AFRICAN DREAM

By Judy Newell

It was the dream of my lifetime to go to Africa.  I grew up watching “Wild Kingdom” on television and always knew that someday I would explore the endless plains of the Serengeti and Masai Mara.  After 40 years in the travel business I can truly say that this journey exceeded my every expectation.

In late August a group of 21 people from San Miguel de Allende, the USA and Canada set out for an African safari.  This adventure of a lifetime was a fundraiser for the SPA which received a $1500 dollar donation from Perfect Journeys.

We traveled during the peak of the Great Migration, when tens of thousands of wildebeest and zebra are crossing the plains in search of fresh grasslands. Our dramatic wildlife viewing included spotting all of the Big Five − lion, leopard, elephant, black rhinoceros and African buffalo.

After an overnight at the luxurious Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi, we were off the next morning for the Masai Mara National Reserve.  We took three safari vehicles with seven passengers in each.  The road into the Masai Mara National Park was a chiropractic adjustment through every size and depth of pothole imaginable.

But it was worth it – on our first game drive that afternoon we saw herds of wildebeests and zebra, Thompson’s and Grant’s gazelles and 24 lions.  There was an old solitary male lion sleeping next to a wildebeest kill, lionesses waiting their turn as the pride leader ate his fill, and fourteen lionesses and cubs relaxing in the shade –one sleeping on her back with four paws in the air – unconcerned that we were within ten feet of them. Masai Mara has Kenya’s largest lion population.

Everyone was blown away.  “Well, I’m ready to cash in my ticket and go home,” Taylor Korobow told me that evening. “Nothing could top this.”  Steve Weisberg commented “it’s even more spectacular than we imagined; it can’t get any better than this.”  But it did.  Everyday.

We stayed in the Mara Sopa Lodge and were up at 4 am the next morning for a hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara and a champagne bush breakfast.  Watching the six balloons inflate with fiery flares in the early morning light was an incredible sight.  But when we arose aloft at sunrise awed silence engulfed us.  Giraffe’s heads peeked over the tops of acacia trees as they nibbled fresh green leaves. Elephants looked up from a water hole.  And as we landed, a single file of galloping wildebeests stretched from horizon to horizon – at least 20 miles of thousands and thousands of animals.

Game drives brought new sightings everyday: troops of baboons carrying babies on their backs; impala with swirling horns, tiny dik-diks – the smallest antelope; and funny-looking warthogs.  Our guide told us that warthogs are called “lion’s sausages” because they are not very smart. When a lion is chasing them they will run for a few minutes then stop because they can’t remember why they’re running. “Dumb as a warthog” is often heard.

I fell in love with zebras. The stripes continue up into their manes in exactly the same pattern as their coat.  They have never been domesticated as their spines are weak and not strong enough to carry the weight of a man or transport goods.  It’s easy for lions to bring them down by leaping on their backs.

The Masai are the most easily recognized of the tribes in Kenya.  On a visit to a Masai village, we were entertained with a dance performed by the men of the village, chanting and jumping straight-legged into the air. The higher a man can jump, the fewer cows he has to pay for his bride price – he is a strong warrior.

We went inside of one of the huts which are constructed of mud, straw and cow dung.  It was dark, tiny and smoky.  Only the cooking fire illuminated the space that was shared by a man, his wife and children and their young goats. There was no running water, no electricity, no plumbing.

The village that we visited had 57 families. The huts were built in a large circular compound that was surrounded by cut and stacked bramble bushes.  At night 300 head of village cattle and many more goats were herded into that area for protection from predators.  Masai don’t believe in banks.  Their wealth is in their cattle and goats.

The villages are rebuilt every nine years, but they don’t move very far as they must stay near the school and water supply.  Education is compulsory until the 6^th grade.  After that a family must pay for schooling by selling one of their prized cattle for fees, books and transportation to secondary school.

Masai men can have several wives, but each must have their own house.  There is a connection between multiple wives and wealth. A man must be wealthy to support several wives and families, but if he has a lot of cattle he needs multiple wives to help him. One woman can not milk 80 cows each night. Women’s work and men’s work (herding) is strictly separated by tradition roles.

