The King of Canvas

The first time I met Jan Allan in Nairobi just over a year ago he looked a whole lot younger and he was wearing closed shoes and trousers. That was the first and last time I saw him dressed like that. Perhaps he thought closed shoes and long trousers would seal the deal with these clueless South Africans who were planning to build a tented camp high up on the edge of the Rift Valley on what must be one of the loveliest settings in Africa.

When we broke ground in August 2014, a mere ten months ago, with this crazy plan of building beautiful tented suites for our guests I never knew quite what we had let ourselves in for. Today, knowing what I know now less than a month before we open Angama Mara, I know we struck gold in meeting this hugely talented man whose sense of humour goes way beyond the pale (the details of which this blog does not allow for). But boy, have we laughed along the way. And our tents are more beautiful than we could ever have dreamed. This is my last opportunity to showcase Angama Mara’s tents-in-the-making because the next time you see them they will have guests in them.

Working alongside our architect duo of Silvio Rech and Lesley Carstens, Jan has crafted 30 masterpieces in his Nairobi workshop. It is a joy to hang out there and watch his merry team of cutters and stitchers plough their way through acres and acres of canvas and turn rolls of fabric into tents of over 80 sqm each. Actually, it is nothing short of miraculous.

For anyone planning on doing anything as mad as Angama Mara here’s the recipe (per tent):

There you have it. Simple if you use Jan and his wonderful byDesign team – otherwise please take my advice and stick to working in a bank or even the post office. This little lark is not for the faint-hearted.