16. Touring and Camping Adventures: East Africa a New Life Adventure
Closing the story of East Africa should not be done without talking about all the great tourist sites that the family visited. National parks were high on the list. The Great Rift Valley, Ambroseli, Aberdares, 
Amboseli is where Barbara traded tin can lids for a picture of her with four Masi women. That was significant because the Natives at that time believed that having their picture taken took away part of their lives, and yet tin can lids were worth the chance. The Aberdares is where the Commer, our van, could not make it up the hill any farther, even when unloaded and pushed. The elevation was about 9000 feet and the engine lost its power. So we found a wide spot and set up camp for the night. Hyrax kept us company all night long with their scary high pitched screech, and with daylight we descended to a lower altitude so the van could negotiate the roads.
Masi Mara is where we found ourselves skinning out a zebra by the lights from the car. When we looked up we saw multiple pairs of eyes watching, either Hyenas or leopards. Mr. White, my hunting partner and I, both teased Barbara for being in the car with the doors locked. Of course Tsavo has its own story. That involved me getting stung by a Scorpion as I picked up a piece of firewood for the campfire. That had me a little worried for a couple of hours. Barbara could have handled things but it was at night, no help for miles in either direction and if you had got to a doctor you wouldn’t know if they would have an antidote.
Now Meru was a real pleasant surprise. We had driven north from Embu along the easternslopes of Mount Kenya towards the Northern Frontier, with the intent of circumnavigating Mt. Kenya, but as we entered the town of Meru, the wonderful odor of freshly roasted coffee overwhelmed us. We found that there were several roasting stations operating, Each station consisted of a steel bowl about the size of double hands over a charcoal fire. The whole family was intoxicated and we bought several bags of coffee to take along with us.
Our intended trip was hijacked at this point, so we took a road east towards the Tana River. We forded a couple of streams where the stream bed had been lined with concrete to eliminate the mud, and as we traveled on we came across a new bridge across the Tana River. The bridge was isolated, no road construction to or away from the bridge. Our forward progress was halted. While examining the countryside from the bridge, I spotted a python swimming in the river. I had my rifle with me so I shot the snake in the head, and two women on the farside made a big fuss as if they had never heard or seen a rifle used before. I proceeded to the river bank to retrieve the python. Pulling the Python on shore the body was about 15 feet long and about 8 to 9 inches in diameter. Skinning the snake was a lesson on a snake's anatomy in itself. A couple of natives were quickly there to help me. As we held the snake with its ventral side up for skinning the dorsal side would be up 12 inches ahead. We always had a bag of salt in the car for the purpose of preservation when we encountered a species worth collecting.
One excursion worth mentioning, even if not in a reserve or game park, was an incident where we thought it would be interesting to attract a lion into camp. As I write this, I assume this was my stupid idea. I am glad that I can tell the story without regret. I had a hunting permit for the area, and we had arrived and set up camp in the afternoon. As we were setting up camp we heard a lion off in the distance. The idea was that we could lure the lion in by tying a gazelle in a tree where the car lights would hit the lion as it came for the animal in the tree. The kids were to sleep in the van and turn on the lights at the right time. Barbara and I would sleep in the tent alongside the van with my rifle loaded by my side ready for use if necessary. I shot a Grant's Gazelle and secured it in the tree. Everything went as planned. The Male Lion came for the gazelle; the kids were fast asleep and did not turn on the lights; Barbara said she was never so cold in her life; and the lion went away without taking a chunk out of us! Someone must have been looking after us! To show how ridiculous this was, my rifle was a bolt action 208, which is a high velocity round, which meant that the only way to stop a lion was a perfect headshot. I would like to say that was the only time we took chances, like that but that is not the case.
Another incident occurred when we took a trip to Uganda and decided to camp on the shores of Lake Albert near the Rwenzori Mountains. The lake had an abundance of Hippos and we were unaware of their aggressive nature. We set up camp all nice and peaceful with hippos coming out of the lake and grazing past our tent. Nothing scary happened, fortunately, the Hippos just ignored our tent.
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