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Two Hazda men head out into the Tanzanian wild as the sun rises in the distance. Part of one of only three remaining groups of hunter-gatherers left in Africa, these Hazda men are being accompanied this morning by two intrepid female photographers. After about an hour, two of the men will spot a black-faced vervet monkey and shoot it with their bows an arrows, stopping afterward to skin and cook the animal over an open fire. Later, they will search for beehives. One of the hunters begins whistling back and forth with a honeyguide bird. The conversation continues until he finds himself directly below a beehive lodged in a hole high above in a baobab tree. He and others pound stakes into the side of the tree and climb straight up to the nest. The bees are smoked out and the honeycomb extracted. All share in the bounty of sweetness and bee larvae. The honeyguide bird also feasts on the bees and wax. The remainder of the honeycomb is packed for the return to their small camp. The women have been collecting tubers and baobab fruit to supplement dinner.
The book is the culmination of a life-long journey of discovery by the two authors, who have crisscrossed the more remote parts of the African continent to record the lives and ceremonies of Africa's endangered indigenous peoples. Many of the peoples and their initiations have been pushed to extinction by the modern world since their ceremonies have been recorded and no longer remain as independent people living in traditional ways. Others remain independent but threatened by outside interests. Among the many rites recorded are Pokot and Rendille coming of age ceremonies, Venda girls graduations, and courtship and wedding ceremonies of the Turkana, Barabaig, Samburu and Somali. The great coming of age ritual of the Maasai warriors, known as the Eunoto, is also photographed. And, that is just in volume one. Volume two includes breathtaking images from the ceremonies of some of the much kingdoms of the Congo, Nigeria and Cameroon including images from the Voodoo Kingdom in Cameroon. Frenzied spirits with masks and outfits to match fill the pages and the cover reproduced below.
The trip back to our oldest societies with authors Carol and Angela will give you a spectacular look into the richness and diversity of traditional African society. It will also impress upon you the reality of humanity's vanishing past. Many scientists believe we are firmly within the sixth great extinction on our planet. Think about it. Wildlife species are disappearing at historically rapid rate as climate change promises to accelerate this change. But so are the oldests of our societies. Will modern societies be next? - - - - -
All text is copyright Clinton Richardson 2019. The images are from the book African Twilight - The Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies of the African Continent by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher and copyright protected. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. No one ever called this beast a gnu while we were in Africa. Instead, it was called the wildebeest or blue wildebeest to be precise. But it is also known as a brindled gnu and gnu makes for a better title. And, as you have guessed by now, we are spending much of this drive to take in the great wildebeest migration. The river crossing point we are aiming for is a good drive from the camp so we get see the wildebeest from several perspectives before we arrive for the dramatic conclusion. As we drive across the plains our guides point out the herd of wildebeest in the far distance. They are barely specs on the horizon at this point but other wildlife seem alert to their presence nonetheless. First we spot lions, like the one above watching from the grass. Then, further on and closer to the river crossing, we and the herd get closer. Here a pair of giraffe inspect the area for predators as the wildebeest make their way along. Eventually we get close to and even inside a large herd of wildebeest with several zebra in their ranks. With the van stopped, we sit and watch. Soon, a group of wildebeest and a few zebra go sprinting down a hill in the direction of the river. Everyone gathers together again, this time near a tree less than 100 yards from the river. We have followed their progress and now sit, with a few other vehicles off to the side but between the wildebeest and the river. They wait and so do we. Thoughts of television specials showing the great wildebeest migration with thousands of wildebeest madly racing across a river while crocodiles and other predators snap and grab at them crosses my mind. Is this what we will see? We are near the end of the migration season for this area and the herd is not as big as my TV-spectacular-imagination has led me to expect. And being late, some of the predators like the crocodile may be satiated. Still there is anticipation in the air. The wildebeest and their zebra companions are anxious as they wait. Then quickly, one and then another race toward the water followed by the group that had been waiting by the tree. It is a race to the water and down the bank and into the river. They have picked a