Day 1, Safari
Lake Duluti Lodge
3.380167S, 36.78907E
altitude: 4167′
Flame trees in bloom, bananas fruiting, tree hyrax and bushbabies sang us to sleep and the dinosaur silvery-cheeked hornbill buzzed our breakfast as colobus frolicked in the trees. First moment in day time Africa. Breakfast on the terrace with my traveling companion, Steve Farrand.
Steve said the moment he stepped out of the cabin he was reminded of the first time, decades ago, that he first stepped into East Africa. So do I. It’s an earthy, moist atmosphere that throws sounds around as if you were diving. The brusk winds that scatter through most African airports whisk all worries away!
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I’m supposed to be on safari now, filing my “OnSafari” reports back to you. Neither Kathleen or I can remember a March in our past when I wasn’t in Africa writing diaries before blogs, and try as I have with the overwhelming work cleaning up the mess of mass cancellations, I just can’t shake thinking I’m on safari.
Cyclone Kenneth was the strongest hurricane ever to hit Africa and only the fourth on record. It plowed into Mozambique on April 21 with 143 mph winds.
We spent seven days game viewing in one of the most brutal droughts Botswana has ever seen. First-timers thought it was wonderful, because the cats are having a heyday. There was blood everywhere.
When’s the last time that you unpacked your cart as the check-out teller balled you out for buying plastic bags for clogging up the environment?
Friends, it’s been years since I’ve been cut off for a week from the internet, regardless of where in Africa I might have been.
Jim is out of touch with little wifi in the Okavango Delta. The group is having a fantastic time game viewing and he will post again as soon as he can.
Yesterday I saw more endangered big game species in four hours than I usually see in a decade of safaris in Africa. Add to that a manipulated zebra species but frankly, I’m going to have to work on having enjoyed this.
I got a real kick when Sam Epstein, one of our non-veteran travelers, got so excited seeing his first ostrich when we entered West Coast National Park! It’s so much fun to feel fellow travelers’ excitement on this trip, because these folks are so incredibly enthusiastic!
It’s night in Africa. As guide I’m responsible not just for keeping all the parts of a tour going smoothly and interpreting everything we see, but I’m equally responsible for keeping my clients happy, respecting the idiosyncracies of their lives that they have turned over to our 24×7 communal experience.
I asked our guide how rare were some of these flowers? He almost whispered, “There are only 8 plants left on earth of our rarest.”
Extremeley few Americans come to South Africa to do what my nine travelers and I are doing right now in Clanwilliam in the Cedarberg Mountains. Most Americans believe “Africa” means “lion” and little else.
It’s Springtime in The Cape! And I’m on my way to guide a marvelous group of people for a couple weeks of unimaginable splendor and dramatic big game!
Our safari ended in Tarangire, Africa’s greatest elephant park, with an exciting surprise! I’ve been coming to Tarangire regularly multiple times annually for the last two decades. This is the first time I noticed that elephant tusks are getting bigger!
We were among the first at dawn onto the crater floor and were headed up the Mugai River to see the old Boer homestead when right there in the road in front of us was a mating pair of lion!