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I waited almost twenty years to follow my good friend and conservation writer/photographer Boyd Norton to Africa. As a teaching assistant at his domestic workshops I had marveled at his superb images of East African wildlife at each and every workshop. At his urging and with children out of college, married and independent, I jumped at the opportunity.
At first I referred to this as a trip of a lifetime. Later, on departing Africa I would change my tune. There is nothing to compare to a Serengeti sunrise. Awakened at 5:30 by our camp staff at Naabi Hill we met for breakfast followed by loading into the Land Rover for the day, cameras, film, Ziploc bags for the dust, water and lunch. With the first morning light in Serengeti I was hooked. The landscape literally glowed with the flames of the sun rising above the plains. The whole Serengeti plain lay at the foot of Naabi Hill beckoning me to come explore. My anticipation was soon filled with lions, cheetah, giraffe, wildebeest, zebra, elephant, gazelles and the fabulous bird life of East Africa. For the next two weeks we explored this corner of Tanzania from the kopjes to the rivers and from the forested hills to Nasera Rock on the edge of the park. Our guides, from Unique Safaris, were a most knowledgeable introduction to the ecosystem, geology, botany, biology and symbiotic relationships of the park. Each guide was armed with a degree in wildlife conservation or the equivalent, eyes of eagles and the ability to take a Land Rover into some of the most remote areas imaginable. By the end of the trip I was identifying the wildlife by their Kiswahili names and had a firm grasp on how this part of Tanzania was woven together.
Is there a favorite moment? Several stand out. The first encounter with a lioness and her three cubs at Gol Kopjes was sensational. This beautiful lady let us into her life parked a mere 40 meters away, her cubs nursing and ignoring our shutters and motor drives. We literally spent hours in her company on two days watching her care and handling of the months old cubs. The family of elephant who gathered around our vehicle to lazily eat then as the sun set wandered away into the sunset, a scene right out of a dream, filled my camera with unforgettable images. Then there was the Vervet Monkey who graciously climbed into the tree next to our Land Rover, paused and looked into my eyes glancing away slightly as I fired away with the frame filling 200mm lens.
Boyd always told me that something about East Africa got under your skin and never went away. After what seemed only a weekend but in actuality was almost two weeks we were shuttled to Mt. Kilimanjaro Airport by our guides from Unique Safaris, hugged and thanked for visiting their country. I left Africa saying, “This was only my First Trip.”
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