steep embankment on the other side. Our van has to race to the river bank too. We catch up with them as they plunge into the river. No predators appear and most are quickly across. Climbing the embankment is a challenge. One stumbles badly on the steep incline and falls. But the rest manage the river and climb without incident. We have seen a safe passage. I confess to some disappointed. Not that I wished harm on any of the wildebeest but I was surprised there was not more drama. We pulled our van back from the river bank and, with the other vehicles nearby, watched as more wildebeest gathered under the tree for their shot at a safe crossing. And, that is when it happened. A flash of black followed quickly by a flash of light brown in front of us. Tall grass parting as they moved swiftly. A wildebeest had darted into the tall grass between the vehicles in a desperate attempt to evade a lioness.. The lioness quickly caught the wildebeest and a protracted struggle began. We watched as the two struggled. The lioness grabbed the wildebeest by the throat and took it to the ground, with it kicking and fighting to get away the whole time. Then she gripped the wildebeest's throat harder and applied pressure. The wildebeest kicked its legs up and down. The lioness kept her grip. After a few minutes the kicking stopped and the lioness dragged the carcass into the bushes. She was winded from the struggle and sat their panting for a good while before giving off a roar. With her kill hidden, she left the area to inform her pride. All while this was happening, behind us some of the wildebeest were starting to move. First a few, led by a zebra, and then more and, like before, suddenly all of them were racing to the river. As before, our vehicle hurried back to the river bank to watch this second crossing. As you can see, the bank on the other side of the river is not as steep as the last crossing. All made it across. After this second pass, we headed back to camp. The joy and tragedy we found on the way back is the subject of next week's entry. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Airing out her wings on a termite mound overlooking the vast grasslands of the Maasai Mara, this vulture repeats a process her distant ancestors practiced in this same spot. As we watched this afternoon, she walked and bounced back and forth across the mound surveying the plains while she aired out her wings. Modern paleontologists have firmly established a direct link between modern birds and ancient dinosaurs. They are part of the family. Some can draw a direct link to flying dinosaurs of the Cretaceous Period that ended some 65.5 million years ago. Others follow from dinosaurs who took flight only after the end of the Cretaceous Period. If you finished school more than ten years ago, forget what you learned about dinosaurs. Modern scientists using tools undreamed of decades ago are unlocking secrets about dinosaurs at a rapid rate. The unique breathing system of birds that enables them to extract oxygen as they inhale and exhale was developed by their dinosaur ancestors. How did grazing dinosaurs reach sizes unheard of today? You guessed it. Part of what enabled such grand sizes was the dinosaur's more efficient breathing system still used today by birds. But birds do not look like dinosaurs. Think again. Many dinosaurs, scholars now know, sported feathers of one sort or another. Even the giant T-Rex with teeth the size of railroad spikes had primitive feathers. And if you think there are no worthy avian heirs to the ferocity of T-Rex think again. The common ostrich, shown above, has leg muscles and claws powerful enough to dispatch a lion. But all dinosaurs were not T-Rex. For hundreds of millions of years, dinosaurs ruled the planet not by being fierce but by being adaptive and filling every available niche in the environment. Which is why Kenya is the perfect place to connect with our modern dinosaurs. In Kenya, birds fill nearly every available niche including more than 1,100 different species. That is more species of bird in one country than in all of North America. If you want to see dinosaurs, then this is the place to be. Everything from vultures to ostrich to spoonbill are here. So too are lilac breasted rollers, kori bustards, kingfishers, pelicans, secretary birds, eagles, hawks, Egyptian geese, and many more. Here are just a few who crossed our path on Safari. Some will look familiar. Others will not. