The Kenya Railway Club
Day 1 of our tour; Nairobi base camp - already over 5000’ up!…
Jambo!
(‘Hi there!’ In Swahili)
Nairobi: bustling, evolving at pace, posh new office blocks cheek and jowl with still-obvious poverty, along dusty, uneven streets, like every other African capital.
Yet still, you’ll find the little oases of calm, greenery, and elegant old edifices built by past colonial invaders; now the social watering holes of clubbable Kenyans and their multinational guests, like us.
Our hosts David and Fi arranged for their ‘man’ John - allegedly ex-Kenyan Army General now private driver - to rescue us from the airport melee and deposit us in the Nairobi Club - one typical edifice of latter day gentry these days just offering pleasantly barrack-room accommodation (officer standard) - to put one’s head down and get an English breakfast on the terrace.
Founded in 1901, the Nairobi Club adjoins an equally ancient cricket club, in the past graced by Grace himself, and many other touring greats aside. An international tennis match is in play next door, just beyond the pristine bowling greens - all essential in every erstwhile colonial outpost. Stick-like female eastern European tennis players wander the old building in their gaudy tennis garb, all with very serious faces, presumably mentally prepping for their next match. If only they could look as if they enjoyed their good fortune to be here at all.
Before checking out we have a chance to wander these hallowed halls, soaking up the history hanging on their walls. Fading old photographs of those who built Nairobi - looking just as glum as those tennis players, but with their bushy moustaches and sideburns.
Just up the road, our course today was The Kenya Railway Club - founded 1921 and another piece of colonial real estate smack dab in the middle of a city that is expanding at a pace around it. With the original railway running alongside it, needless to add - the reason Nairobi existed in the first place.
The course provided us with a relatively gentle start to our grand tour: mostly flat with the odd undulation, tree-lined fairways with that scrubby, innocent-looking light rough waiting to devour any wayward shot - of which there were, in truth, quite a lot on this our first foray into Kenya golf this trip. Small, spartan greens that surprised the two visitors in this friendly four-ball, slick as you like and impossible to land on from a height and stay there.
So scoring today - again needless to say after a stiff nine hours in Premium Economy - was not of the highest standard but still, with the assistance of our chasing pack of not-very-attentive caddies, only one ball lost between us.
The Local Handicap Allowances:
There was some ‘discussion’ around handicaps for the tour, with one of our party demonstrating the ‘generosity’ of the African handicapping system’ akin to every other system of measurement in this continent. The ‘tourists’ were already lobbying for extra strokes to be given for three key factors:
Altitude: at around 1,600m (5,250’) we were already playing 3,800’ higher than any course in England. Surely that justifies a ‘puff allowance’ we argued, or maybe 2 shots per round?
Temperature: The tourists left the UK basking in around -2’ on a snowy day and now they expect us to handle 26’? We reckoned that justifies another 1 shot at least?
Local knowledge: Always worth a couple of shots surely - we had no clue about what lay around each corner…and our caddies seemed a bit vague too!
Humidity: Our hosts are used to cruising round in 95% humidity down in Malindi, so we will negotiate for that when we get there.
All in all, we are presenting a case for a minimum 4 shots on top of handicap at this early stage in proceedings. Adjustments will be made accordingly. It has to be said the hosts are already submitting a counter-argument based on ‘historic reparations’?. Something tenuously associated with slavery and theft of land. The case continues…
After a very pleasant afternoon lazing on David’s terrace in downtown Nairobi, on we will go tomorrow to our next destination: Sigona Golf Club, 40 miles up the road towards our next stopover at Naivasha…..
Usiku mwema!
(‘Good night!’ In Swahili)