Elsamere 1: Joy Adamson
To Find the Cache:
Take the Moi South Lake Road to S 00 48.859 E 036 18.944 where you will find the entrance gate to Elsamere on your right.
After passing through the entry, parking and then paying the day visitor fee at reception (Kshs 800, approx. USD10), pass to the rear of the property, then head east across the lawn and make your way by any convenient trail to the cache location. Note: the original nature trail which accessed the cache area from the jetty has become overgrown and does not appear to be maintained. Also a sign states that anyone wishing to access to the trail must be accompanied by an guide . . . this is not unreasonable as the lake side area is frequented by hippos, especially towards the evening!
The cache, a small camo-pot, is hidden at the root end of the huge log, behind a large chunk of bark/disintegrating wood. As the usual precaution, make sure you give the hidey hole a good poke with a stick before sticking your hand in to ensure there are no surprises waiting for you…
A little further up the trail from the cache you will see a large acacia tree on your left whose trunk is covered in sticky gum which has oozed out and partially dried. See here for fascinating information on this ‘Gum arabic’ and its many uses.
Alternative access route (avoids passing reception): along the access jeep track from the entry gate, at the fork at S 00 48.864 E 036 18.958 head down the right-hand branch (the one not signposted 'Elsamere') heading north-east and follow this track for about 200m to S 00 48.864 E 036 18.958 and head down here towards the lake and cache location.
Elsamere
Elsamere is one of Kenya's most historic homes - the former home of the late George and Joy Adamson who became world famous for their pioneering wildlife conservation work and extraordinary relationship with the lioness Elsa (see here for ‘Elsa’s Homepage’ with numerous photos), as told in her best-selling book and the subsequent Oscar-winning film, Born Free. It was here that Joy nurtured some of her orphaned big cats.
The area is still a haven for wildlife with trails leading through the beautiful Acacia forest and along the papyrus swamps on the southern edge of Lake Naivasha. It has its own small troop of black and white colobus monkeys, fish eagles call from the lake shore and hippos, eland and zebra often graze on the lawns at night. In addition the Centre is a twitchers (bird-watchers) paradise with more than 260 species recorded, including some rare ones like the Verreaux's Giant Eagle Owl - so keep your bins handy!
The Adamsons devoted their lives to wildlife conservation and, as well as having a restaurant and accommodation, Elsamere functions as a conservation centre, the Elsa Conservation Trust, which operates a wildlife retreat and education centre. Joy was also an accomplished painter and many of her paintings (see gallery) still decorate the house which has a small museum with interesting Adamson memorabilia. The Landrover in which George was shot as he drove from his camp in Kora National Park to rescue a guest who had been captured by Somali bandits, is displayed in the garden (see gallery photo).
Today the release of animals born and/or raised in captivity (zoos or reserves) back into the wild (often called restocking) is becoming a common practice. When Joy and George Adamson did it back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, it was a pioneering effort.
The success of 'Born Free', further books and films, helped bring the issue of wildlife conservation to the world's attention. During the last 40 years the Elsamere Conservation Trust trust has donated millions of dollars to wild life education and conservation projects, and helped create the famous Kenyan national parks and reserves at Meru, Samburu, Shaba, Kora and Hell's Gate and also the Field Study Centre at Elsamere. Today its principle activities and aims are to further conservation and worldwide conservation education, particularly in East Africa.
Joy Adamson
Born Friederike Victoria Gessner on January 20, 1910 in Troppau, Austrian Silesia (now Opava in Czechia), she spent her childhood in the manor of Seifenmühle (belonging to her mother's relatives). Though she enjoyed playing lion-hunt with other children, swimming and tennis, she preferred to take long walks with the local forester and hear his talks about wild animals.
As a young woman with many and varied interests, she lived in Vienna with her grandmother. She took singing lessons, learned to play piano, studied fine arts (in particular sculpture and metal-work), learned restoration, typing, short-hand, photography and equestrian skills. Later she took an interest in psychoanalysis which was very fashionable in Vienna at that time, leading to an unrealised desire to study medicine at university.
In 1935 she married successful businessman and amateur ornithologist, Victor von Klarwill. Intending to settle in Kenya to escape the threatened occupation of Austria, they arrived in Africa to ‘acclimatize’ on May 13, 1937.
During the voyage she met Swiss botanist Peter Bally who soon became her second husband and gave her the name ‘Joy’. In March 1938 after he received a post in the Nairobi Museum, Joy moved to Kenya permanently. She assisted her husband by painting the plants he collected, eventually illustrating seven books on East African flora. In 1947 the Royal Horticultural Society of Great Britain awarded her the Grenfell Gold Medal for her work.
She participated in excavations in the Rift Valley (Kenya) and in Ngorongoro Crater (Tanganyika, now Tanzania) with the world-famous archaeologists and anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey. In 1944 she married George Adamson and while travelling in Africa she prepared herbariums and collected specimens (insects and rodents) for various institutes and museums.
Near the end of the 1940s she began painting the natives of Kenya, portraying them in their traditional clothing and ornaments in order to document and perpetuate their disappearing customs. In six years of travel through the remote regions of Kenya she painted representatives of 54 main tribes (700 pictures). Her paintings can be seen in the Nairobi National Museum and in a few local administrative centres.
For the story of Joy’s life with George, see Elsamere 1: George Adamson, GC3R0X7 (link here) 
With the success of Born Free and later related books, Joy became active in promoting wildlife conservation. Touring around the world, she showed her films, paintings and organized Elsa Clubs and Funds, gaining a reputation as an excellent lecturer. She received numerous awards in many countries and in 1977 was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honour for her scientific and cultural work.
On January 3rd, 1980 the 69 year old Joy (who is documented as having had a greater affinity with animals than with people) was murdered on a road near her camp in the Shaba Nature Preserve, where she had lived for 3 years. A year later, a 23 year old former employee Paul Ekai was convicted of the murder (see here for New York Times report), apparently committed after a dispute over money. (taken from here)
See here or here (with bibliography and filmography) or here for other biographies of Joy.
See here for a review of her 1978 autobiography “A Searching Spirit”
See here for a newspaper account of her death (wrongly attributed to lion attack!)