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. As the sun sets on the African plain, safari protocol calls for a sundowner where drinks and snacks are served on picnic tables set up next to the vehicle. On a couple of occasions on our trip, this tradition was interrupted by more interesting activities. Once we followed four male lions as they headed to a nearby watering hole (Safari 7: Pooh on You). Another time a pride of lions appeared on a nearby hill (Safari 12: Sundowner Surprise) causing us to get in the vehicle and head over to watch. But usually we stuck with tradition, loading up the vehicle and heading back to camp as total darkness approached. Typically, its a straight trip back as the dark overtakes us but, even then, something interesting could happen, as when we stumbled on a leopard hunting nearby the road in the bushy terrain near Rhino Camp (Safari 13: Stalag Panzee). Once back in camp there is usually time for a quick shower before a late dinner. In some camps, guests would gather around a fire pit before dinner to relax and exchange stories. The fire pit below was in the woods at Nairobi National Park Camp. At Rhino Camp, a waterhole sits 50 yards away across a small stream with a deep embankment. One evening there, we heard sounds coming from the waterhole and were greeted with this view when one of our Maasai hosts brought out a search light. Their quick unveiling by the light and relatively close proximity gave new meaning to the concept of an intimate safari experience. There was no sense of imminent danger. Only one of awe. I was not a big fan of our two night drives. Yes, I was interested in seeing what was out an about at night. But the bright intrusive lights needed to view the animals and the sense I had that we were somewhere we should not be left me with an odd feeling. Nonetheless, the few images I took during these drives do help to illustrate how active the animals were while we were sleeping. And, how active they were while we were being escorted to our tents after dinner. I was never particularly concerned about safety during the trip except, perhaps, for a moment during one escorted tent walk at Lion Camp. The setting there placed the tents in a line facing out onto an open plain of tall grasses. The night before had been particularly noisy with what sounded like two prides of lions exchanging roars and barks late into the night. First, you would hear them off to the left. And then, a few minutes later, the roars would come from the right. That same night we were woken by the sound of heavy breathing and chomping behind the tent, likely a hippo from the stream behind the camp. As related earlier (Safari 3: Tented Camps and Conservancies), the nights were full of sound. Everything from the indescribable wails of hyena to the snorts of cape buffalo and hippo to the barks and roars of lions reminded you each night where you were. But the back and forth of the lion prides was something special to hear. It also emphasized just how open our camp was and why you are always escorted at night by a Maasia warrior carrying a flashlight and a long pole. On this one night that security and safety entered my mind, we were being escorted along a pathway to our room and talking about just how open the area was and just how long the grasses were. Certainly tall enough to hide a lion. And then we noticed. Our escort was scanning the grasses with his flashlight between shining it ahead on our path. A reasonable thing to do, for sure, but not particularly comforting when all he carried was a long pole. We had headed back to the tent later that night than usual, having stayed in the dining tent after dinner to socialize and then, with a break in the cloud cover that did not last long enough, to try and photograph the night sky. The equatorial sky shows more of the Milky Way than the Northern Hemisphere and even though we were near full moon it was worth trying to take a picture. Those of you who have followed this blog for sometime will know that night photography is hobby, particularly photographing the night sky from remote locations (See It's Not That Far From Here 4/26/2018, The Color of Black and White 4/19/2018 and More About Dark Skies 8/29/2016). Our attempt that night failed. The clouds rolled in before we could take the shot. Still, it makes for a nice representation of night in the Lion Camp. What you see in addition to a cloudy sky with a few clear patches revealing a bit of the heavens, is a small gathering tent and some of the fence that surrounds the staff and kitchen areas. The dining tent is off picture to the left. - - - - -
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Sometimes these entries come easily, like when we follow a large pride of lions hunting a herd of zebra (Safari 1: The Hunt) or a smaller group of lions being rebuffed by an elephant matriarch (Safari 7: Pooh on You). The action drives you through a narrative and the accompanying images. But other times it is a challenge. The vastness and complexity of your surroundings overwhelms your ability to communicate through words and pictures. The vitality and diversity of what you experience is so far removed from your day-to-day reality that it is difficult to describe. In a way, it feels like being immersed in a great symphony and then trying to use words to describe its beauty and grandeur. For a safari, a passing moment will sometimes capture a bit some of the magic of the surroundings. Here, our passing vehicle caused a waterbuck to move across the Amboseli plain in front of a family of elephants. In one image we capture the vast plains, deep grass following a good raining season, the movement of the waterbuck and the nearby elephants making their way across the savanna. Other times a herd of animals captures your eye and a detail in the herd tells you something special is happening. Here it is a herd of topi with something amiss. On this morning, we were headed to see a male lion