Urban Oasis Nairobi
To find the cache:
Having cleared through security at the entrance to the hotel, make your way across the lawn in front of the hotel or follow the paved track which goes behind the water feature heading for the far corner of the hotel.
Continue around the corner and follow the paved path along the side of the hotel, which takes you towards the cache area.
Please be discreet when retrieving and replacing the cache - although this is a quiet area of the hotel, there may be muggles around!
Having completed caching formalities, take some time to further explore the gardens which have plenty of birds encouraged by numerous feeders (especially sunbirds) and lush surroundings which include some fine botanical specimens, many of which are labelled. Also note the wonderful balcony hanging gardens adorning the entire wall of the multi-storey building at the rear of the hotel behind the pool
Thanks to the hotel MD for kind permission to place the cache.
***Note: if thinking of placing TBs in the cache, it has been muggled twice (as of May 2014)
and I am not sure if the hide location has been compromised - so beware!***
Nairobi has several modern high-rise hotels in or near the city centre but this hotel is quite different. It is low-rise, family-run since 1946, has an 80+ year history and is set in 5 acres of beautifully maintained and peaceful gardens on Nairobi Hill. It is an oasis of calm in the middle of this hectic city.
Unlike other old hotels in Nairobi, successive improvements have been carried out with sensitivity and the current structures are a charming and successful blend of the past (1930s architecture) and the present with numerous arched windows offering different botanical or architectural perspectives.
Its history started in 1907 when a house was built on the plot which became part of the hotel. It offered rooms with sharing bathrooms until 2000 when it was relocated during the swimming pool construction (see photo). One of the rooms had no windows but was still in huge demand. Apparently ‘many a tear was seen during the old house relocation’. Another of the other old houses was carefully dismantled and moved to Kipsaraman, Baringo where it was reconstructed and now serves as a Community Museum.
In 1931 the original hotel building was constructed with plans approved for 12 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, small lounge, dining room and kitchen. Since then there have been numerous additions, renovations and improvements.
Abraham Szlapak, the grandfather of the current owners, emigrated to Kenya from Poland with his wife Rachel in 1938 before the Nazis arrived during WW11 and after starting off working as a farmhand eventually became a hotel owner, acquiring this hotel in 1946. Back then it consisted of one main double storey Nairobi blue stone building with 30 bedrooms and 5 old wood and corrugated iron houses (annexes) each on a stone plinth.
None of the bedrooms had their own bathroom, wash basin, toilet or telephone. The laundry was a corrugated iron shed and washing was done by hand. The hotel was not on the sewer. There was no car park and the present main car park was a tennis court. His son Charles, started working in the hotel in 1955 and over time, carried out numerous improvements. It is now managed by a grandson Daniel together with several other family members.
A pool was added in 2002 (see photo) and one of the most notable and popular features, an extensive and impressive water feature which is illuminated at night, was installed in 2008 (see photo).