The Story of Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton

The home of Karen Blixen was the centre and one of the largest coffee plantations of its era in Kenya. Her home in the suburb that carries her name, is now a museum showcasing her life. The original property covered 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) of land: 600 acres (240 ha) were used for a coffee plantation, 3,400 acres (1,400 ha) were used by the natives for grazing, and 2,000 acres (810 ha) of virgin forest were left untouched.

Karen and her husband became convinced that coffee would be profitable. The Karen Coffee Company was established by their uncle, Aage Westerholz, who chose the name after his daughter Karen, Blixen’s cousin, rather than to create an association with Karen Blixen. The coffee plantation was untimely unsuccessful and as Karen’s marriage crumbled, she ultimately took over the management of the plantation.

Talented and Passionate

Karen Blixen was an internationally acclaimed author whose pen name was Isak Dinesen and who chronicled her 17 years in Kenya in her autobiographical book, Out of Africa (published in 1937). She had spent from 1914 to 1931 in British East Africa and her story was made famous in the same named movie over 50 years later.

Karen Blixen was a Baroness who gained the title after marrying Baron Bror Blixen-Finecke in Mombasa in 2014. She was nominated for a Noble Prize in Literature several times. Two of her books Babettes Feast’ and Out of Africa were made into Hollywood movies to critical acclaim. She was also a very well-known and talented artist as well.

Karen left Kenya in 1931 not long after dealing with the loss of her lover Denys but also the failure of her coffee plantation. She remained inexplicably linked to the country and the Ngong Hills. As a recent commentary states “Karen’s unbearable longing for Africa, her farm and her employees never faltered through all the long years since. In a letter to her mother, she wrote: ‘I have a feeling that wherever I may be in the future, I will be wondering whether there is rain at Ngong.’

On the 7th of September 1962: Karen Blixen died after a long illness at her family home in Denmark. And quoting from Nicky Fitzgerald, “All she owned of Africa, a handful of earth she’d brought back with her to Denmark in a little wooden box, was mixed with the soil of Rungstedlund in her grave. The unadorned tombstone of Isak Dinesen, the world-famous author, is inscribed simply ‘Karen Blixen.” It was one of the most moving places I have ever visited”.

Visiting The Resting Place of Denys Finch Hatton Bound to Denys for Eternity

In a letter to her brother Thomas in 1924, Karen Blixen wrote: “I believe that for all time and eternity I am bound to Denys, to love the ground he walks upon, to be happy beyond words when he is here, and to suffer worse than death many times when he leaves…”

Denys Finch Hatton was a big game hunter and entrepreneur, who flew his own plane and had a reputation for an adventurous and daring life. He was the epitome of the colonial period. And he was flying his plane when it crashed in Voi near Mombasa. The manner of his death only added to his reputation as an adventurer with a great jest for life. He had expressed a desire to be buried in the same place that Karen had planned for herself in the Ngong Hills. It was Karen Blixen who organised his burial.

Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton had been part of a group of ex-pats known for their wealth and lifestyle. They merely epitomised a period when East Africa was the playground for royalty, titled and wealthy. It offered an escape or as Karen Blixen wrote, “Here at long last one was in a position not to give a damn for all conventions, here was a new kind of freedom which until then one had only found in dreams”! Denys Finch Hatton had come from a titled English family and the current titles continue in his family to this day. On the 14th of May 1931, Denys perished in an air crash and is buried, as he wished, in the Ngong Hills. Karen Blixen had him interred at their ‘special place’.

The Final Resting Place

As Karen noted in her biography “There was a place in the Hills, on the first ridge in the Game Reserve, that I, myself at the time when I thought that I was to live and die in Africa, had pointed out to Denys as my future burial-place. In the evening, while we sat and looked at the hills from my house, he remarked that then he would like to be buried there himself as well. Since then, sometimes when we drove out in the hills, Denys had said: “Let us drive as far as our graves.”

In 1974 his British family erected the obelisk in his memory and visit Kenya regularly – honouring their son, brother, and uncle.

Visiting Ngong Hills Which Karen Loved

Ngong Hills, which Karen’s coffee plantation skirted, was a source of great pleasure for Karen Blixen as well as Denys Finch Hatton.

The Ngong Hills is an area of great beauty and it was a place that she retreated to often. It was a source of inspiration to Karen Blixen because of its sheer beauty and the diversity of its flora and fauna. And it was the place that she chose, and which was supposed to be, her final resting place. Denys Finch Hatton also endorsed the same place to be with Karen. The magnificent vistas dominate the landscape as much today as they did in Karen and Deny’s day.

And on this excursion, we take you to the peak of the Ngong Hills to stand in the same place where Karen stood and to see the same amazing valley’s and hills that she loved so much. You will be as inspired as Karen was. And it’s also a photo opportunity to recreate the same amazing scenes that were so beautifully captured in the movie. A lifetime memory!

Visiting A Maasai Elder Who Became an Extra Hollywood Comes To Ngong Hills

Less than 20 minutes from the vista which you will enjoy is an adjacent valley that is part of the Ngong Hills. It is another magical place of extreme beauty but where acacia trees dominate in a traditional African landscape.

Driving through the foothills our destination is to meet up with a Maasai elder who was in several scenes that were shot for the film. The arrival of Hollywood, with all the supporting crew and activity involved many of the locals. And the scenes were shot less than 1000 yards from where your Maasai hosts live. A picturesque valley that epitomises the beauty of Africa.

Your Maasai host was, at the time, not aware of such things as movies, let alone the industry of acting and Hollywood. But remembering the support crew and stars that interacted with the local Maasai stands out in his memory. Your host will tell you fascinating stories of his interaction with the stars. And he became, unknowingly, an extra in a movie that became known for its incredible depiction of the beauty of Africa.