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A Game Park With A Difference
by Harish Kohli
http://www.awimaway.com
The vast plains of Tanzania are home to some of the world's
most dangerous and most beautiful beasts and they left
Harish Kohli enraptured.
Africa is a land that inspires the senses. The eyes become
sharper, ears more alert and noses begin to differentiate
various aromas. Driving across huge landscapes in search of
the elusive leopard or cheetah, you become the hunter, the
pursuer, using all your senses to pick up even the tiniest
of clues. How often do we look intently at our
surroundings, listen in silence or sniff the air?
Truthfully, most of us would agree it's probably never. On
a wildlife safari, though, it becomes instinctive, and the
rewards are enormous.
Taking a safari in the Serengeti National Park in Northern
Tanzania makes all the senses to play, and sing. Alertness
and patience pay in large dividends and it's fairly easy to
spot a lioness near a pond waiting to lay an ambush on a
wildebeest that had strayed from the herd or watch a jackal
at one end and a hyena approach from the other end to have
a mouthful of the prey. And then the game of predator-prey
heightens when the wildebeest, having sensed danger, raises
his head and desperately searches for an escape route.
There never are very many.
I witnessed a similar game. Where the lioness spotted its
prey and suddenly plunged forward with a spurt but the
wildebeest got a head start and lioness slowed down
panting. Such dramas are repeated every day amid these vast
expanses of land in Northern Tanzania. Our party was aboard
two Land-Rovers, each of us as taut as guitar wire,
straining to see and realise nature in the raw.
Wildebeests, Zebras, Giraffes, Impalas and Baboons were
easy to come by, but spotting the 'King of the Jungle ~ The
Lion', Leopard or Cheetah was much harder.
Our Land-Rover driver exchanged notes with other drivers
and soon the word passed around that there was a leopard
close by. Every few minutes someone would exclaim, 'Shhh,
there's a leopard', and point in the direction that turned
out to be a boulder or a shrub in the grass. We were like
excited school children but that is what most of my group
was anyways; I was accompanied on this safari by a group of
8 school girls and their teacher from London.
We missed the leopard, but saw a pride of about 8 Lions.
And only by seeing them in real can one understand why it
is called a 'Pride'. The family is united by a very
dominant lion who receives respect and affection from the
clan's members. Suddenly, the heat began to rise and it
became obvious that we were in for heavy rains. As we made
our way back to our camp site a storm gathered pace,
sending great sheets of water cascading onto the plains and
scattering lightning like neon across a dark, boiling sky.
By dawn the following morning the rain had gone. We made an
early start and saw a lioness ambling away from a kill. She
and her pride had just had breakfast of a wildebeest and
were graciously leaving the carcass for the hungry jackals.
A vulture descended untidily to join the table. Much bloody-
muzzled squabbling ensued, until a lone hyena approached.
Hyenas are beefy, and would normally drive off a pack of
jackals, but this one was different. He was limping.
Warily, the injured hyena circled the jackals and the
vulture, holding his tender right paw in the air. They
sensed his unease and began to circle him. Suddenly, he
seized his chance and dashed at the pile of flesh and bone,
grabbing at what he could. Pathetically, almost comically,
he emerged with the beast's tail and dragged it away to
gnaw at a safe distance.
After watching the jackals, we were driven further into the
bush to be met by more surrealism; a party of chefs and
waiters from Kirawira waiting to serve us a breakfast of
eggs, bacon and champagne under the shade of a wide spanned
acacia tree. Returning to camp an hour later, we passed the
scene of the kill and saw the carcass-eating pack of
hyenas. Only the wildebeest's spinal cord and horns were
left. The jackals had devoured the meat and hyenas had
cleaned the bones.
David, our driver explained why, of all animals in the
bush, he admired the hyenas the most. 'He is a natural
cleaner,' he said. 'When every other animal has finished
eating its prey, along comes the hyena and eats everything
that is left - flesh, hide, bones.
A few days later, we were coasting along in the Land-Rover,
on a game drive near the banks of the beautiful Lake
Manyara, about 100 kilometres west of Arusha. This is a
beautiful park with loads of animals. Standing against the
setting sun, were several majestic giraffes, chewing slowly
and looking at us impassively through long, glamorously
curled eyelashes. Soon, a large herd of zebra came nosing
out of the scrub, and then water bucks, impalas, dick-dick
and briefly - too briefly - an elephant with her young.
A 65km drive from Lake Manyara found us on the lip of this
massive caldera, 8,288 sq kms. of plain, ringed by high
mountains - an Africa in microcosm. Plains, swamps and
forest are home to the major species found across
equatorial Africa, and from high above the valley floor I
saw my first leopard. Flamingos turned a small lake the
colour of cheap lipstick, while baboons and giraffes roamed
freely nearby.
Sitting in the shade in the hot blazing sun, David
explained the many qualities of thorny acacia bush. The
roots, bark, the leaves and fruit are used by the Masai
people to cure all manner of ailments. "One even has Viagra-
like qualities in its leaves, which are pounded and made
into tea", he said pouring black coffee from a steal
thermos, promising he would make me taste it on my return
to Arusha. I had seen the animals and the Africa I had come
to see; and the Viagra tea was definitely a bonus!
Harish Kohli is a mountaineer, winner of the lifetime
achievement Award for http://www.awimaway.com
National Adventure and a travel author.
His book "Across the Frozen Himalayas"
is based on a real life incident of having survived
-48 Degrees Celsius temperatures on the summit of
the Karakoram Pass for over 26 hours.
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