written and photographed by Mary L. Peachin
Dec 1997, Vol. 2 No. 3
The landing approach over Lake Tanganyika had no go-around departure. There were mountains at the end of the runway. The single engine Cessna Caravan carryied eight passengers, two guides, plus the pilot, and an overload of luggage. It landed safely on the short 2500-foot runway at Kalolwa in Mahale National Park. Landing is not possible after a rain as the wet clay runway “grabs tires,” refusing to release them for either take off or landing.
I marveled at the take-off distance, lift, and load capacity of this Cessna “beast of burden.” With the exception of airspace near Nairobi, we flew alone in the skies over Africa. Many of our approaches or departures into dirt airstrips took us through scattered fluffy cumulous clouds. Checking and buzzing airstrips to clear them of animals was standard procedure.
Our flight to Mahale had taken two hours. We boarded a wooden dhow for an hour and a half boat ride north on Lake Tanganyika to Ronald Purcell’s camp in Mahale National Park. It took a zodiac several trips to transfer our group and baggage to the open deck boat. The mahogany wood of the deck glistened from a recent oiling.
We stopped to pick up two armed guards. We were told it was “standard procedure,” as we eyed the AK 47 rifle and another Chinese equivalent. We assumed the guards would be leading us on a mountain hike in search of chimps. Later we would learn that the guards were protecting the camp from refugees fleeing from Zaire, 30- miles across the lake.
Purcell’s camp is located on a solitary beach on the east side of Lake Tanganyika, not far from one of the campsites used by Henry Morton Stanley in his exploration searching for Dr. David Livingston.
The only indications of a campsite observed from the lake are a white canvas tent used for dining, a smaller white tent housing a library, and a beach umbrella. There guest tents with adjacent pit toilets and open showers are camouflaged in the dry, secondary high-canopy forest. Luxury, here, is several hours of solar powered reading light.
Ronald Purcell is a handsome man and his experiences in the bush is interesting, sometimes crazy. He was planning to make a 30-mile zodiac night crossing on Lake Tanganyika to Zaire to recover a stolen boat engine. His camp manager, Simon, was concerned that he might be killed in the politically, unstable country, or at the very least land in jail. Two days later he returned, without the stolen engine, telling tales of civil unrest with ten-year old kids running through streets carrying guns.
While Jane Goodall was doing research on chimpanzees further north in Gombe, Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani of Japan were doing similar work in the Mahale mountain range. A “forest island in the midst of miomba woodland,” the semi-deciduous, semi-evergreen high canopy is a more natural habitat for the fruit eating chimps. During their study, which continues today, the Japanese carved primitive trails into the forest.
Loud, screeching cries of the chimps echo through the forest as they hoop, holler, and chatter. Their greetings are an unforgettable sound. After two and half hours of hiking steep hills, making treacherous descents, fording streams, stumbling over roots and animal dens, we heard the chimps. A troop passed quickly into the forest stopping to grab lemons from a tree using both their hands and feet.
We watched a second troop known to Justin and our other local guides. The grandmother chimp occasionally walked over to groom her daughter “Ruby.” Two brothers and a baby rested nearby. Ruby, in esterase, continually “presented” her swollen behind to the alpha male named “Banana.” After mating with her twice, Banana became more preoccupied with eating lemons. Ruby would nuzzle him, spread her legs and appear to do anything to “entice” him to mate with her again. Banana, while displaying an erection, was so engrossed with eating, that a dropped a lemon rind which looped comically over his penis.
A second day of hiking also brought us success in finding a troop of chimps. This time, the chimps were on the move and we had to leave the trail and trek through heavy bush to briefly sight and follow them.
Kasisha village, where Mahale park rangers are stationed, was home to about fifty natives. The trip was about thirty-minutes south by boat. Dr. Harold Willingham, an orthopedic surgeon, was eager to make balloon animals hats for the children.
At first, the kids were very wary. Harold and his wife, Nancy, showed the kids how the balloons inflated and the sound they made when popped. Timid and scared, the kids were astounded. A small mirror was set up so they could see their hats. Soon, the entire village came to watch and participate. It was a fascinating interaction between two very different cultures.
The crystal clear water of Lake Tanganyika (400 miles long by 30 miles wide) is home to many species of cichlids. After the chimp hike, I jumped in the lake to cool off and “wash my clothes.” Borrowing a mask and snorkel, the many cichlids I saw didn’t look like the “Ziggy” I knew from my son’s aquarium.
