It would be getting dark soon. Another vehicle hadn't passed in the last hour. Dickson, bare-chested, stood on the hood waving his white t-shirt. We were on the bottom of Ngorongoro Crater, in the middle of the dirt track, out of diesel. When the sun passed over the Crater rim, I was prepared for a cold night in the Land Rover. Fortunately, it was a closed vehicle with doors and windows that rolled up. No, we didn't have radio communication with the nearest lodge or other safari vehicles. It was going to be Dickson and I curled up in the second and third row seats listening for the cackle of spotted hyena, the grunt of African bush elephant or the soft growl of the lions.
As the skies darkened, we saw headlights descending the road into the Crater. Soon, we heard the hum of a vehicle coming toward us on the track. Someone at the lodge, set on the rim above, had seen the waving white shirt and sent a driver to investigate. Whereas Dickson had not filled our Land Rover, nor brought an extra can, the lodge driver arrived prepared to assist. After pouring diesel into our tank and bleeding the fuel lines, we followed our rescuer back to the lodge. A warm shower followed by a warm dinner and comfortable bed awaited.
I brought my binoculars to breakfast. My lodge in Serengeti National Park was situated on a rocky knoll overlooking a savanna which had an open plain in the middle surrounded by dense vegetation on each side. A small herd of grazing Gravy's zebra walked slowly through the plain about 200 yards below my window. I scanned them with my binoculars, then spotted a brownish color moving in the dense vegetation beyond. Then two, then three. There was movement in the nearer vegetation, also. From above, I began to make out a pride of six or seven female lions on each side of the open plain, cautiously stalking the zebra searching for a straggler. They slowly raise their heads among the vegetation to signal each other. When they had moved midway past the herd, the vegetation exploded with brown bodies rushing the slowest zebra. Several lions pounced; it was over in seconds.
The lodge, located near the Machame gate on the flanks of Mt. Kilimanjaro, provided my base to find local resources for future hikes up the mountain. Contacts were made, objectives never met.
The bongos came out at night. The solitary antelope has a chestnut coat with vertical whitish-yellow stripes running down their sides and spiraled lyre-shaped horns and live in the dense forest. They are herbivorous browsers that feed on leaves, bushes, grasses, roots, flowers and fruits and will visit natural mineral licks during the night for the salt. Treetops Lodge, built on stilts and located in Aberdare National Park, is strategically sited in front of a natural watering hole and salt lick. I woke to the sound of buzzing, the signal that an animal could be seen outside from the viewing deck. The bongo stood at the water's edge in the floodlights shadow.
The Fairview Hotel is located on a hill above Nairobi in landscaped garden. It had the ambience of an English Manor house. I left after breakfast to explore the town. While walking the crowded streets lined with shops, I heard yelling and saw a young man running down the road with a bag over his shoulder chased by some men. Several men stepped out of store fronts, grabbed the young man, threw him on the ground and began severely beating him. The moral to that story, don't steal from shops in an area where owners police their shops.
As the skies darkened, we saw headlights descending the road into the Crater. Soon, we heard the hum of a vehicle coming toward us on the track. Someone at the lodge, set on the rim above, had seen the waving white shirt and sent a driver to investigate. Whereas Dickson had not filled our Land Rover, nor brought an extra can, the lodge driver arrived prepared to assist. After pouring diesel into our tank and bleeding the fuel lines, we followed our rescuer back to the lodge. A warm shower followed by a warm dinner and comfortable bed awaited.
I brought my binoculars to breakfast. My lodge in Serengeti National Park was situated on a rocky knoll overlooking a savanna which had an open plain in the middle surrounded by dense vegetation on each side. A small herd of grazing Gravy's zebra walked slowly through the plain about 200 yards below my window. I scanned them with my binoculars, then spotted a brownish color moving in the dense vegetation beyond. Then two, then three. There was movement in the nearer vegetation, also. From above, I began to make out a pride of six or seven female lions on each side of the open plain, cautiously stalking the zebra searching for a straggler. They slowly raise their heads among the vegetation to signal each other. When they had moved midway past the herd, the vegetation exploded with brown bodies rushing the slowest zebra. Several lions pounced; it was over in seconds.
The lodge, located near the Machame gate on the flanks of Mt. Kilimanjaro, provided my base to find local resources for future hikes up the mountain. Contacts were made, objectives never met.
The bongos came out at night. The solitary antelope has a chestnut coat with vertical whitish-yellow stripes running down their sides and spiraled lyre-shaped horns and live in the dense forest. They are herbivorous browsers that feed on leaves, bushes, grasses, roots, flowers and fruits and will visit natural mineral licks during the night for the salt. Treetops Lodge, built on stilts and located in Aberdare National Park, is strategically sited in front of a natural watering hole and salt lick. I woke to the sound of buzzing, the signal that an animal could be seen outside from the viewing deck. The bongo stood at the water's edge in the floodlights shadow.
The Fairview Hotel is located on a hill above Nairobi in landscaped garden. It had the ambience of an English Manor house. I left after breakfast to explore the town. While walking the crowded streets lined with shops, I heard yelling and saw a young man running down the road with a bag over his shoulder chased by some men. Several men stepped out of store fronts, grabbed the young man, threw him on the ground and began severely beating him. The moral to that story, don't steal from shops in an area where owners police their shops.
 | |
| Lions Hanging Out |
 | |
Some Safaris Don't Run Smoothly |
