Blue Post Hotel #1: Chania Falls
The cache is one of four hidden along a beautiful nature trail at this fascinating old colonial hotel in Thika. It is one of the oldest in Kenya and probably unique in the world in having two major waterfalls within its grounds! The cache is hidden on the river bank of the large basin below the Chania Falls.
To find the cache:
Take the new A2 superhighway (Thika Rd) from Nairobi for approximately 40km as far as the slip-road (off-ramp) for Blue Posts Hotel at S1° 1.568 E37° 3.941. Turn right at the top of the ramp, cross over the highway and then turn left to the hotel entrance.
Report to Reception and request to do the Nature Trail (Kshs 200/100 per Kenya resident adult/child & Kshs 400 (approx. $5)/200 per non-resident adult/child). For this modest fee you will be provided with a guide to accompany you and ensure your safety and security. All the guides know about the caches but have been instructed not to assist in finding them unless requested/begged to do so!
Proceed with your guide to the access gate to the Chania Falls end of the trail and descend the short steep path (could be a bit slippy in parts in damp conditions, so watch your step) to the large river basin at the foot of the falls.
Just after the end of the path head right and up the rocks for a short distance. The cache, a small white cylindrical tablet pot, is hidden about 1m above the path level in the roots of the largest tree in this area under some small rocks.
Blue Post Hotel lies on a promontory where the Chania and Thika rivers meet after both passing over impressive waterfalls. Both these rivers have their sources in the southern Aderdare Mountains near South Kinangop.
The hotel was started in 1908 as a restful stopover for early white settlers en route from Nairobi to Mt Kenya or the Aberdares. They arrived in Kenya towards the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th, fell in love with the central highlands and its magnificent mountains and rivers and ‘acquired’ acres of land where they established either ranches or coffee plantations. Thika became home to numerous settlers who in some areas like Mangu and Gatanga still own large coffee plantations.
The most famous settler is Elspeth Joscelin Huxley, a British woman famous for her best-selling book 'The Flame Trees of Thika' (see extract left which mentions the hotel) whose family settled here around 1912 with an aim of getting into large scale coffee farming. See here for more information on her and see gallery for a short article in the New York Times upon her death . . . (continues with Blue Post Hotel #2: Two Rivers Junction, GC3TMBZ)