Both men and women wear lots of beaded jewelry.  Traditional Masai of both sexes have extended ear lobes from which they hang very large ear decorations.  Today the practice is discouraged and many drape the extended ear lobes over the top of their ears to disguise them.  All Masai men wear a traditional red patterned “shuka” tied over their shoulders.

We continued to Lake Nakaru, home to flamingos, countless birds, endangered white rhinos and severely endangered Rothschild giraffes in a small 140 acre, fully fenced park.  It has a largest rhino population in Kenya.  The rhinoceros are one of the few animals that keep away from the roads and safari vehicles.

A small pond was just outside the patio of the spectacular Lake Nakaru Lodge.  Cape buffalos waded in the pond with white egrets on their backs, and Egyptian geese and sacred ibis strolled nearby. It was our nearest encounter with the dangerous Cape buffalo.  They have a fierce reputation but a gentle looking face.

A young Masai man with a slingshot stood guard on the patio to prevent baboons from entering the hotel patio and grounds.

We took a boat safari to Crescent Island Wildlife Sanctuary in Lake Naivasha. The island was used for filming “Out of Africa” and small herds of giraffe, antelope, gazelle, eland and zebra were imported during filmmaking. It was the only place on our safari that we could walk among the wildlife as there are no predators on the island.

In Amboseli National Park we stayed at Amboseli Sopa Lodge.  It is where Ernest Hemingway had a small cabin and is said to have written “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” there.

Amboseli is famed for herds of elephants and impressive views of snow-capped Mt. Kilimanjaro. It’s a place of wide dry plains, dusty red clay and umbrella acacia trees. In parts of the park mirages shimmer in the heat. There’s a huge green swamp in the middle of the desert-like area where animals congregate for water and the birdlife is spectacular.

Even those who were not bird watchers became enchanted in Africa.  At Amboseli we saw long-legged secretary birds, crowned cranes with a stunning golden headdress, tawny eagles, scurrying guinea hens, impressive saddle-billed storks, ostriches, white-bellied bustards, plovers, brown herons, and superb starlings with iridescent blue wings and an orange breast.  It was an avian wonderland.

On one game drive in Amboseli we spotted two young bull elephants in a water hole playing king of the mountain.  They locked tusks, butted heads and pushed each other back and forth, often ducking completely underwater and then popping back up to spray each other with water.

Giraffes grazed on the tops of the acacia trees. When a giraffe begins to munch on the leaves, a chemical defense system triggers alkaloid into the leaves.  It tastes nasty and the leaves become inedible. Then the tree warns other acacia trees in the area by emitting a chemical into the air, causing the other acacia tries to pump alkaloid into their leaves; it’s called chemical inference.  Giraffes have learned to eat upwind.

We spotted female giraffes by the black pom-poms on the top of their horns – male giraffes don’t have the decorative tuffs. The horns are actually fleshy, not solid.  Older giraffe can be identified by their dark brown coat.

We stopped at the lovely Arusha Coffee Lodge for lunch before continuing into Tanzania through the Namanga border crossing. That experience was chaotic, hot and dusty.  No one asked to see the required yellow fever inoculation cards that had cost us over $100 per vaccination.

Our accommodations were at the beautiful Lake Manyara Serena Lodge overlooking the Great Rift Valley and the soda lake – a more dramatic site could hardly be found, with rondovels strung out along the cliffside.

Lake Manyara National Park is known for its tree-climbing lions, rainforest-like foliage, spectacular birdlife and troops of hundreds of baboons. The baboons lounge on the edge of the highways outside of the park and wait for bits of food to be tossed from passing cars.  Both olive and yellow baboons live in East Africa.

The famed Serengeti plains sweep across the largest park in East Africa.  There we spent two nights in Serengeti Explorer Tented Camp.  This mobile campsite was set up just for our group and broken down after we departed.  A staff of 17 was there to serve our 21 guests.  This was not a luxury tented camp with hardwood floors and Persian carpets, but a true old Africa-style camp with kerosene lanterns and guards to walk you to your tent.  When our tent was first unzipped, I stepped in and felt like Ava Gardner in “Mogambo.”

We spent a full day driving through Serengeti Park whose name means “endless plains.” Wildebeest and zebra were common sights by now – the great herds were passing through in their annual trek as the followed the rains. Other herbivores were plentiful – impalas, eland, buffalo and gazelles.  The sunset over a Serengeti waterhole was spectacular.