As the water calmed near dusk five of us took rods and hand lines and trolled in a small boat along the beach. A lone hippo grazed at us from the bank. I was glad not to have seen him while snorkeling. We caught 4 pound blue and yellow stripped fish, called “Quye”, a type of cichlid. The setting sun silhouetted the ridges of the Mahale mountains as we returned to camp. The fish was thinly sliced and served as sashimi.
The next morning we would have a day long journey back to Kenya and the luxury of real beds and hot showers in Borana Lodge.
Borana Lodge and Mt. Kenya Safari Club
As we photographed a white rhino with her calf, she charged the “topless” Land Rover. She ran huffing and puffing but sounding like a buzzing bee. I asked our driver, Bobby, how he knew when to “floor it.” He replied, “when Wangesah, our Samburu gametracking guide, tells me.” This charge in the Lewa Downs Rhinoceros Preserve was more unnerving than the elephant charges in the Ruaha.
Borana Lodge is located at the base of Mt. Kenya. Six manyattas or thatched-roof rooms are carved into the side of a mountain overlooking a waterhole in the valley. Each room blends into the contour of the land. The decor is unique with colorful materials, fine art and sculpture. Large bathrooms have baths or showers built into the rock. A fireplace provides warmth for each room. The grounds are manicured, and the swimming pool is edged to the drop of a cliff. Florescent-colored agama lizards sun around cat-tail lily ponds. The Lodge is surrounded by 45,000 acres of ranch. Acacia and cedar trees frame the view of Slide Rock, the rock image used in the The Lion King movie. The wide expanse of country extends to Mt. Kenya, its peak is frequently obscured by cloud cover.
The gourmet cuisine may be the finest in Africa. A full breakfast, buffet lunch, and four course dinner brings dining guests from long distances. Cocktails are served around the large stone fireplace in the living room.
We were eager to experience some of the native culture of Africa. One and half hours from Borana, the Ndorobo Laikipia, blood relatives of the better known Maasai and Samburu tribes, have a small village. The four-wheel track is a roller coaster road through cedar trees and euphorbia candelabra. It is a long, but beautiful drive.
The Ndorobo Laikipia were dancing when we arrived. Colorfully dressed with bodies painted in red ochre, they jumped high in monotonous rythmn. They demonstrated the mixing of dung with mud to hold the sisal plant used weave the low, dank, and smoky manyattas. Their goats are protected nightly in a thorned acacia “boma” enclosure. Walking around the dusty, fly infested ten manyatta village, we saw a blacksmith heating steel over a wood fire to carve spears. We passed a trap that had been set with a spear in a tree and used as a killing missile for unwary prey. Women milked goats to feed their babies, while an aging elder, his nose destroyed in some past encounter, playing a game of “Bao” on a board with stones.
As dusk approach we ended our cultural exchange. As we made the long drive back to Borana, I thought about the handsome faces of these Ndorobo Kaikipia and wish I knew more about their customs.
A six passenger Cessna 210 shuttled our group of eight on the 15-minute flight to the grass strip of the Mt. Kenya Safari Club on the northwest side of Mt. Kenya. Straddling the equator, the Club oozes politically incorrect grandeur by displaying ivory tusks and animal head mounts. Polished marble floors circle a manicured garden. The memorabilia of founder, William Holden, along with photographs of other early Kenya residents bring flashbacks of early game hunters, entrepreneurs, and explorers.
A telescope focuses on Mt. Kenya, frequently obscured by clouds, and visible only when we arrived. To reach our rooms, we walked across the expansive lawn passing Egyptian geese, marabou stork, and peacocks usually feeding near the pond. Mount Kenya Safari Club has a swimming pool, a spa,golf course, and English thoroughbreds horses available for riding.
Each room has its own deck, sitting area, fireplace, and bathroom. The fire brings warmth to the room during the cold night. Breakfast and lunch buffets are followed by a five course served dinner.
The Club has a formal environment with causally dressed tourists. After a day of riding then flyfishing in the stocked pond, I talked with Sammy, a bilingual Maasai naturalist and fishing guide. The chimpanzee in a nearby tree was a pet of residents who own a home on the grounds of the Club. They also kept two leopards in the yard surrounded by an electric fence. My attention was distracted as I thought of the wonderful memories of the wild chimps and leopard we saw on our safari in Tanzania.
The house burglar alarm tripped. Like the strike of a lightning bolt, the sirens snap me back into reality. The sound reminds me of busy streets in the cities of America. The adventure of the safari was over.