Day 11

Today was tea day.

We got up for an 8am breakfast of crepes and jam. yum.
Lucy and Silas arrived, and after a bit of confusion about where the tea plantation was, we set off north past Ruiri and on the dirt track to the tea plantation that Mrs Kerr visited in 2008. Since we had travelled higher and higher into the Nyambene hills near Meru, it was far colder at the factory than in Meru, so we all stood, wrapped up in coats and fleeces and shivering, as the guide spoke about the place.
The factory is set in beautiful vast fields of bright green tea bushes on the hills, with pickers scattered between them doing their job. We were shown round the three storey building, which is filled with noisy machinery. The highest two floors are giant containers of tea leaves, being allowed to wither over time, before being put on a conveyer belt leading to the ground floor.
The next stage is to macerate, crush and dry the leaves. Huge rollers and crushing machines break up the leaves before hot air is blasted through the leaves, making them behave like a liquid. After this stage the leaves are sorted into four grades. We were surprised to learn that teabags partly contain the fibres and dust left when the real tea grains are separated. The tea is then packaged into 68kg sacks and sent by lorry to auction.
It was very interesting for all of us but it was particularly good to see for real what we learnt about tea farms in S2 Geography.
We  then had a very pleasant lunch in the arboretum garden nearby.
After this we set off back to the Thiiri Centre. An afternoon of swimming, sunbathing, eating food and writing thankyou cards to the teachers. Oh and starting to pack our cases :(:(:(:(:(:(:(:(
Very sleepy now!
Samburu tomorrow.
Matthew x