Here we saw a cheetah with three almost grown cubs sitting atop a knoll searching the plains for small game.  The cheetah is the fastest animal on earth, but can only run in short spurts.  They must be near their prey before they start chase and this is hard to do during the dry season when the grasses are short and cover hard to find.  The cheetah mother is solitary and the life of her cubs depends on her skill alone at hunting. Vulnerable young cubs are left in the open grassland when she stalks her prey and often eaten by lions, hyena or jackals.

We stopped at Olduvai Gorge, a very simple location which has a small museum explaining the discoveries of archeologists Louis and Mary Leakey and their fossil findings of early mankind. It is hard to imagine how they endured the heat, primitive conditions and hardships encountered during the decades they spent at the digs.

The Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was one of the most impressive places we stayed.  Our individual rondovels were alongside the crater with glass patios in each room overlooking the expansive park below. It was very jungle-like, misty and cool along the crater edge at almost 7,000 feet, while the crater floor at 2,000 feet below was hot and dry.  Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest intact volcanic caldera, a natural wildlife zoo, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Masai herd their cattle and goats in the crater during the day, alongside herds of elephants, lions, cheetahs and rhinos. Curiously, lions do not attack Masai cattle which seem an easy lunch target.  It is said that the lions have learned to recognize the Masai’s red robes and fear their long spears. Domestic livestock, which are allowed to graze in the park, must be out of the crater by 6 pm.

We passed two Masai boys, around 12 to 14 years old, who had recently undergone a circumcision ritual. It’s a rite of passage to manhood that takes place in villages annually.  Afterwards the boys paint their faces with white designs, leave their village and live off the land for two months.  When they return they wash off the paint and assume the roles and jobs of men.

Our last stop was as Tarangire National Park, one of the favorite parks of everyone on the safari.  As one person said “it’s just like I thought Africa would look like.”

Dry sun burnt plains were dotted with ancient baobab trees, some of which are reputed to be over 2,000 years old.  They are leafless in the dry season and look like their roots are reaching up to the sky.  Baobabs are probably the oldest life forms on the African continent.

The Tarangire Sopa Lodge was another stunning property. It’s near the Tarangire River which insects the dry parkland.  Animals congregate there year-round for water.  Hippo ponds are scattered about where up a hundred of these giant mammals crowd into muddy water to avoid the heat of the day.

We had our only leopard sighting in Tarangire – he was asleep in a tree, legs sprawled on either side of a branch, and looked like he was smiling.

Also in this park a lioness decided to take a nap in the shade against the rear tire of our safari vehicle.  We couldn’t move for 20 minutes or we might have run over her tail!

Tarangire is home to the greatest concentration of elephants in Africa.  They nonchalantly cross the road in front of safari vehicles knowing that you will stop for them.  A stand-off occurred one day when a large ear-flapping female elephant with a tiny baby confronted our vehicle mid-road and demanded that we not come any closer.

Female elephants surround the youngsters in large herds and bull elephants are spotted apart from the females. Elephants are very destructive feeders, pushing over trees to get to the green leaves on the top.  Everywhere you look there are snapped trees on the parched ground.

We watched a baby elephant with his little trunk curled against his mother’s side and he nursed just behind her front legs. Young elephants begin to grow their tusks at about two years old and that’s the time that mother’s begin to wean them.  One afternoon at a waterhole we hear a loud trumpet and saw a female swat her youngster with her trunk and push him away.  The little tusks must have poked her and she told him he was big enough to fend for himself.

On our last day we drove back to Nairobi and stopped for dinner at the famous Carnivore Restaurant.  At a huge pit in the center of the restaurant, grill masters cook 12 kinds of meat on long Masai spears.  They bring the spears to your table and keep carving until you tell them enough.  At our dinner we had the usual beef, pork and chicken, along with crocodile, ostrich and other exotic meats.

As we flew out of Africa that evening, we relished how this dream journey had come true and looked forward to sorting the thousands of photographs we had taken.

Perfect Journeys will offer another Kenya and Tanzania safari departing Nairobi on July 22, 2012.  Contact us for more details.