Wildlife, Murram and Bush: A Family Adventure by Brian Dawtrey.
Category: Biographies & Memoirs
Paperback: 276 pages
Language: English
ISBN: 1844014894

"As the sun rose on the palm-fringed Kenya coast we stood at the rail of SS Kenya Castle sensing our presence at the brink of a new adventure. We had a wonderful feeling that we had made the right decision. This was the first time in our lives as a young farming family that we had had the time to step back and look at ourselves objectively. We were confident and happy. My life Jo looked radiantly beautiful in her summer dress and bronzed skin. Caroline, age twelve, was a new person - she had become an intelligent socialiser - and the boys, ages ten and seven, had learned to swim and collect coins off the bottom of the ship’s pool. After three weeks at sea we had learned to look upon the sun, not so much as a holiday deviation but more as a malignant force to be reckoned with. We had learned to roster our exertions in direct ratio to the elevation of the sun, and take salt tablets. We were now tropicalised.
It all began with that fateful decision to do something more worthwhile than managing a farm for a wealthy Norfolk landowner. We departed from King George V docks at Tilbury on a cold April afternoon. Some of our relations accompanied us on the steam train down to the docks, feeling that Africa was what Joseph Conrad called the Dark Continent , and that they might never see us again."