep visitors can enjoy an enormous range of excursions and activities without spending hours and even days traveling between each. Situated some 190 kilometers north of Nairobi, it has a reputation for relaxed elegance. Many of the world's most famous names, be they royalty, film stars or merely the rich, seek out as a secluded haven where, although you don your safari gear during the day, you always dress for dinner. Sir Winston Churchill was reputed to have been a founder Member. The list of those who joined after the Club opened in 1959 reads like an international "Who's Who" and includes Prince Berhard of the Netherlands, Lord Louis Mountbatten, author Robert Ruark, former US President Lyndon Johnson, Conrad Hilton, Bob Hope, and a bevy of celebrities. The Club's allure has never faded. Contemporary Members have included His Royal Highness the Aga Khan, President El Haj Omar Bongo of Gabon, President Gafaar Numeiri of the Sudan, Members of the Saudi Arabian Royal family, KRH Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz and Mrs. Anwar Sadat. A highlight has been former President Daniel Arap Moi's acceptance of membership, which has accorded the Club Kenya's seal of approval. Countless people will vouch that the Club's exclusive tone has been maintained, but if word of mouth is not sufficient, the Club's reputation was reaffirmed recently when it was given the prestigious World Star Award by the United States. Thus the Mt Kenya Safari Club Nanyuki ranks equal to hotels of longstanding classic quality such as Hong Kong's Mandarin, the Negresco in Nice, the romantic Gritti Palace in Venice and Zurich's stately Dolder Grand. At the Mt Kenya Safari Club, the normal leisurely tempo of a holiday can be changed dramatically with trout fishing, game watching and mountain climbing. The Club's staff has been primed to lay it all on for anyone who feels the need to punctuate lazy days by the pool with activities of all descriptions. A regular scheduled, thirty-minute flight links the Club to the city, and also to the range of other air excursions offered to any point of interest in Kenya. Like many of East Africa's pre-war dreams the then 'Mawingo' and now known to us Mt Kenya Safari Club was born of a love affair, and one that had all the ingredients of an epic Romance, a handsome older woman, a dashing aviator and, for their playground, all of Africa. However, what gave the creation of 'Mawingo' its sparkle was the unlikeness that almost typical of the spontaneous, champagne years that gave the Kenya of the 1930s its notoriety. Rhoda Lewinsohn was married to a millionaire financier from New York. She had everything: a philanthropic husband of good social standing and two grown-up daughters, but also a rare ability to enjoy life to the fullest. Evidence of this 'joie de vivre' is threaded throughout her story from the moment she left her family in the United States to holiday in Kenya. Although in her fifties, Rhoda was a stunningly attractive woman, as sleek as a thoroughbred racehorse, and with the same dynamic energy. Perhaps it was these qualities that attracted Gabriel Prudhomme to her. He was much younger than she, an adventurous French bachelor who had his own airplane, and was a keen hunter of big game. When he took Rhoda and her friends on safari, not only did Rhoda shoot her first elephant, she also fell madly in love. Gabriel pressed his suit and very soon Rhoda, the Manhattan Matron, had discarded her husband and her US citizenship. The couple was married in Paris before returning to Kenya to live at Njoro among the Happy Valley set. Years later, as a widow in her eighties with swept back blonde hair and an unlined face, Rhoda would show photos to her friends who came to tea at her home in Santa Barbara, California. The pictures were foxed with age, but you could still see the figures in comical long dresses and baggy shorts, arms linked and laughing on the lawn, or proudly standing with gun in hand next to a trophy lion. She referred to them all by their first names, and spoke of them in the present tense as though they were still around. The Duke and Duchess of Norfolk' Indian Erroll and her husband Joss who, later, was to be shot mysteriously in his car one night - a murder that was never solved. Mawingo was bought in 1948 by Abraham Block, who extended the house and turned it into an Inn. In 1959 the film star William Holden stayed there with his friends Ray Ryan and Carl Hirschmann, the latter a Swiss Banker. They were in the middle of a shooting safari, and Ray Ryan needed to recuperate, having sustained a cut eye from a gun recoil. All three men succumbed to Mawingo's charm. They bought the property and turned it into one of the most unusual and exclusive Clubs in the world, 'The Mt Kenya Safari Club'. It has blossomed over the years with each new addition - luxurious cottages with sunken baths, a golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool, sauna - and side by side to William Holden's favourite project, a 1000 acre game reserve stocked with more than 800 wild animals. Following his death, it has now become the William Holden Foundation. There is no doubt that the historical background of Mt Kenya Safari Club reads like a fairy tale. The only difference is that in this case, the fairy tale happens to be a true story, which drawn upon the feelings of almost everyone who hears about it and realizes that such a place does exist. |