From princess to queen in a treehouse

By CNN Nairobi Bureau Chief Catherine Bond

NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- The day Queen Elizabeth II inherited the British throne, the 26-year-old princess was on safari with her husband, Prince Phillip, looking at African wildlife in Kenya.

The night her father, King George VI, died of cancer, they spent the night at the original site of a treetops hotel -- at the time simply a hotel room built off the ground in a giant tree for viewing game.

"You know, the story of going up into a tree a princess and coming down a queen was perfectly true, it wasn't invented," says former professional game hunter Richard Prickett.

At the time, though, the princess herself didn't know she had become queen. The news of the king's death didn't reach her until she returned to a hunting lodge the following day.

MORE STORIES UK queen remembers king's death

Prickett isn't the only person who remembers that fateful night. Fifty years on, the retired cook who made their dinner remembers what the royal couple ate.

"They had cold soup," says Ladislau Nganga, now 92. "Then they had turkey, chicken, then strawberries with cream, coffee, tea, and everybody picked what they wanted."

Elizabeth's reign -- one of the longest by any monarch in English history -- began 50 years ago as a long air journey from Kenya, via Uganda, back to Britain.