with a kill that had been spotted by another guide. As we passed this small herd, I noticed two of the topi were acting differently. Can you see them in the image above? Look near the middle and to the right. Two males are interacting with each other aggressively. One is jumping. The other is head down facing off his rival. It was a challenge for dominance. When I pointed this out, our driver stopped the vehicle and we watched. The two males chased and confronted one another repeatedly. The females paid little attention. They had seen it all before. But, for us, it was new, so we lingered even though there was a waiting lion nearby. The contest alternated between chases and square-offs like this one for quite some time until one of the males backed off. We then moved on. Within minutes we watching this gorged male and its kill. We caught up with the old fellow in a clump of bushes just as he was finishing his meal. After casually noting our presence, he picked up the remains of his prey and walked into the bush to store it in a less visible location. The he settled down and dozed off. His belly was full (as you can see below) and he was totally unconcerned about us. We headed back to camp. We had witnessed a small movement from the safari symphony on this drive. And while it was always fun to see a lion, the dance of the blue-jeaned topi reminded me of the many non-predators we had witnessed on our drives. If the big cats and their antics were the melody to the symphony then these non-predators were the background music that gave the symphony color and complexity. This bit of the background is an interlude that suggests wariness. The two zebra are not cuddling. The are watching the horizon cooperatively, each taking half and protecting the heard. These ungulates and the open plain are the movements that express the vastness of what you are experiencing. Dancing vultures bouncing across an old termite mound as they air out their wings provide a light interlude. While the gazelles and their young bring an alert sense of calm and order to the day. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. In Kenya, the cats all have names. It is a sign of respect and perhaps a reflection of their relative rarity when compared to other species. Elephants have names as well. They too are highly respected. This cheetah is Amani, a mother to three cubs we became acquainted with while visiting the Lion Camp. Here we see her in the late afternoon of our second day at camp. Her cubs are out of sight in this picture but near. She is scanning the grasslands of the Maasai Mara plain. We were in our vehicle when our driver saw three young cheetah playing in the grass on a hill. Mom was nowhere near but soon spotted down a hill and across a stream near a couple of safari vehicles. We made our way towards mom and waited. Just after we arrived, mom turned toward her cubs who were at least 100 yards away and across a small stream. She then chirped a few times, not loudly but distinctly, and her cubs came running, jumping the stream and joining their mom. The reunion was joyful but brief. Soon, the four started making their way onto the plain ever watchful for a potential kill. As they prowled, Amani would stop and mount a high object to get a better view. Sometimes it was a dead tree. Other times it was an abandoned termite mound. Sometimes one or more of the cubs would join her and mimic her actions. Four eyes are better than two. Other times, the playful cubs would commandeer the high ground, leaving Amani to search from ground level. By this time, Amani and her brood had attracted a few safari vehicles, ours included, who moved with her as she moved. She did not seem concerned. After more than a half hour of following her movements, Amani settled down on a large termite hill to rest while keeping any eye on the plain. We moved our vehicle to a spot with a clear view of the activities. Her cubs joined her and kept watch for awhile. Our driver had done a great job positioning the vehicle to give us such a great view. Notice the mantles on the cubs backs. This extra fur stays with the cubs for a year. Speculation is that the mantle makes them harder to see in the grass. Then the play began. As young cubs, they had been playing much of the time while Amani scoured the plains for something to chase. But they would quickly break off their play when mom moved. Now that mom had settled in, however, the play broke out in full. Eventually, Amani moved again and we broke off to head back to the camp. We did not see her chase or kill that day but no one felt cheated. Watching Amani move and interact with her cubs was exciting enough. More about the cubs in a later posting. