32 - North Shore News — Sunday. February 27, 2000 @ Feb 20/21 — Mombasa, Kenya, on safari. “SPECIAL Moment Time” is a phrase my husband and I use when we want to pin- point and hold an event in our joint memories forever and our Kenyan safari offered several. First a harrowing four- hour drive to the Taita Hills Wildlife Reserve over roads so fuil of potholes the vehi- cles careened in every direc- tion unsuccessfully looking for some level tarmac. We were sharing the main Mombassa to Nairobi high- way with numerous buses and heavy trucks so the smaller, faster vehicles would dart around and between with no regard for traffic rules or safety. In places the curbside blacktop was eroded down to a single lane so vehicles had to drive half off the road onto the dusty shoulders to pass. Air conditioning in the 100-degree heat was of the Open-your-own-window vari- ety which we’d race to close when we saw a cloud of red soil or particularly noxious exhaust coming our way. Shredded tires dotted the roadside and we were only slightly reassured to hear we carried two spares. This excursion was not for the arthritic or faint-hearted and I wished I had a camcorder because it had to be seen to be believed! Finally our party of 19 did arrive at the lodge. Our individual cone-shaped rooms were built on stilts jic mi and connected by wood bridges which curved around three sides of a natural watering hole known as Salt Lick. Large stork-like birds and baboons were here to greet us but otherwise our heat-hazy mid afternoon vista is miles of beige scrub and trees dotted with green wherever water puddied. Almost immediately we leave for the first of three two-hour game drives with our van's pop-top open so we can stand up inside and get a 360-degree view. The four vehicles in our convoy head in different directions and will radio each other if something unusual is seen. This is an example of haram- bee, or team work, which was apparently coined by President Kenyatta to galva- nize his people into pulling together after independence. It takes some time for the untrained eye to spot the camouflage of even large ani- mals and we would be only 20-30 metres away from a gazelle or zebra, the most abundant game here, before its movement would alert us. Then we’d see two, then six EUROPE London Manchester | Glasgow from 599.00 p.p. from 499.00 p.p. from 499.00 p.p. Try Air Transat Club class for $220 per person in each direction. ¢ Don’t wait space is limited in Club Class London hotels U.K. Bed & Breakfast UK. Car Rental. - from 95.00 CAD pop. from 65.00CAD p.p. | from 29.00 CAD per day | * Some restrictions apply. May departures « Subject to availability & taxes ney Loner rece Sek ‘TRAVEL then the whole herd loosely clustered and gazing calmly back at us, twitching their ears and tails to keep insects at bay. A dozen snapshots later we'd move on. After five, ten, then fif- teen minutes of no major sightings our human need for stimulation makes us restless until around a corner another incredible shape emerges as though right out of a prehistoric picture book. Giraffe and elephants, water buck and ostrich, sec- retary birds who eat the poi- sonous black mamba snakes, and brightly coloured superb starlings all allowed us the privilege of watching them. But the coup that every- one awaits is a cat. Cheetah and leopard are here in such small numbers they are rarely seen. However our driver pulls up to a stationary jeep and stops. Silence. We've already been briefed in the Jungle Journal. Footprints: hoof or paw?. Droppings: fresh or old? But rangers? Turns out they're usually protecting cats from naive and disobedient tourists who excitedly jump out of their vans for a closer look which, in a worst case scenario, can result in the lion being shot. Entirely the wrong target if you ask me. With binoculars trained in Kenya and breath held all four of us stare around in vain until our driver, with a chuckle, finally points to a lioness placidly resting in the shade. As we watch an apparentiy dead branch sticking skyward rolls over and plods past us to a watering hole. Another cat with a yawn anbles with- in petting distance. Sinuous and battle-scarred they nev- ertheless look well-fed. In all we see a pride of eight, com- plete with maned-lion. But the best is yet to come. That night at dusk, a cocktail in hand the full moon climbing, a herd of elephant quietly and cau- tiously come to the salt lick. Protecting a three-month- old baby several large behe- moths make a circle that comes right up to the open balcony of the main lodge. I could have touched fingers to trunk without much stretching and her wrinkled gray body is far too close to completely fit in my camera fens. The baby weaves in and out of mom’s legs alternately could have made up this deliberate choreogeaphy. In our bedroom we move the pillows to the bottom of the bed for the best view of Salt Lick. We're swathed in a mosquito net which we mend with a Band-Aid and a rotation fan swirls the hot air. Some hours later I awake to see a single Bull elephant standing at the water. He's huge and has only one tusk. Magic moment time. — Glynis Bolton bonrded the Rotterdam, Jan. 6 in Fort Lauderdale on a Grand World Voyage. Watch for regular dis- patches from her until the ship docks in Los Angeles on April i. The Rotterdam is scheduled to cross the equator today on its way to the isolated Maldives in the Indian Ocean. trying to suckle then dipping © it’s toc and trunk into the water, stumbling with the effort of so much co-ordina- tion. 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