A piece of history
Grogan’s Castle in the Tsavo. PHOTO | RUPI MANGAT
What you need to know:
- Grogan walked from the Cape to Cairo in 1898 to win the hand of the woman he had fallen in love with – Gertrude. It was the start of 1900 and he was 26, according to the legend.
- In actual fact, Grogan walked the distance to map out a possible route for a railway and telegraphic line that would span the continent.
- Grogan started his journey in Mozambique, hoping to make the epic 8,000 kilometres to the north. Meanwhile, Rhodes died in 1902 – and the dream died with him.
It is early morning and I am surveying the 360-degree panorama from Grogan’s Castle in the Tsavo.
It is dramatic; there’s the two ice-clad peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mawenzi and Kibo. There is the shimmer of Lake Jipe, on the foothills of the Pare Mountains in Tanzania. These ‘mountains’ are part of the Eastern Arc Mountains stretching from Kenya’s Taita Hill to Tanzania’s Usambara Hills.
I am taking all of this in from a verandah that Grogan himself probably stood on. In my mind’s eye I can see him hopping off his bed – a flat metal sheet bolted against the wall and encased in a wire cage – and taking in the grandeur of it all.
If his ghost was to appear, I would walk with him through the grand castle he built in the 1930s. He would tell me of his exploits as he showed me the thick walls, high ceilings, many windows and arches, and spacious rooms.
I would be keen to hear about how he walked from the Cape to Cairo in 1898 to win the hand of the woman he had fallen in love with – Gertrude. It was the start of 1900 and he was 26, according to the legend.
Grogan’s bed in the Castle built in 1930 in the Tsavo. PHOTO | RUPI MANGAT
FOUNDING RHODESIA
In actual fact, Grogan walked the distance to map out a possible route for a railway and telegraphic line that would span the continent. Cecil Rhodes (a British businessman and owner of the British South Africa Company) who ‘founded’ Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), hired Grogan to do so.
Grogan started his journey in Mozambique, hoping to make the epic 8,000 kilometres to the north. Meanwhile, Rhodes died in 1902 – and the dream died with him.
I happen upon the enormous dining room with an equally enormous dining table and imagine Grogan telling me about the work going on below on the plains. He had water canals dug from the Njoro Kuba springs in Taveta to irrigate his vast estate and water the sisal, cotton, coconut and maize plants.
Grogan lived on that hill for 20 years.
Driving down to spend a day at Lake Jipe in Tsavo West, we pass a few sisal fields that have survived. The rest have been replaced by the horrendous, invasive mathenge, or Prosopis juliflora.
During his time, Grogan set up a 45-acre fish farm to breed tilapia near Lake Jipe, which boasts an endemic species of tilapia - Oreochromis jipe – that’s now listed as Critically Endangered.
We eventually get to Lake Jipe where a family of three red elephants leisurely munch on the grass as we drive further to explore a part of the park little visited.
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FACT FILE
It’s 100 km to Grogan’s Castle from Voi in Taveta. It’s an exciting road full of WW1 relics.
From Grogan’s Castle, explore Tsavo West National Park, Lake Jipe, Lake Chala, and drive on to Chyulu hills and Amboseli National Park via Loitokitok. Check Kenya Wildlife Service http://www.kws.go.ke/ for updates on the national parks.
Interesting fact: Grogan founded a children’s hospital in memory of his wife, Gertrude.