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Imagine your foot was redesigned to add inches of thick padding under your heel bone that enabled you to walk silently whenever you wanted. Kind of like a super power. You and your similarly equipped friends could go about your way without making a sound. Then add to that the ability to communicate at very low frequencies without opening your mouth. Say that these sounds could travel for miles and be heard by others like you. Like a whale, your messages could cover vast distances at the speed of sound. What if your senses were so well developed that you could smell water more than a mile away and sense thunder at great distances from vibrations in the soil? And what if those senses were in an appendage that contained tens of thousands of muscles and not a single bone. An appendage with the strength to lift 700 pounds and so flexible that it was capable of lifting a single blade of grass? You would be remarkable. You would be part a “memory” (or herd) of bright, caring, communicative and powerful individuals. You would be a perfect tree eating machine. A gardener, of sorts, for the African wild. Our travels through Africa showed us much of the handiwork of these gardeners. Mostly, swaths of small trees and bushes pushed over, pulled up and partially eaten. Then one afternoon we got to watch the process with a small memory of elephants on the Maasai Mara savanna. In the image above you can see the youngest one is still nursing and not participating in the green feast. The rest are consuming a tree they have just pushed over. Then, just above, a younger one is chewing on a branch. And then below, pushing on the partially decimated tree to get at a chosen morsel. The trunk, obviously, is essential to eating a tree and to much of everything else the elephant does. It is used to gather water, express affection and to give a young one a needed nudge. But consider what a challenge it must be to learn to use a trunk. Elephant babies are born with a short recessed trunk that grows to full extension in just a few days. With thousands of muscles and no bone, it cannot be easy to learn to control this all important appendage. The images below show just three skills necessary to live with a trunk. First, you have to learn to avoid stepping on it. Then, to lift it and hold something. Learning to twist it is essential to many tasks like grasping a twig.. But, in the early learning stages sometimes a full body twist to get the trunk just right. Success, however, can be it's own reward as this youngster brings a twig to its mouth. But sometimes, the stress of learning to use a trunk becomes too much. And, just when you need it most, your sibling can help you give it a rest. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. This week our posting is rated Feline X as we recount our first stop on an afternoon drive out of Lion Camp. After lunch and time to reconnect with friends from earlier camps, we headed out in an open Land Cruiser for our afternoon drive with a couple from California and a mother and daughter from Canada. Our driver took us directly to a spot where several lions, and a few safari vehicles, were stationed. The lions, one male and a few females, were near a zebra kill that the male claimed exclusive rights too. He was not eating when we arrived but he was fully engaged with keeping the females away from the kill. He might have been successful if he had been more single minded or if the females did not have their ways. Above, you can see him keeping a female away from the kill. She stayed at a respectful distance so long as he remained near. Not far away two females were completely ignoring him. Once he made his point to the encroaching female and she backed off, he ambled away past these two females to a nearby tree where three females were lounging in the shade. He had not forgotten the kill. He stopped to turn around and roar in the direction of the kill before he engaged with these three females. It was enough to keep the female who lingered near the kill away from her anticipated meal. But then it was time to procreate. The male chose a female and started nuzzling her and then mounted her. Another roar from him and one for her when they was done. Then, slowly and panting, he ambled back to his kill. No one else approached the zebra carcass. After standing next to the kill for a few minutes, he returned to the tree where the females were lounging and mounted another female. Again, when he was done both he and the female let out a roar and he left panting. This sequence repeated itself a few times until the tired male sat with the females and watched the original encroaching female lunch on the kill. The picture below shows the moment when feminine wiles trumped male's effort to monopolize the kill. The female now had the carcass to herself and chomped away at what remained of the zebra. Before long, though, she had company of another sort. A second female who approached but did not challenge for the zebra. Instead, she sat close by to wait for a turn. We drove on soon after this. We were less than an hour into our afternoon drive and had already seen a lot. Would we see anything as interesting during the rest of the day's drive? The answer turned out to be yes. Before the end of the day, we would learn how to eat a tree and witness a mother Cheetah and her three cubs as they searched for prey on the plain. More about that later. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. There was no game drive on our last morning at Rhino Camp. Instead, we and two other guests were headed to Lion Camp in the Maasai Mara by way of Land Cruiser and small plane. The rains had made the nearby grass airstrip unusable, so we had a 90-minute drive ahead of us to reach our plane’s new departure destination in Nanyuki. By 8:00 a.m. we were off in a fully loaded safari vehicle with our driver, spotter, camp director and one other. The morning air was crisp as we headed off. We quickly passed the airstrip we landed on just days earlier and continued driving on dirt roads for a full 40 minutes until we reached the gates of the conservancy. From there, we continued on a wider dirt road that eventually became paved. We began to see people on the roadside and the occasional one-story building. Most people were walking but as we drove on we saw some cars and motorcycles and goats. Most of the children were in school uniforms and most buildings had hand painted signs. As we got close to the city, the streets and buildings got more elaborate. Billboards appeared next to a four lane road we turned onto. One described a local bank as “the bank for interesting people.” We turned off the four-lane road before reaching Nanyuki to make our way to the airport. After finding a closed gate where we hoped to enter the airport, we doubled back for route two. This route took us through a gated animal club with a tree lined road that led to another gate through the club’s animal orphanage where we saw young cape buffalo, hippo, ostrich and other animals. When we reached the back gate of the club, we found ourselves on a dirt path that paralleled a black asphalt runway. Soon we were waiting on the tarmac near the plane. We said our goodbyes to our hosts and exchanged stories. While we were waiting for passengers from another outfitter, our driver made his way into the cockpit to check out the plane. Had he flown before? When we asked, he straightened his body and jumped straight in the air like the Maasai warrior he was. “Only like this,” he said. Of course the jump looked different on the tarmac with our driver in a leather jacket and jeans standing in front of an airplane. The traditional Maassai culture that is rooted in village life and dependence on cattle is still very much alive in Kenya. The Maasai we met in the camps and as we traveled are caught between two worlds and many are working thoughtfully to adjust. Never was this more apparent than when a Canadian guest posed a simple question to the driver and spotter who picked us up from the airplane in the Maasai Mara to take us to the Lion Camp. "How many wives would you like to have?" She asked. Our driver and spotter both appeared to be in their late 20s or early 30s and both were dressed, as the gentlemen in the image above, in the traditional colorful attire of the Maasai. Each was married with one wife. Our spotter answered first. "If I work hard and can afford more, I would like to have three or four wives," he said. "They will tend my cattle and increase my wealth." Or driver agreed. He would like to have three wives. The number of children and wives you have define your prosperity in traditional Maasai society. But not all the Maasai we met agreed. Our driver on later game drives in the Maasai Mara was a prosperous man. He had taken the earnings from his guiding and invested in property. In addition to the cattle and livestock he owned, he also owned apartments that he rented out to others. "The world is changing," he said. "One wife is enough for me." Our flight from Rhino Camp to Lion Camp was a twelve-passenger single prop plane that made two stops as we flew across the Great Rift Valley. Each time we dropped off or picked up passengers. In less than 90 minutes we touched down on a large grassy field in the Maasai Mara region of south Kenya. There we met our hosts and boarded a Land Cruiser for the ride to Lion Camp. What would we see during our next four days? As the short ride into camp demonstrated, it would be plenty. We would not be in the vehicle long before we reached camp, less than 20 minutes, but before we were far from the landing strip we came upon two sets of elephants feeding their young along a meandering stream. One mother was alone with her calf. The other had company. If you look closely at either picture, you can see that the mother is still nursing. Shortly after this welcome we continued on and followed the road past a watering hole. There, equally disinterested in our progress, were the three cheetah shown above and below. We arrived in camp in time for lunch and then settled into our tent. As with every other camp, our hosts were gracious and attentive. And, like the other camps, the management and staff were all Maasai. This camp was set up beside a river that was home to a family of hippos. The guest tents were arranged to face out upon a vast plain of grass into the conservancy. Lions and elephants and other game would fill the nights with sound. We were at Lion Camp. The afternoon game drive would start at 4 o'clock. Postscript: I thought about including the names from Bill Watterson's great comic strip Calvin and Hobbes in the title because the young cheetah's pose above so reminded me of Hobbes in the comic strip. Maybe all cats sleep this way but the similarities came to mind immediately when we saw the cheetahs lounging outside Lion Camp. But since Hobbes is imaginary and a stuffed Tiger, I decided the allusion to Hobbes would be lost on most. _____
