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LOOK WHO’S TALKING |
Kalamazoo Safari Company EVERY TRIP TO TANZANIA HAS BEEN MY FAVORITE Each safari has its distinctive flair. I first fell in love with galloping giraffes and believed that they would always remain my favorite, but that has not proven to be true. On a high bluff overlooking a river, we stopped abreast three lionesses casting an intense stare into the valley. Through communication and coordination, they slinked away from their perch to descend towards the massive zebra herd. After their successful hunt, they dragged their dinner to the river and waited. Enthralled with the scene unfolding below us, we were surprised by the parade of females, juveniles, and cubs filing silently by to join the waiting mothers by the river. Elephants are the landscapers of the savannah; using their mass, strength, and tusks as tools. I’ve also watched their gentleness with their trunk, using it as a straw, personal grooming scrubber, and a “hand” tugging a Go Pro held in my son’s hand. This pinnacle of matriarchal community can be seen within the elephant herd shortly after the birth of a baby. The females form a circle enclosing the newborn calf within the protective wall of grey hide and tusks. Although hippos are the grossest, they are ridiculously entertaining to watch. They fart, burp, fling feces with their tails, fight, squirm, snort, and bellow - the worst of adolescent boy behavior. The guides laugh and say, “You’ll still smell them from your photographs.” The mating ostrich dance is as graceful as the Flamenco with equal feathers and flaunt. Cheetah lives are spent
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scouting. They have speed but lack strength and endurance, forcing them to preserve energy. Cheetahs use stumps, termite mounds, and sometimes Land Cruisers to enhance their view across the flat endless grassland. When a cheetah leapt up on our spare tire, my heart stopped, I didn’t breathe, and it took everything I had to look into the eyes of the most beautiful feline. And in her eyes, I realized that she didn’t even see me. She gazed through us emphasizing how inconsequential our existence was. She was there for the elevation boost only. I’ve just highlighted a few memorable natural moments. We equally enjoy dancing with locals, hunting with the Hadza, grinding coffee, summitting Mt. Kilimanjaro, floating in crystal clear springs, watching the sun disappear over an extinct volcano, and especially seeing a smile split the face of a child and eyes light up like happy chocolate kisses just from the gift of school supplies and from being seen.
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