Ol Talet and Oloika; Cottages in the wilderness

All I needed last weekend was 5 people to share costs with me for a cottage-in-the-wild type of getaway. Before I realized it I had 9 interested people; and then I had to get 3 more to fill up a second house. Total number: 12.

I had done all the grocery shopping, so after meeting my friends at their house, we left for Adams for supermarket shopping. We would buy good quality meat at Kiserian on our way to Ol Talet.

The drive there was smooth with the rough road spanning about only 3 kilometres. We were welcomed by Johnson who I had been in communication with and given a tour of the two houses I had booked.

Above is Oloika where we 6 of us would sleep and the whole group would have our meals.

The views were outstanding! With bedrooms perched on the side of a hill facing a vast undulating landscape, I knew it was going to be a good weekend. Everyone chose their rooms and I then headed to give some guidance to the chefs on the food we had brought.

The architecture of the houses was really something out of this world, with an array of natural materials, attention to detail and site specific design. You can therefore imagine my excitement when I discovered the architect is one of my favorite local architects and indeed a former employer at my internship. He doubles up as a painter and I could recognize some of his art on the walls. I’ll leave the architecture talk at this, but one could write a book on it. Very inspiring.

We had baked potatoes and fried beef for dinner, sausages, eggs and toast for breakfast and ugali and grilled meat (and kachumbari) for lunch. All was well prepared by the chefs and enjoyed amidst good cheer.

In between heavy eating, we played games; cards, charades, scrabble and chess and had a good time, mostly at the lounge below. 3 sides open to the hills and valleys beyond. We spotted some giraffes and other wild animals in the distance.

I slept at about 2:00am and was up at 5:30 to catch the sunrise, a tradition I have maintained throughout my travels. However, it was a bad day as all I caught was clouds. I still used the little sun later on to sunbask.

That’s it for this post. More pics on instagram.

I have been off travel for a while…I had talked of my break on my last Instagram post before my long trip to the Coast. I’m back now and have a few places on my bucket list. Let me know if you have any ideas on cool places that need light to be shed on them.