The Kenyan Camp Crew

Because of the violence that had broken out in Kenya over the results of the contested presidential election held in January, we were all unsure about whether or not we should cancel this extension. Of our group of 15, only 7 of us decided to go. And it was very clear that other groups had cancelled during January and February and March. Because of this body blow to tourism, the crew at Nyumbu Camp could not have been more welcoming to us and more grateful to us for coming. We were really humbled at their attitudes to us.

Most of the workers were Masai: our chef Peterson, the camp manager Phillip, the tent attendants, Samuel our chief waiter, and the guards who kept the camp safe at night from lions and other predators. They also walked us back to our tents after dark because there are lions in the immediate area as was confirmed to us by the roaring we could hear at night.

On our last night at camp, all these men came dancing and singing through the dining hall, even the cooks in their toques and Samuel and his assistant. James joined the group, proving that even his modern ideas had not eclipsed his heritage in dancing and jumping so naturally. We were thanked again and again for our visit and we assured all our hosts that our trip could not have been more enjoyable!

Theland

It is really possible to treat the landscapes in the parts of Tanzania and Kenya that we visited as one continuum. The Serengeti Plain starts in the South of Tanzania and runs northward into Kenya butting up against the Great Rift Valley which itself extends from Egypt to South Africa. The most animal-filled part of the Serengeti is its short and long grasslands, the “endless grasslands” of the Masai. Sometimes the plain is dotted with amazing trees, like the baobabs and the many varieties of acacia; sometimes there are clusters of trees that could almost be called a thicket; sometimes the rivers, lakes & streams create swampy areas where there can be riparian chains of trees and dense bushes.

In one part of the Serengeti Park, there appear the marvelous “kopjes” (Dutch word pronounced “copies) unexpected outcroppings of volcanic incursions into the earth’s upper crust which have been eroded through the actions of rains and winds over the millennia. These rounded, house-sized & larger, boulders can nourish trees and bushes, provide water pools, excellent sentry posts for predators to watch the grazing animals below. Sometimes a kopje can consist of one or two huge boulders with a candelabra tree and many bushes growing in and around them. Other times, the kopje is composed of many huge boulders and rocks leaning and supporting one another and providing a veritable forest-like environment. Besides their astonishing beauty against the vastness of the flat plains, the other salient feature is their suddenness in the landscape. They pop up here and there but often far distant from one another. Lions and leopards love them because they provide water, shade, and lookouts. But other animals use them too monkeys and baboons, rock hyrax and cheetah. For sheer beauty, they are the stars of the Serengeti landscape.

All around the areas we visited are low mountains which frame and define the great plains. Some of them help form boundaries between the countries they occupy; some of them are barriers which direct the route of the “great migration.” Some of the mountains are not mountains at all, but the encircling rim of the magnificent Ngorongoro Crater. But always these uplifts in the landscape create backdrops and outlines for the grasslands.

Sometimes the hills regress from the horizon in undulating smoky-blue ridges like waves on a stormy sea; sometimes they stand like bulwarks against the threatening skies above the animals and the people of the plains Sometimes they pull the much-needed rains into the area, sometimes they prevent the clouds from passing over them. Whatever the season, the mountainous hills are an integral part of the ecology of the plains as well as the framework of the beauty of East Africa.

The rivers of the Serengeti are vital to the life of the plains. Without them and the rains, the grasslands would slowly devolve into desert, returning to the ash deposited all those years ago by the great volcanic eruptions of the prehistoric past. Most of the rivers run year-round, becoming more tumultuous during the rainy seasons, but always providing some water even in the dry times. The springs also provide some of the permanent water of the Serengeti and they are vital too Without water, those fertile volcanic ash fields would be sterile and dead.

Even to my feline eyes, the magnificence of the Serengeti is dazzlingly beautiful. Its enduring toughness is contrasted to the fragility of life and the mutability of nature. This marvelous gift from Mother Nature could disappear from the earth so easily. The lands need the animals and animals must have the land and its fertility. All mankind owes Planet Earth whatever efforts are required to preserve this priceless gift of evolution, geology and geography.