Blog Post
African Safari, a Wildlife Photographer's Wife's Perspective, Part II
David Williams • August 24, 2024
A Wildlife Photographer's Wife's Experience on Safari in Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda
It is 2 pm at the Salt Lake Airport as we eagerly wait for our flight to Paris before heading to Kenya. This is our third trip to Africa so we have learned a few things. First, noise canceling headphones are really nice. Movies without airplane noise in the background are much better. The next is taking advantage of the hotel’s laundry service. Third, we each packed a smaller and lighter suitcase than before enabling us to meet the size and weight restrictions of domestic flights in Africa. Lastly, the camera gear needs to be in cases with wheels not on our backs. With all this we are ready for a great trip.
It’s 10 pm when we finally arrive in Nairobi. It's been 17 hours of cramped seating, little sleep, and airplane food, but I’ll take it because coming here on a ship or train would have had other challenges. We get to the opened airplane steps and breathe deeply to take in the warm Nairobi air. This is our third trip with our guide Charles, so seeing him again is like seeing an old friend you haven't seen for a year. We exchange hugs and catch up and then it's off to our Hotel where we can’t wait for a bed, shower and another adventure.
We awake the next morning after just a few hours of sleep excited for the sights and sounds of a familiar country. Our first stop is the orphanage. This is not a normal orphanage. Dephney Sheldrick’s Elephant Orphanage is for baby elephants and rhinos and is one of my favorite places in Kenya. Only a rope separates us from these remarkable creatures allowing us to be very close to them. The caretakers bring the elephants into a roped off area where we learn their names and a little about each one. While we listen, the elephants roll in the dirt, climb on each other’s backs, and drink from large bottles of milk. They are close enough to be touched and have their picture taken with people. This year there was a baby rhino, so young he had to be covered with a blanket to help maintain his body heat. When he was being introduced, he followed behind his caretaker as they walked back and forth in front of us. I was amazed at how innocent and trusting this rhinoceros looks at this volatile age compared to how much he will be feared in years to come.
After the orphanage, we head north to Lake Naivasha. Lake Naivasha is Kenya’s leading wetland. It is home to hippos and flamingos but we are there to see Fish Eagles in action. It is a sunny, cool morning, not a cloud in the sky, and we are sitting in a motorized canoe equipped with old fashioned orange life jackets we wore as kids. The guide takes us out a little ways onto the lake, faces us toward the shore and points to the Fish Eagle that is going to fly. Before he throws the fish into the water, he signals to the Fish Eagle there’s food by whistling. He chucks a tilapia 30 feet in front of our boat. Seconds later, we see a Fish Eagle fly out of a tree and fly towards the water. We hear flapping noises made from their 6 foot wingspan. As it gets closer, the large claws are opened and ready for a catch. The eagle hits the water creating a splash, and grabs the fish. It does this without looking down to see where the catch is. The eagle then flies back to the trees. What a spectacle of nature. I was amazed at its ability to catch the fish in flight. I wonder if it takes a lot of practice to nail each fish it catches. I loved the wetlands because of the beauty, the experience seeing the Fish Eagles, the canoe ride, and perfect weather. All of this made for a surprisingly delightful experience. One I would do again.
We are now in Tanzania heading north to see where Tanzanite is mined from. It is a rare, bluish purplish gem that is only mined in one place in the world, Tanzania. This exclusivity makes this stone rare, 1,000 times more rare than diamonds and is slated to become an heirloom piece. It was discovered in 1967 in the Merelani Hills, near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro and the city of Arusha. Close to the mine is a large shop called The Tanzanite Experience. If you know how to negotiate, you can buy tanzanite jewelry at reasonable prices. I had no intention of buying, but started thinking about having this rare gem as an heirloom piece. After a little deliberation, we decided a tennis bracelet would be the piece to have so Dave worked his negotiating magic and got me a great deal.
We left the jewelry shop and drove to our lodging which was through fields of corn then on top of a hill overlooking the farmland we had just passed through. Every place we have stayed in has mosquito netting around the beds. But, in spite of the mosquito netting here, a spider got in and bit me, giving me a bad “Botox job”. I felt my right upper lip swelling at 3:30 am and then my bottom right lip a little later. I thought, Oh great! I knew there was nothing I could do so I just laid there and tried to sleep. It wasn’t painful, it just felt swollen and I knew I would look bad. I just didn’t know how bad. I finally got out of bed and looked in the mirror. I was horrified, it looked worse than I thought. As I examined my face I saw a red dot on my forehead where the spider bit me. Because I was lying on my right side the venom affected that side of my mouth, making it swell. My face reminded me of the distortion mirrors at the amusement park. Unfortunately, the group we were traveling with had to look at me for the whole day, but as the day went on I looked a little better and even had a few comments on my return to normalcy. Luckily, after 24 hours I was back to normal.
The food needs to be acknowledged. On our first trip here, I was worried about what we would be eating, this being a third world country and all. I have since discovered that when you stay at nice lodges, the chefs create great buffet meals including many foods from India. Each dinner came with all you can eat soup, rolls, different kinds of fruit, meat and dessert options. I used to be perplexed at how the chefs can create such a variety when they are so far from a store, then I learned that the tourist industry is huge so they ship food to tourist lodges on large trucks. We saw this as we were driving through a remote part of the Serengeti. Two large trucks covered with tarps passed us on their way to the Serengeti. I asked our driver what the trucks were transporting and he said it was food for tourist camps.
There’s a few ways to get around the countries in Africa; plane, highway and scenic route. We chose the scenic route for our next travel option which is slow but more picturesque than the highway. This route took us over rolling hills sparsely populated by flat topped acacia trees where the Massai tribal people live. We never would have seen these villages and people had we been driving on a highway. After the rolling hills, we found ourselves on the flat lands on simple tire tracks. We had no idea we would soon be driving on just the grasslands with no tracks whatsoever as we made our way across the Serengeti. It was scary not having a hint of a path to drive on. All I could do was trust that the drivers knew where they were going and wouldn’t get us lost. While driving we saw a baby Wildebeest alone jumping around on new legs. It was so young it still had the umbilical cord hanging from its stomach and mom was nowhere in sight. We were hoping he would get back to his mom so he wouldn’t become a snack.
After arriving in this part of the country, my eyes have been opened to hippos. We were crossing a bridge with water streaming on top and the most putrid smell came from it. What was that smell and where was it coming from? We drove around until we got to the hippo area and saw 20 in the water. The source of the stench was confirmed when I saw a hippo standing in the water having just relieved his bowels. To my surprise and disgust he swished it with his tail to clean himself off and resubmerged. Multiply this by 20 hippos and there's no more mystery to the smell.
Our last camp in the Serengeti was mobile, moving every three months. For being mobile it was amazingly sturdy and well put together. When Charles, our tour guide, told us about it we were a little nervous but trusted him that it would be safe. Then he jokingly said we would wash our hair with a bucket of water. But this was just showering from a bucket of warm water set outside our tent and piped in. In the end it was a lot better than anticipated. A man from the camp stood outside our tent with a bucket of warm water. When we wanted water we just needed to pull on a strap hanging from the top of the tent. The other strap was used to turn it off. At first I was nervous knowing there was someone standing just outside my canvas tent waiting for me to shower in a rudimentarily built room. Plus, I had a new on-off mechanism that I had to quickly figure out so the water wouldn’t run constantly. However, as I stood beneath the shower head and looked up to experiment with the straps that controlled the water flow, it made sense and I enjoyed a very warm, but brief, shower. For being a mobile camp, it was a delightful experience.
Our time in Tanzania is over. Next, we fly to Rwanda to see the Mountain Gorillas. A quick overview first. The Mountain Gorillas live in the mountains which border the Republic of The Congo and Rwanda. So to see them we were just over the mountain from a country that could hold 3 states the size of Texas in it. Whereas, Rwanda is only the size of Maryland. In the 80’s the Mountain Gorillas were declared endangered. At that time, only 400 existed, but thanks to government interventions, Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall, the numbers of Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda are increasing and are now over 1,000. Last year we visited the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda where the program is newer. This year we get to see them in Rwanda where the program has existed since 1970, about 50 years. With a life expectancy of 50 years every gorilla in Rwanda has been raised around humans; this makes it safer for us than it would have been when the program began. With an older program, the rangers are more comfortable with us being closer to the Gorillas and let us move around more.
To find them we went on a short hike through empty corn fields until we reached the edge of the forest where the Gorillas were. We had barely hiked into the forest when we saw our 1st Silverback. He was just sitting there looking around eating leaves he had pulled off a branch. He looked so calm and peaceful yet dangerous. We were about 10 feet away from him watching him eat when behind me, I could hear branches breaking and leaves rustling so I turned around and coming right toward me on a narrow dirt path was a mom with the cutest baby gorilla on her back. I stood there mesmerized while watching to see what she would do. She walked right by me and brushed against my leg as though I were a part of the forest. So amazing! She continued walking and I turned around just in time to see the Silverback start heading down the mountain creating a scene. Maybe he was concerned with the attention the mom and baby were getting or maybe he was being protective, I don't know, but as the Silverback headed down the mountain he intentionally bumped into a man in our group. For a moment I thought the man would lose his balance and fall causing a domino effect with all of us, but he didn’t. One thing I realized, there were 7 of us and only one Silverback and in that one second he established complete dominance over the entire group, rangers and all. It was the ultimate display of power. Watching the Silverback move so gracefully through the forest while we scrambled after him trying to keep up was scary and exhilarating and a little comical. We obviously lacked the same prowess he had moving through the jungle. When we got to the bottom of the mountain and to an open corn field, there were more Gorillas including the mom and baby. At one point the baby wanted to come see us but the rangers wouldn’t let it because nobody is allowed in between a mother and her baby. She gets jealous. So to discourage the baby from coming over the rangers made grunting noises. The baby kept trying to approach us but the guides kept grunting. Watching the small bundle of fur, so close to us, go back and forth was adorable and fascinating. I could see why the rangers had to warn us about no contact with the baby because it looked so innocent and cuddly. I wanted to bend down and touch it. It was an unforgettable experience.
