Kenya: By an angler who learned to love the Savannah

[:en]Big game anglers like me are fascinated by Ernest Hemingway’s novel „The old man and the sea“. And those that have caught big marlin themselves understand old man Santiago very well when he says to his fish „Fish, I love you and respect you very much!“ also thinking at the same time: „I have to break him. He must never know how strong he is or what he might be able to do if he were to bolt off.“

The old man keeps falling asleep during his daylong battle with the fish, dreaming of Africa and the Lions: „They played like young cats at dusk and he loved them“, it is said, and then Santiago asks himself „Why are the lions the most important thing that remained?“

This metaphor, peacefully dreaming of the lions, runs like a golden thread throughout the novel. I didn’t understand the picture until now – I must shamefully admit: For 29 years, I have been fishing off Kenya for the Big Five of the seas without even considering the country that lay behind me. And now, on year number 30, I was in the savannas of Kenya’s Masai Mara for the first time ever.

In short: It was overwhelming. It was a unique experience to witness the immense vastness of the landscape, so peaceful with its countless browsing gnus, antelopes and elephants, and to be among the animals and to feel them. As incomparable as fighting a marlin and only reading about it.

The fact that death earns equally rich harvest even in the savannah in the form of lions, cheetahs and hyenas, like marlin or sharks amongst tuna, is depicted as a cruel event on TV animal shows. Experienced up close, death is a synthesis of the arts by Mother Nature, and surprisingly it does not disturb the peaceful image here at all.

Death also does not interfere during a picnic on the Mara River, as gnu carcasses float downstream after having drowned while attempting to cross the river.

The fact that vultures would sit on them now and then, their heads and necks disappearing completely into the bloated islands, did not bother my girlfriend Elke at all, as she accepted this (much to my relief) with a great deal of equanimity: „That’s just how it is here“, she said before taking a hearty bite out of her sandwich.

Dominic Maitai explained to us what else „belongs here“ in addition to the Big Five consisting of elephants, buffalo, rhinos, lions and leopards. The young Maasai was our guide during the six-day safari, which even led us on foot through the jungle, together with other Maasai warriors provided for protection.

„Stay put! Don’t be a coward, do not run!“ was Dominic’s reply when I asked what we should do if we should come across lions. I can still hear his cheerful laughter to the question „and what about buffalo?“ But then it turned out to be a big, grazing hippopotamus standing in the middle of our path (or rather, his), that was ultimately led into muttering retreat to the river bank by two well-placed stone throws into the bushes behind him.

I have to agree with Alex Walker, the owner of the „Serian“ camps at Mara, that Dominic is worth every Shilling that he earns: The 24-year-old Massai (who looks like a grandson of Nelson Mandela) is a walking encyclopedia and is in a position to lecture about the commensalism of birds that feed on sustenance found in the footsteps of elephants in the swampy grasslands, as well as discuss the social changes that the Maasai have undergone and the consequences of the population growth for the game reserve.

Handing out further praise: Kirsty Smith, project manager of the Kenyan tour operator New African Territories (www.africanterritories.co.ke) demonstrated their professionalism when our Condor flight from Frankfurt to Nairobi was postponed by 18 hours. Just one call (on a Friday evening in Nairobi) to her cell phone was all it took to organize everything from the additional hotel accommodations right up to the new connecting flights to and from the Mara by the next day! (Kirsty, you are the best!)

The camp standards were no less impressive. Upon arrival, questions regarding food allergies or dislikes are just as natural as the option of a hot bath on the steep banks of the Mara River while watching hippos and crocodiles: Each of the tents, which are all permanently installed on a brick terrace, includes a private bath that can be safely visited at night as well. And other dangers that Elke had still feared at home failed to materialize. We did not see any multi-legged stinging, sucking or biting creatures at all: The tents and beds are equipped with mosquito nets and malaria prophylactics at an altitude of about 1800 m (5500 feet) are actually unnecessary and are recommended for standby only.

But back to Dominic and our prudent driver Kim. They took us amongst lions and elephants in open off road vehicles a number of times. And there, eye-to-eye with a large cow before making way for her sisters and all the calves, is when I believed to have understood what old Santiago had dreamt about. It is the feeling of freedom and natural dignity, as emanated by the big five, whether lion or elephant.

Those men, whose ticking headgears have thus far categorized everything in life by their financial benefit, be warned against such an experience. To directly experience the animal's dignity and freedom up close can lead to change and commitment. The French writer Romain Gary (who went from big game hunter to conservationist like Hemingway, after narrowly escaping a plane crash in Africa like Hemingway) describes why in his 1956 novel, „The Roots of Heaven“:

„The progress of people and continents relentlessly demands that they renounce their individuality, divulging their secrets, and somewhere this path will surely be marked with the skeleton of the last elephant… One must resist this degradation, the degradation of the last beauty on earth.Are we really no longer able to meet nature with reverence, granting occasional perspective to its living freedom, which has no income, no benefits and no goal? It is imperative that humanity succeed in preserving something other than that from which they make shoe soles or sewing machines, to leave a margin, a sanctuary to which they can escape to from time to time.“

Such a space can be found in the Maasai Mara. Those that would like to experience this themselves (which I highly recommend) are in the best of hands at the Serian Camps (www.serian.net/seriankenya.html). And just as any big game angler had fallen in love with Hemingway's failing Santiago, Gary's gripping novel and his dream come true of protected areas for man and beast is a must for all Savannah safaris.

I will be glad to provide further information about the Serian Camps as will gladly answer any questions regarding photography. Please contact me by email at juergen.oeder(at)gmx.de. In Africa, as Gary correctly describes, „at noon the light is so bright that everything it touches loses its color and only a gray or black outline remains.“