This is Kenya, by Jean Hartley

This is Kenya, by Jean Hartley. New Holland. 2nd edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2005. ISBN 9781845371500 / ISBN 978-1-84537-150-0

In This is Kenya, author Jean Hartley introduces a diverse land, with an unexpected variety of scenery and terrain. Altitudes range from sea level to higher than 5 000 metres, vegetation from coconut palms to giant groundsel. Much of the far north is desert or semi-desert, vast tracts of arid wind-blown sand, sparsely populated by hardy nomadic peoples whose worldly goods can be carried on the back of a camel.

Hartley, Jean  

Kenya Profile

Lying on the eastern side of Africa, Kenya's 600 000 square kilometres are bisected from east to west by the equator. A far more dramatic division, the Great Rift Valley, passes from north to south on its way from Jordan to Mozambique. In the far west is Lake Victoria, Africa's most extensive lake and fabled source of the Nile. The lake Is shared with Uganda and Tanzania, on Kenya's western and southern borders respectively. Ethiopia lies to the north and Somalia to the northeast. More than 400 kilometres of beach and palm trees border the Indian Ocean In the east. Kenya's temperature and climate are governed by altitude and rainfall. There are two principal rainy seasons, the long' rains in April/May and the 'short' rains in October/November. However, these rains do not occur over the entire country, and dry areas in the north may receive no rain at all for several years. The highest temperatures are experienced from December to March, while June and July can be surprisingly cool, particularly in the highlands. From the sea, the northeast monsoon [kaskazi] blows from October to March, and the southeast monsoon [kusi] brings cooler weather and rougher sea conditions from April to September. These winds have for centuries propelled the Arab dhows from the Gulf and returned them safely home. They also determine the weather on the eastern side of the country. In the west, the massive area of Lake Victoria creates a weather system of its own. As Kenya Is situated on the equator, the hours of daylight are fairly constant throughout the year, varying by no more than half an hour. There are twelve hours of daylight every day. Kenya's capital, Nairobi, lies south of the equator to the east of the Rift Valley A hundred years ago, the ground on which Nairobi is situated was an Inhospitable swamp. Today, Nairobi is a busy, cosmopolitan centre - taxis jostle for position with handcarts piled high with mangoes, and Maasai warriors dressed in red sliuhas share the crowded streets with Japanese businessmen, American tourists and Indian housewives. To the west of Nairobi, the Ngong Hills form part of the eastern wall of the Rift Valley. The name of the five gently rounded peaks comes from the Maasai word for 'knuckles', as, from the east, the hills resemble the back of a fist. The Ngong Hills inspired Karen Blixen to write the book Out of Africa, on which the well-known film of the same name was based. The suburb Karen is named after her and is on the site of her doomed coffee farm. Further north along the wall of the Rift Valley, the Aberdare mountains form the western edge of the central highlands. To the east of this eroded range Mount Kenya's permanently snow-capped peaks can be seen from tall buildings In the city of Nairobi, more than 160 kilometres away. Kenya has many faces, most of them friendly. The combination of wildlife mountains, forests, lakes and coral reefs make this land tantalizingly beautiful. [...]

This is an excerpt from the book: This is Kenya, by Jean Hartley.

Title: This is Kenya
Genre: Illustrated book
Author: Jean Hartley
Publisher: New Holland
2nd edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2005
ISBN 9781845371500 / ISBN 978-1-84537-150-0
Hardcover, dustjacket, 21 x 28 cm, 176 pages, throughout colour photos, 1 map