It was from the Aberdares region on the lower slopes of Mt. Kenya. The sister of my PH's wife was married to the manager of a large cattle/sheep operation owned by the Italian car manufacturer, Lancia. On both trips to Kenya, we stopped over for a couple of days with them and hunted on the property and the adjacent area.

It offered a wonderful insight into the operation of a ranching operation in the days after Uhuru, and the way of life of the participants. While we were there, an election was held, and all the African "help" were given the day off to vote. This put Verity Williams and her sister in the kitchen, where they obviously were not used to being, but they coped marvellously in an environment almost devoid of modern conveniences.

Verity's sister and her husband, the Stone-Wiggs, had a long rambling open house, reminiscent of the photos of Karen Blixen's, with beautiful flowers and shrubbery, and a grass tennis court, the only one I have ever played on. Not having tennis shoes with me, I played barefoot, an amazing sensation.
Their children were off at boarding school, but I was later able to comply with their request to supply them with new steel framed tennis raquets, which were unavailable at the time in Kenya.

Charlie Stone-Wigg was quite a character. He had lost an eye in a shooting incident during the Mau-Mau "unpleasantness" and had suffered a bout of polio as an adult, which made the use of one arm difficult, but that didn't stop him from being the top polo player on the Kenya team. His favorite polo pony, named "Christine Keeler", was once loaned to Prince Charles, while he was on a state visit in Kenya. He was said to have remarked, "I can hardly wait to tell my Dad that I've been astride Christine Keeler!"

The most terrifying experience I had in three trips to Africa was driving cross country in Charlie's Land Rover with Charlie at the wheel. He drove like a mad man, totally oblivious to the danger of wart hog holes and other features of the African landscape. The fact that he had no depth perception, due to the loss of the eye, only added to the risk.

I took this fellow during a previous visit with the Stone-Wiggs: