the thirsty dentist

Lisa Kadane is a newspaper and magazine writer who likes to travel and partake in the destination’s preferred tipple, whether it’s rum, wine, a margarita or whisky sour. She’s been sharing her thoughts on spirits and cocktails since 2010.

Taste of the tropics

Caribbean cocktails will take you back to island time

Inside a shady rum shack on Brandons Beach in Barbados, patrons line the bar escaping the heat and quenching their thirst with local Deputy beers and icy glasses of rum punch. I take a sip of the national cocktail and enjoy the taste of dark rum, sugar and lime spiced up with Angostura bitters. It’s good. “Can you tell me your rum punch recipe?” I ask the bartender at Rascals. “We can’t say,” she says in a lilting Bajan accent paired with the hint of a smile. “It’s a secret.”

Every rum shack in Barbados makes their own punch, and each also claims that theirs is the best. On a hot, lazy day, you’ll agree they’re probably right. In fact, on any given Caribbean island, a cocktail with good rum and lots of ice will give you the attitude adjustment you’re looking for, as I discover on a recent holiday. In Castries, St. Lucia, a Bounty and Coke tastes like heaven, while in Puerto Rico—the birthplace of the Piña Colada— local Bacardi white is best blended with pineapple juice, coconut cream and ice. On Antigua, self-proclaimed “drink connoisseur” Cassim Greene introduces me to an Antigua Smile, a happy mix of white rum, crème de banana and pineapple juice that conspires to make me grin. Afterwards, the orange, lime green, turquoise and yellow painted homes and buildings that line the narrow roads of St. John’s appear even brighter. The truth about rum, says Greene, is that it helps beat the heat, and acts as a social lubricant when locals go “liming” after work (translation: hanging out at a rum shack and shooting the breeze, basically). It’s no wonder we want to bring back tropical cocktail recipes to get us through the last days of winter. Back at Rascals in Barbados, I manage to get the coveted recipe from the bartender after ordering a couple more drinks. It pretty much follows the classic rum punch rhyme: One of sour (lime), two of sweet (sugar), three of strong (rum), four of weak (water).

“You just kind of play around with it,” she says. I intend to do just that when I trade powdery sand and jade waters for white snow and blue ice back in Canada. Tropical cocktails for a taste of the C ar ibbean in C anada 3 dr inks to transport you 1

1 Antigua Smile 1.5 oz white rum 0.75 oz crème de banana 2 oz pineapple juice Squeeze lime Pinch sugar Garnish: Skewered cherry and pineapple wedge Method: Add all ingredients to a shaker and shake with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass over fresh ice. Garnish. — Recipe courtesy Cassim Greene, Antigua

2 Rum Punch, Barbad os 2 oz Mount Gay Eclipse 1 oz simple syrup 0.5 oz fresh lime juice 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters Pinch nutmeg Garnish: Skewered cherry Method: Add rum, syrup and lime juice into a cocktail shaker with generous ice. Shake until thoroughly chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass over fresh ice, add bitters, nutmeg and garnish. — Recipe courtesy Rascals rum shack, Barbados

3 Piña Colada , Puer to Rico 2 oz Bacardi white 1 oz coconut cream 1 oz heavy cream 6 oz fresh pineapple juice 1/2 cup crushed ice Garnish: Pineapple wedge and cherry Method: Add all ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a cocktail glass, garnish and serve.

— Recipe courtesy Hilton Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico

time for “ liming "

3

For the love of elephants

A sanctuary in Kenya rehabilitates injured and orphaned pachyderms

story by roberta staley | photography by Tallulah

Dawn is breaking, spreading golden light like butter on the green and red-dirt landscape rising on either side of the highway leading out of Nairobi, Kenya. Thanks to our early start, we have eluded the capital city’s notorious traffic snarls, arriving at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on Magadi Road a few hours before the tourists arrive. Pulling into the quiet, empty, packed-dirt parking lot, we encounter a small family of tusked wart hogs. Surprised by our appearance, they trit-trot past, tufted tails held vertical in alarm, eyeing us with suspicion.

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is a non-profit organization that rescues injured and orphaned animals: elephants, rhinos and the occasional giraffe, and rehabilitates them for return to the wild. Founded in 1977 as the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (its name until 2019) by Daphne Sheldrick, David’s widow, the Feeding time brings the babies running below The orphans bond together in a family group opposite page, top Nibbling vegetation in Nairobi National Park opposite page, bottom The young elephants are fed by their keepers

trust was created to honour her husband’s anti-poaching activism and work as a warden in Tsavo National Park, southeast of Nairobi. Although Daphne, an author and conservationist, died in 2018 at age 83, her daughter Angela and other Sheldrick family members continue the legacy. The trust has opened its arms to the world, inviting tourists to visit Sheldrick every day of the year from 11 am to noon, except December 25, to watch the orphan pachyderms cavort in mud or dust baths with their caregivers, who stay with the youngsters, supporting and protecting them, just as a mother elephant would. (The charge is 500 Kenyan shillings, about CDN$9, cash only.)

Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s herd of orphaned elephants range in age from a few months to about three—all rescues from various regions of Kenya. The circumstances of their rescue have usually been dire. The trust’s antipoaching and veterinarian crews, utilizing ground and helicopter and fixed-wing plane surveillance, have freed elephants from snares that have almost severed legs or trunks. While a mature elephant can be treated in situ, an injured infant is unlikely to survive, and will be flown to the Sheldrick facility for long-term medical treatment. One such baby is Enkesha, who was rescued after a snare almost sliced her trunk off. It has healed, although the hole that was left will never close. Enkesha, however, has adapted, learning to grip her trunk muscles tight to close the gap, allowing her to suck water through her trunk.

Some rescued babies have suffered gunshot wounds. Others were orphaned when their mothers were slain by poachers, who hacked off the tusks for sale to the Asian ivory market. Other elephant mothers were killed for bushmeat or by farmers to protect crops, leaving the offspring orphaned. Such human-elephant conflict is exacerbated by climate change, which is linked to prolonged periods of drought so severe that Kenya has seen high mortality rates of both wild and domestic animals in past years. Along with the company of their fellow pachyderms, and crucially the love and 24/7 attention of caregivers, who sleep with their young charges at night in the stables, most of the rescued babies survive the traumas that left them orphaned and will start to be rehabilitated into Tsavo National Park in southeastern Kenya when they are about four. Raising baby elephants isn’t easy; they have complex emotional as well as dietary needs. It took Daphne Sheldrick a decade to perfect a milk formula that, today, is fed to the babies until they become more independent; at the Nairobi nursery they are fed every three hours, imbibing 24 litres a day, says trust spokesperson Kirsty Smith.

Our early arrival, to document the work at the trust, means that we are here for the 9 am feeding, which is heralded by the soft thump of heavy round feet as the babies scurry out of the Nairobi National Park forest where they’ve been nibbling vegetation. Excited rumbles greet a wheel barrel full of freshly prepared 3.5 litre milk bottles. The

elephants, with varying degrees of adeptness, grab a bottle with their trunks, suckling the bottle dry in a few minutes. Some

youngsters need help from their keepers, who hold the bottles up to facilitate suckling. The amount imbibed varies; those who haven’t quite mastered the art of bottle feeding, spill much of their breakfast onto the ground. After the feeding, the keepers accompany their charges back into Nairobi National Park to chew on branches and brush and dig up roots. When the tourists arrive, the babies are brought to the mud and dust baths for easy viewing. Such behaviour prevents the youngsters’ sensitive skin from sunburn, while mud baths—apart from being fun—also help keep them cool. All the babies have names that acknowledge the region of Kenya they were rescued from and head keeper Edwin Lusichi, who has been with the trust for 21 years, provides a history of each baby during the visit.

Visitors are also offered the opportunity to “adopt” one of the young elephants for $50 a year. Although this money is put into general operations for the Orphans’ Project at Sheldrick, the adopter receives monthly updates about their elephant, a certificate of adoption and digital copies of Angela Sheldrick’s delicate, whimsical watercolours of the babies. Giant-eared Luggard became my adoptee. Luggard was an infant when a Sheldrick helicopter pilot on anti-poaching patrol spotted him, obviously distressed, in 2016 in Tsavo East National Park in Kenya. A veterinarian crew was mobilized and Luggard caught. Only five months old, he had been shot. A bullet had shattered the knee in his left hind leg, penetrating through into the other foot. Luggard was tranquilized and evacuated via helicopter to the Sheldrick facility for intensive care. Now a four-year-old, Luggard will always limp, delicately putting just a bit of weight on the left hind foot as he walks. When it is time to reintroduce him back to the wild, he will be moved to a special place called Umani Springs in the Kibwezi Forest, one of the trust’s three reintegration units. “This is where those elephants that have been injured will be integrated into, as it’s easier, with more water and richer forest for feeding,” says Smith. In the film Larger Than Life, actor Bill Murray said, “You know, they say an elephant never forgets. But what they don’t tell you is that you never forget an elephant.” Any visitor who comes away from viewing these engaging, sweet and good-natured babies at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust will attest to that observation. Once seen, these youngsters’ remarkable stories of survival and resilience remain forever in your memory—and your heart. if you go Visitors to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust should come on their own and make arrangements with a taxi or their hotel and driver, and ensure they have the 500 Kenyan shillings for entrance. For more info: sheldrick wildlifetrust.org.

clockwise from top left Young elephants drink 24 litres of milk daily; Each elephant has its own individual keeper; The scar from a snare can be seen on Enkesha’s trunk; Keepers protect the orphaned elephants from harm in Nairobi National Park opposite page Trust spokesperson, Kirsty Smith

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