Favorites: Since I've returned many people have asked
what my favorite thing was. It's hard to say because I
loved it all, but two things stand out. The first was
when we hiked to the Green Lake crater. Before we
went up the crater, we hiked around the nature
preserve. Instead of watching the animals from the
truck or Landrover, we were in the forest with them.
This was a small preserve, and there were no lions or
hyenas, and the cape buffalo we saw were distant. But
we were with gazelles, zebras, giraffes, elands,
warthogs, and dik diks. Dik diks were group favorites,
because they were shy and would bound away
quickly. They almost always were in pairs. They mate
for life and if their mate dies, they usually die soon
afterward - perhaps from sorrow It felt so good to be
?
with the animals instead of just watching them, and
the crater and lake were beautiful. My other favorite
was the Ngorangora crater. We came up the side of the
crater out of a sere, desert landscape. As we climbed,
it changed into rich farmland, and as we entered the
park, into jungle. The crater itself was amazing - a
large plain with a couple of lakes for water and steep
sides. The walls of the crater keep the animals inside
where there is enough food and water to sustain them.
About 12,000 wildebeests and 6,000 zebras, along
with lions, hyenas, a variety of hoofed creatures, a
few elephants, and assorted other critters live in this
constricted area, so everywhere you look, you see
thousands of animals. The sheer numbers are almost
overwhelming.
Danger: My doctor in Macedonia kept telling me not
to pet the animals, and Darko, I didn't (except for a
baby elephant or two at the elephant orphanage). I
never felt in danger, though we did have to be careful.
The last two campsites we stayed in were not fenced,
and we had to lock our food and anything that had a
good smell, like toiletries, in the car. We were warned
that if we had to pee in the middle of the night, to take
two steps away from our tent and go there - walking
across camp to the toilets were dangerous after dark.
In the Serengeti I got up before dawn one day and saw
a hyena slinking away. In Ngorangora we had
elephants at the camp, zebras, buffaloes, bush hogs, and who knows what else in our campground.
One lunchtime I had a kite (like a hawk) swoop down from behind and take food from my hand
without leaving a scratch - their eyesight and aim are amazing! But despite the huffing and hoots
and noises that were often outside the tents at night, I slept like a lamb and never felt in any
particular danger.
I had dreamt of going to Africa my whole life, and this exceeded all my expectations. The cost,
including airfare from Skopje, was $3,000 - $3,500 for everything, including souvenirs. If you can
go, do it. It was an amazing adventure.
18