July 2008
Prologue
Mid-day Tuesday, July 22, I left Miami for JFK. Departure from JFK to Heathrow was scheduled at 6:35 p.m. We lined up about 25th place on the tarmac. But then weather shut it all down for maybe an hour or so. When operations resumed, Air Traffic had to begin by landing and placing planes who'd been circling. This took roughly another hour. Eventually we started moving. Then another plane had severe mechanical problems and thus shut down one of the longer runways.
Finally we got wheels up from JFK three hours late. Good thing I'd bought a DC inverter and I reserved a seat with the power outlet, so I was iBook-happy the whole time. The layover in Heathrow, now down to two hours, gave enough stretch time to prepare for the eight-hour flight to Nairobi. Our flight plan took us directly over the Sahara. I took this picture probably somewhere over Chad (no sign of Jeremy).
If you look very, very carefully
about
halfway down near the left,
you'll see a Starbucks.
Itinerary:
Thursday, July
24: Nairobi.
Friday morning: fly to Amboseli (below left), two
daytime game drives, overnight there.
Saturday morning: fly to Masai Mara (below right),
one afternoon game drive, one on Sunday morning.
Sunday afternoon: back to Nairobi.
Monday: flight to Eldoret village for workshops on
Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, returning to Nairobi Saturday evening.
Sunday, August 3: 11:20 p.m. to London,
connecting to Miami, arriving Monday 2:30 pm.
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SAFARI
PAGE LINKS
* contains "eeeuuuwww" Circle-of-Life shots
Cheetah
detail from this shot, below
See the cub?
Elephant
Notice the little paparazzi directly beneath.
Family portrait by Olan Mills Studio
Scenic Break 1
Weather permitting, Amboseli National Park offers a view of Mount Kilimanjaro across the Tanzania border. Weather did not let me get a peek at it all Friday. Given only one night at Amboseli, I got up at 5:45 a.m. Saturday in hopes of beating the clouds. This is the best shot I could get.
See the tiny snow patch on top? Best estimates
predict
the complete and likely irreversible loss of that snow by about 2020.
Think about what the loss of water will do to this region.
If you have any intentions of ever doing this, do it now.
Fowl
Mmmm-hmmm, breakfast at the Country Buffet.
Let's pull back to show the rest of the crowd waiting in line.
detail from below
Gazelles and Impalas
I, like many people, mistook the Thompson Gazelle for
the Impala.
Or maybe it was the other way around.
Anyhow, our driver explained it simply:
the Thompson (above) has the distinctive black stripe,
whereas the Impala (below) is made by Chevrolet.
detail from this shot, lower right:
Giraffe
detail
Scenic Break 2
If you must have the color version, just mouseover this B&W.
Lion
"Hey, lion, what's eatin' ya?"
"Nothin.' He's the top of the food chain!"
A child should learn proper eating habits
Notice the wildebeest and gazelles in
the background, doing their best to imitate trees and rocks,
as this young male ponders, "Hmmm, whadda I want for dinner... "
"Maybe a wildebeest — nah, they're so gamey."
"Or a nice little gazelle — oh,
uh, wait, or is it an impala?
Eh, either way, hardly worth the energy.
Zebra — yeah, them's tasty eats. But we've had zebra three nights this
week already."
"Ahh, whadda I care, it's the missus who's gotta do the shopping
anyhow.
All I have to do is eat, drink, do a little dance, make a little love,
growl every so often to scare the bejeezus out of these morons around me.
Heh heh heh.
"Ahhh, it's good to be the king."
"HONEY! Hey, ELSA BABY! BRING YOUR MANELY BO-HUNKUS some DINNAH!
Or maybe just a Budweiser . . . "
Whatever some recent dinner included,
the missus dragged the entree over here.
For this and many other similar reasons
I did not take any evening strolls
outside the Lodge's electrified-fence area.
Menagerie
Hyena
FLASHBACK to 1968!
Cream fans
trivia quiz:
Use
the photo below to finish the name of this song!
"Pressed Rat and _______________."
Extra credit: Name the album.
("Pressed Rat and Warthog," from Wheels of Fire)
"Don't even THINK about stepping
into MY personal space."
And again note the paparazzi.
Jackals
Bush and Cheney
touristicus ubiquitous
Scenic Break 3
Rhino
In honor of National Enquirer photojournalism,
I simply must provide this follow-up shot:
OK, uh, yeah, let's go back to a more appealing scene.
Adrian Belew fans may appreciate this one:
Referring, of course, to Belew's 1982 solo album, The Lone Rhinoceros.
Aaand let's get a little close-up on that lovely face:
Wildebeest
detail from
Once we got our vehicle situated and I took a few shots, suddenly we heard screeching and hhuughghgaaahwwing and splashing. Quadripeds wanting to remain such were getting out of the pool any way they could.
We never saw exactly what triggered the disturbance. But having seen enough similar events on Discovery Channel, we suspect this other member of the circle of life, now lying quietly a few hundred feet down the riverbank. (Hey, just doing his job, folks.)
Those who made it across, now having had a cool and refreshing bath, celebrate this stage of their successful migration by mixin' it up and having a little party time with their op-art frequent neighbors, the zebras.
Almost everybody but Eddie (below).
Eddie preferred his quiet time, alone to himself, brooding.
Ever the more reflective of his species, more often over recent years he'd begun pondering the ritualistic river crossing. Shortly before the pack began this year's migration, he addressed them all:
"Why must we migrate every season? Why must we make this perilous voyage? Are we not more than mere creatures of instinct and habit? Yes, we stand to lose the abundance of food if we stay where we were. But a reasonable amount of rationing could mitigate the distress. Does such inconvenience not seem preferable to the much greater peril of crossing this blood-tainted river twice a year? "I note that this migratory process — perhaps especially the river crossings — evidently appeals mainly to our younger generation, some of whom indeed go into it brashly, without due caution, specifically for the thrill, even bragging rights. We know from recent brain research that such 'thrill-seeking behavior' is to be expected among our youth, as the higher functions of their cortical areas have not yet fully developed, I believe the time has come in our evolution to begin expecting more civilized conduct. We can advance our standing in the world. "I appeal to you, in the name
of reason, let us become more than mere brute beests. |
Eddie didn't win them over. No one would go on record for this interview, but many whisper that some of the old-guard wildebeest "accidentally" dropped a map very close to lion turf, showing Eddie's previously secret sleeping spot.
And a couple of nights later — well — circle of life, you know the drill.
Finally, of course, we couldn't have a complete safari alphabet without
Z is for Zebra
In case you ever go on safari:
I do not recommend accepting any bet related to finding out
what "just a tiny, tiny bit" of fresh zebra sushi tastes
like.
(No. Of course I didn't.)
Four out of five zebras are conformists
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