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. Reports of an extended drought in Kenya made me hesitant about scheduling our trip. You have to do it well in advance, almost 12 months, and at the time we made reservations parts of Kenya had been in drought for years. I could never tell, however, whether the areas we would be traveling to had suffered from the drought. I was not familiar enough with our destinations to match them to the online drought reports I was seeing. In the end, I deferred to the advice of our outfitter. Our leap of faith was rewarded with a wet spring and summer in Kenya and an abundance of game when we arrived. All during our trip, we were reminded of this rain by the tall grasses and the large number of young and pregnant animals. Among the zebra, it seemed like every third animal was heavy with child or being followed by one. We, of course, were traveling during the dry Fall season. Years of hearing about steaming jungles and hot equatorial regions had me anticipating heat and lots of it. As it turned out, preconceptions were wrong. The climate was much more temperate than I expected. We were not in sweltering jungles but, instead, cooler at high altitude in grasslands. Our equatorial African weather was what you would expect if you moved the wildlife to Denver for the summer. Cool mornings and evenings with moderate temperatures in the afternoon. I had been told this by a friend before we left but, still, it was a surprise. Our experience with clear skies, however, changed abruptly on our second day at Rhino Camp. Clouds gathered during our morning game drive and then, just before our scheduled afternoon drive, the skies dropped buckets of rain throughout the savanna. For the next few days, here and at the Lion Camp, rains would come each evening raising creek levels and making the roads wet and slick with mud. To our Maasai drivers and spotters this presented no problems. Drives went on as usual even when the roads got messy. On our last day at Rhino Camp, the rain and a heavy wind hit just as we were starting our afternoon drive. We all loaded ourselves quickly into the vehicle and began rolling down the canvas side protectors with their vinyl 'glass' windows. Our guides worked frantically to secure these panels from the outside until the passenger compartment was mostly dry. Our driver started the engine and began driving up the slick road. Wet cross winds whipped at the vehicle as we made slow progress. Visibility was low and our now spotter was struggling with front side panel. The rains were drenching the front compartment. No complaint from the spotter but the other guests and we elected to suspend the drive and return to camp. It was a good decision. Even though the skies cleared about 20 minutes later (which meant our sister vehicle was having a successful drive), we were treated to a cool afternoon around a campfire overlooking a busy waterhole. While we sat and exchanged stories, a small herd of grant's gazelles came and took their refreshment. And awhile later, a dozen or so baboons arrived and ran off the gazelles to have the space to themselves. Then a troop of vervet monkeys started moving between trees next to the waterhole. The one below was returning to a high spot to keep an eye on the baboons. When it got dark, we could not see what was happening across the stream that separated us from the waterhole. With an overcast sky far removed from city lights, it was very dark except for the flames from the fire and muted lights in the nearby dining tent. Just because we could not see the waterhole did not mean it was abandoned. Notwithstanding our conversation, we could hear movement and the occasional grunt across the stream. When a staff member arrived with a strong flashlight we were treated to this sight across the stream. Not bad for an afternoon off. Those in the other vehicle who continued in the rain returned with stories of great sightings but none of us felt deprived. The conversation around the fire and the chance to see rhino from ground level just across the stream made it another great evening. The next morning we would be up early to catch a bush plane to Porini Lion camp in the Maasai Mara region. The rains that had not interfered with our game viewing had washed out the grass runway next to the camp so our journey the next morning would take us by safari vehicle through the conservancy, across rural Kenya, through a wildlife club and to a private airstrip in Nanyuki. More about that next week. _ _ _ _ _
All photos and text are copyright Clinton Richardson. The images are from the author's Safari Collection at Trekpic.com. If you like these posts, please tell your friends about the Venture Moola blog at Readjanus.com. Want to plan your own safari? If so, feel free to check out the outfitter we used at Porini.com. And, feel free to share this blog. The more readers the better. Click here if you would like to get a weekly email that notifies you when we release new entries. Or, click in the side column to follow us on Facebook or Twitter. |
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