Elsamere 2: George Adamson
To Find the Cache
Take the Moi South Lake Road to S00 48.859 E036 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, cross the lawn and pick up the trail heading down to the jetty.
As you approach the jetty, you will see on your right an old white abandoned form of lake transport . . . the cache, a small screw-topped camo-pot is hidden under the corner of this. As always, make sure you give the hiding place a good poke with a stick before sticking your hand in to ensure there are no surprises waiting for you…
For an introduction to Elsamere and the Adamsons, see Elsamere 1: Joy Adamson, GC3R08Q (link here).
George Adamson
Born Etawah, India, in 1906, to an English mother and an Irish father. Attended a boarding school in England. Enjoyed hiking in Scotland with younger brother Terence and dreamed of big game hunting in Africa. Went to Kenya in 1924 aged of 18 to work on his father's coffee plantation. Wasn’t satisfied with that type of work and briefly tried many diverse jobs.
In 1938, at age 32, he joined Kenya's Game Department as a warden and found an occupation that suited him. 4 years later he met and married Joy Bally (as soon as she could divorce her wealthy botanist husband). In early 1956, George Adamson was sent to track down a man-eating lion that had been terrorizing several villages. He and his hunting party startled a lioness and her cubs in the deep bush. When the lioness charged he had no choice but to shoot. February 1st, 1956, was the day he brought the lion cubs home to Joy, two of which were later sent to a Dutch zoo. The Adamsons kept and reared the smallest cub, which they named Elsa.
Thus began the events, which would prove pivotal not only for the life of the Adamsons but for the very foundation of modern conservation. After Elsa had grown to about 3 years old, the Adamsons decided to re-integrate her back into the wild, rather than send her to a zoo. This had never before been attempted. Elsa was patiently taken back into the bush and encouraged to develop her instincts to hunt and survive in the wild.
In April 1961 he retired as Senior Game Warden (Meru National Park), to devote himself to working with lions. To share their experiences and stimulate interest in wild animals Joy wrote the book "Born Free", about their experiences with Elsa. After release it rapidly this captivating story became an international best-seller and one of the great conservation stories of all time.
It was to be the first of a trilogy, Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds (1960), Living Free: The Story of Elsa and Her Cubs (1961), and Forever Free: Elsa's Pride (1962). In 1966 a movie based on the book was released which starring husband and wife actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna. It was filmed in the Kenya bush over the course of many months, shown as a Royal Command performance in London and soon became a worldwide hit. The Adamsons had by now achieved celebrity status but though Joy revelled in the attention, George was uninterested. As Joy's fame grew, so did her fortune - but neither she nor George had any personal interest in money. Royalties from books and films (see here for a complete list) were paid into a new charity which Joy called the Elsa Wild Animal Appeal, which later became The Elsa Conservation Trust.
George had served as an animal trainer on the Born Free set in Kenya. After filming, he took charge of three of the film's lions and returned to Meru with Joy, where they continued educating lions for life in the wild. At this time Joy was also raising a cheetah (Pippa) and since lions will often attack other cats in their territory, the Adamsons set up two separate camps 20 km apart to continue their work. Joy also experimented with a leopard (Penny), and over time, proved that with skilful and considered action, many animals raised by humans may be effectively re-integrated into the wild.
Five years later, now with seven lions and numerous incidents behind him, George Adamson was finally expelled from the reserve after one of his favourite lions (Boy), mauled the son of a warden. The only place where the government would allow him to continue his wildlife rehabilitation program was in Kora, an isolated and almost uninhabited region of desert 402 km north of Nairobi. At Kora George rented an area of 1,300 sq. km. where he, his younger brother Terence (1907–1986) and native assistants were to live and work.
In 1970, long standing tensions between George and Joy that were already straining the relationship peaked when Joy declared that she hated the intense heat and isolation of Kora, and refused to go. The couple separated but decided to continue spending Christmas together.
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.
Joy had never shared the Born Free royalties with her husband (the greater part of which had gone to conservation projects), even though (as George's friends later insisted), the book was based on his diaries. But George never complained and only spoke fondly of his wife, even though there were times at Kora when he and his unpaid assistant Tony Fitzjohn, were so poor that they survived on camel meat and tinned army rations.
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.
Later at his wife's funeral, George Adamson promised to carry on her work. According to her wishes, her cremated remains were scattered by George on the graves of the cheetah Pippa and the lioness Elsa. A year later, a 23 year old former employee Paul Ekai was convicted of the murder, apparently committed after a dispute over money.
Later in 1980, a lion mauled Terence Adamson. This prompted the Kenyan government to shut down George Adamson's controversial re-integration program, which even some conservationists had labelled as irrelevant.
After being sent a pair of leopard cubs, and later another pair, in 1981 the Kenya government allowed George to establish a new camp, where his assistant Tony Fitzjohn started working with leopards.
In the years that followed, poaching increased dramatically and threats of reprisal attacks by poachers were common. The elephants were nearly all gone and the lions had been killed or driven away, even Tony Fitzjohn's favourite leopard was poisoned. Poaching was endemic, a sad situation that now existed throughout most of Africa.
At age 83 George was still considered to be hardy and in fine form, despite suffering from asthma and sleeping with an oxygen tank near at hand. On August 20, 1989 at Kampi Ya Simba (camp of the lions) in Kora, George and two of his assistants were killed by Somali poachers when they intervened on behalf of a group of German tourists. (biography taken from here)
Other sources of information on George include here and especially here which has many interesting photos.
In 1999 a movie starring Richard Harris “To Walk with Lions” was made about George (see here for info and 16 reviews).