By Michael Nejman © 2000

"Simba!" cried our guide in Swahili our first morning in Amboseli National Park, near Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya. "Lion!"

We had barely finished our breakfast when our guide’s voice shook the still of the early morning. He had spotted two lions, and their kill, off in the distance, perhaps a few hundred yards from our lodge. We rushed to our vehicles and within moments we had stopped on a trail leading to the local watering hole. As predicted by our guide, the two lions, one with blood-stained fur, walked within three feet of our vehicle en route to a nearby stream. No need to insert a few more coins, this was not a virtual reality experience, it was the real thing.

My 17-day African adventure to Kenya and Tanzania was like one long Disney ride. The sights and experiences were so rich and exciting, I couldn’t help but wonder if there were helpful park employees around every corner prompting animals to hit their mark and perform for us tourists. We saw lions walking near the road, a leopard in a tree with a kill, elephants at a watering hole, and hippos yawning in the afternoon sun. After a lifetime of viewing wild, exotic animals in the safety of zoos, it takes some getting use to the fact that there is nothing more than a three-inch thick Land Rover door between you and a two-ton elephant or a lion with blood-stained fur, fresh from a kill. But this is the thrill of Africa as my tour group, and I, ventured over miles of rough, dust-filled roads to experience East African wildlife up-close and personal; sometimes, too up-close and personal.

Our tour was arranged by Overseas Adventure Travel, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company with 22 years of experience, and our group was limited to just 13 participants. The ambitious itinerary included five national parks with a variety of housing experiences. We stayed in: cabins in Amboseli; tents in Tarangire; luxurious lodges in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti; an old hunting lodge in Arusha; and for two days we stayed at the charming coffee plantation, Gibb’s Farm. Four of the sites had no fences to keep wild animals away from our accommodations; all of which offered an escort service to your room after dark.

The African countryside was often magnificent to view and the indigenous people and our guides were always cheery and helpful. But Africa is more than views and people, as it’s the animals that attract the tourists. We came armed with cameras, telephoto lenses, and rolls and rolls of film and videotape to capture images of lions, cheetahs, leopards, giraffes, wildebeests, zebras, gazelles, antelope, hippos, rhinos, hyenas, ostriches, and other members of migrating beasts and birds. And, like a 24-hour "Animal Planet" safari special, we were never disappointed.

Of course, some of our wildlife encounters were a tad bit too close for comfort. One afternoon for example, our group stopped under the shade of an umbrella acacia tree, near a kopje (groupings of large volcanic rocks strewn about the plain) in the Serengeti, to enjoy a picnic lunch. The setting was idyllic and I wanted to record the moment for prosperity with my Minolta. To frame the picture properly, I had to hike about 50 yards from the group. After taking the picture, we hopped in our vehicles and sped off to our next destination. We had hardly driven a few feet when someone in our vehicle yelled, "What’s that?!" We all looked up in the nearby rocks to see that a male and female lion sat perched only 200 feet from where I had stood shooting my picture.

On our last morning in the Serengeti, I was up before sunrise packing my duffel bag. I heard some rustling outside my door and assumed it was the porter waiting to retrieve my bag, so he could load our vehicle. "Who is it?" I yelled, padding a few souvenirs with my dirty laundry hoping they would survive the trip home. There was no answer, so I continued my packing. Again, I heard some noise and a very distinct twig snapping. So, I stopped what I was doing to investigate. I opened my door and to my shock, I saw a lone, cape buffalo – a bull – only ten feet from my door! Locals feel these buffalo, especially a loner, are more dangerous than a lion because they tend to be unpredictable and are capable of charging at any moment. He turned his head to see me and I, ever-so-slowly, retreated back to my room and closed the three-inch thick wooden door, which I prayed was reinforced by two-inch thick iron. After a few moments, he left peacefully, and I found no need for caffeine that morning as my bloodstream raced with adrenaline for hours. I later found out from the lodge staff that many animals venture up to it’s pool during the night because of the current two-year drought. The pool has become a favorite after-hours watering hole. Suddenly, having a room next to the pool didn’t seem like such a great perk after all.

Our most exciting game drive came early one evening, when we experienced an elusive "cat trick" by seeing three different types of cats over a two-hour period: a cheetah, a leopard, and a small pride of lions. The most thrilling of the three was the leopard perched in an acacia tree, with a recent kill hanging near it. The lifeless legs of a small gazelle carcass were draped on a branch above the cat. The leopard had most likely hoped for a private dining moment, but unfortunately for her, there was a line of 12 vehicles nearby watching her every move.  The vehicles were all loaded with tourists, armed with cameras, documenting the moment like the paparazzi covering a Hollywood celebrity at a premiere. The poor creature seemed humiliated to me. You could almost hear the herbivores laughing in the background. Only a few hundred yards away, some zebra and Thompson’s gazelles were grazing. With the cat safely "treed," they could finish their dinner in a leisurely manner and then, have a relaxed dessert as well.

Africa is certainly the ideal vacation destination to escape from the demands of everyday life. While on our safari, we went days without using a computer, seeing a newspaper, or even hearing music. Most of the places we stayed had radio-phones, not land-lines, which meant brief three-minute long-distance phone calls costing as much as $48; two sites had access to e-mails ($10 to send a message, $5 to receive one). It was a blissful world, free from cell-phones, e-mails, and cable television. For our evening entertainment, we often had to rely on dramatic sunsets and clear, star-filled skies. The Swahili phrase, "Hakuna Matata," meaning "no worries," summed it up nicely; unless of course, your room was near the pool.

From a cemetery perspective though, pickings were slim.  I only saw one cemetery the entire three weeks.  There was an old Victorian-style cemetery, complete with Celtic crosses, in the heart of Nairobi.  This graveyard was the final resting place for expatriates from the United Kingdom.  I asked my guide about what the locals do regarding death rituals.  He explained that there are so many different tribes and religions in the region, that there is no definitive answer to the question.   His tribe for instance,  buries their dead.  After five years, the body is exhumed and the skull removed.  The body is re-buried, but the skull is then taken to a sacred cave to rest with the family's ancestors.  "That way," he said with a smile, "I can take my son someday to show him his ancestors." 

Africa is all about life and death.  We viewed several animal kills and the aftermath.  Driving across the Serengeti, our tour group saw many skulls, skeletons and carcasses, including the image above which I call, "A Sign of the Times."