Last Day in Africa

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The Wildebeest Crossing was one of the highlights of our trip. We had seen the big five. We had seen many species of antelope. We had seen enormous crocodiles feeding and lounging. We had seen all types of birds, all of them interesting and some of them breathtakingly beautiful. We had fished for and caught Nile Perch. We had ballooned across the Savannah and flown in a bush plane. What was left? For me, more of the same would have been just fine but for the rest of my family, it was time to head home. And, not just coincidentally, we would be starting our journey home the next morning. We were booked t to leave Mara Intrepids at 11 AM on the regularly scheduled Safari Air flight to Nairobi, having the afternoon and evening free before leaving at 8:15 the following morning to Amsterdam and then home. I suggested one more game drive, leaving at 6:15 and my crew, good sports that they were, agreed. We hadn’t yet see a kill.

We headed back to where the Wildebeest had crossed, wanting to observe the aftermath. How did the herd hold up? Were the lions feasting? Hyenas? Jackals? It could be interesting. As we approached the area we saw a car up on a hill very close to where we parked the night before to watch the activity. Near the parked car was a cheetah with her cub and their freshly killed Thompson’s Gazelle. The gazelle was a baby and while we didn’t see the kill, it must have happened just a few minutes before we arrived. The cub was eating and the mother watching, though over time they seemed to take turns on the gazelle. Why a baby gazelle when there were adults within reach? Godfrey explained that this is a frequent occurrence. Cheetah mothers have a very involved training process for their cubs and this includes the mother capturing, yes capturing, a gazelle baby and bringing it back for the cub to attack and kill. It sounds incredibly cruel and for the gazelle, it is I guess, but think about how sophisticated this is, how evolved this is and how effective it must be as a training strategy? When we walked down the Kenya Air jetway in Nairobi there was a photograph of a baby gazelle being tackled by a cheetah cub.

We watched the cheetahs eat for a while and then went out to find the Wildebeest herd. They had moved miles since the crossing and when we found them they were contentedly munching on grass still damp from the rains the day before. They had followed the rain as does their food. We saw no signs of lions, no carcasses, no disturbances. That’s not to say that it didn’t happen. We just didn’t find it.

Back at Intrepids we packed up, had a great breakfast, checked out and waited not too long at the airport. Our flight was full and uneventful. We landed a little after twelve and headed directly to lunch at The Carnivore, a restaurant that is exactly true to its name. It’s like any Brazilian steakhouse but the meat is all cooked over an open wood fire in the middle of the restaurant. Almost all the patrons were White Tourists. The food was fine. Nothing was too exotic. Greg and I tried ostrich balls. Ewwwwe. No, they weren’t real. They were meatballs made out of ostrich meat. They tasted like dry, tasteless meatballs. There was chicken, turkey, beef and lamb. No pork though. I wonder. There are a lot of Muslims in Nairobi. Doubt it had much to do with the Jews who, by the way, were at the restaurant in copious numbers. In fact, Fran met a woman from Hollywood Florida, a friend of a friend.

Then we went shopping. Godfrey took us to a store that sold carvings, jewelry, etc. Standard tourist stuff. Not surprisingly it was owned by an Indian man. Many of the merchants in Kenya are Indian, the result of the British colonial system that allowed the King’s subjects to travel freely within the colonies. Many Indians came to British East Africa and established the merchant class. While more and more Africans have moved into this, there is still a substantial Indian presence in Kenya and Tanzania. We did our tourist thing then headed to the hotel.

As we checked in we (I) noticed several very attractive African women in the hotel bar, by themselves. What was that all about? Could it be that there was a business meeting of attractive Kenyan women in short dresses and tight fitting tops? The Serena Hotel Nairobi is the best hotel in the city so why shouldn’t they have their meetings there. I suggested that Greg and I go see what they were up to, but Noooooooo, others suggested that we leave them to their important work. Nuff said.

That night we had dinner with Godfrey and his wife. His wife is about fifteen years younger than he (but that doesn’t make him a bad person) and she has a son that’s fifteen years older than her. She was Kikuyu and her family too were Mau Mau, though she was born long after the revolution. She was very shy and was not enthusiastic about much of the food. She didn’t eat vegetables. She didn’t grow up eating them. It was not part of her tribe’s cuisine. Rabbit food she called it. They ate meat and tubers. And they seemed to be well-nourished.

Godfrey told a story about his visit to America. Several years ago he took a trip to the U.S., stopping in various cities and usually being hosted by past clients. His first stop in America was Boston where his client took him to dinner at a restaurant on Boston Harbor. When they brought his dinner, a Boston specialty, he said he almost screamed in fear. What was this huge insect that they put in front of him? This is not something to eat. It’s something to squash before it bit you and the poison spread throughout your body. His friend told him not to be afraid and grabbed the insect by the tail, ripped it off, juice flying everywhere, and then twisted away the carapace and stuffed the white flesh in his mouth. Godfrey had to get up and go to the bathroom. He composed himself but could not bring himself to eat this large American insect.

We said goodbye to Godfrey than night. We all had learned to appreciate how hard he worked to make our trip perfect, how smart and well-educated he is, and how he’s really a genuinely nice person. There’s so much knowledge he wanted to impart and there was so much we learned. If you read this Godfrey, thank you. We do recommend you very highly. It was nice to get to know you a little. If you are ever in Florida, look us up. We’ll take you out for soft shelled crabs! Mmmmm good.

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Comments

[Tom Drum]

There's A lobster loose!
Very good set of articles David. You certainly paint a vivid word picture. This should be offered in hard copy and on Kindle.