The campfire embers burned low as we stared transfixed into the dying light. Suddenly, a loud rustling in the bushes jerked us into high alert, as a herd of 100 wildebeest burst from the undercover and charged right through our firelight. Lagging in the rear of the herd was a limping young male who detoured into the bushes for a much-needed rest. A few moments later, a lion grunted and growled, his deep guttural voice echoing across the stillness of the thornbush country. In a tented camp on the Serengeti Plain in eastern Tanzania, the seven youngsters gathered around me, huddled closer, their wide eyes shining.
“Oh my Gosh,” 14-year-old Aven gasped. “We’re not in Kansas anymore!”
In fact, we were very far from the Schorran family’s pastoral farmland of Pennsylvania where nothing, save a rabid raccoon, could hurt them. Nina and Paul Schorran had brought their seven children, ranging in age from 6 to 18, to Tanzania to experience a wildlife safari and, with the oldest ready to go off to college, they were eager to create an unparalleled family memory.
On our drive in earlier in the evening, gazelle, dik dik, warthog and impala tracks covering the dirt road, we spotted a pride of six lions less than a mile from camp, monkeys swinging in the trees, giraffes munching high acacia leaves and a hippo lounging in the river, snorting air through his rounded nostrils. These are just the local residents; animals are everywhere in this extraordinary place.
Our trek leader, Jim Brett, delivered strict instructions to the children. “Stay within the campfire light!” The boys’ tent was farthest in the line of five, and an adult escort was assigned to accompany them on all trips back and forth.
The injured wildebeest probably wouldn’t make it through the night. If not, as we lay in our warm, secure beds, there’d be cries of pain followed by the sounds of bones cracking and teeth gnawing on flesh. That’s a lot for young kids to deal with.
Eleven-year-old Justin came to me before closing in and said, ‘We’re OK here in camp, though, aren’t we?”
“OK as long as you don’t wander, keep your tent zipped up and under no circumstances come out, no matter what racket you hear.”
“But we’re OK, aren’t we?” he repeated.
“Justin, honey, we’re in Africa. We’re not at the top of the food chain. This makes for a certain amount of excitement and adventure. It’s part of the reason your parents brought you here. You’ll be fine.”
His mom came to me next and asked in all sincerity, “What are the chances of getting eaten tonight?”
“Are you kidding?” I said, half teasing. “With an injured wildebeest in camp? We’re off the hook.”
Come morning, the hollowed body of the injured wildebeest lay 20 feet from the boys’ tent. Thousands of flies buzzed on the open flesh, its insides scooped out and meat devoured. Five yards closer to the tent, was a pile of undigested grass, the animal’s stomach contents, which looked remarkably like grass clippings. But we’d heard absolutely nothing in the night. The lions worked with stealth and the exhausted wildebeest surrendered.
The next night, the second-class citizens, the hyenas came to get their share, again in silence, followed by the jackals, vultures and storks. In a day or so, the carcass would be stripped clean. Nothing lasts long on the Serengeti with all these mouths to feed. These kids were getting a first-rate lesson in the Circle of Life.
The Schorran’s signed up for a much different family vacation than Disneyland when they hired Jim Brett, of Tanzanian Photographic Safaris. You get exactly the trip you are dreaming of, suiting even the needs of a large family, for not one of Brett’s 69 African trips has been the same.
We camped in huge Meru-style canvas tents with multiple rooms, Ernest Hemmingway-style, which enabled us to stay way back in the bush and experience the real Africa. A private bath is included with a stainless-steel sink, shower and flush toilet, which runs out to a dug hole. The camp crew heats water in a large barrel to fill our reservoirs and we slept in beds with linens and dined in a community tent with a tablecloth, silverware, and glassware. The most polite and gracious Tanzanian men waited on us and cooked the finest food on tiny charcoal stoves and ovens, including daily fresh-baked bread, cakes and pies. We had nightly campfires, heard stories of wildlife and bushmen and, of course, listened to lions roar and witnessed a kill firsthand.
Our wildlife agenda included a visit to Tarangire National Park, which is world famous for elephants, then a few days on the Serengeti Plains, and finally, the best for last, one of the Wonders of the World, the Ngorongoro Crater, home of the endangered rhino.
We traveled along the shore of Lake Eyasi to find the last wandering tribe of bushmen that do not have a permanent home. The Hadzabe hunt with bow and arrow (some poisoned) and live off of monkey, dik dik (a tiny antelope), bird and mouse. The women dig for tubers and gather fruits. They put up tiny makeshift grass huts every week to shield them from the weather, until the game is depleted and they are forced to move on. They have few material possessions, just the clothes on their backs, their bows and arrows and a digging knife.
Jim works with an Argentinean woman who runs a rustic eco-tourism lodge nearby who helps these indigenous people when game is scarce and they are starving. The Hadzabe receive vouchers for taking visitors on half-day hunts, which they can then redeem at the village store for corn flour.
For our day with the Hadzabe, the Schorrans are divided in groups — the older, stronger kids and Paul go with four warriors on a long hunt. The youngest children and Nina will bird hunt and gather roots and tubers.
The older kids witness a monkey kill high in a palm tree. With three arrows in its body, the monkey tries to pull them out before finally succumbing to a poisoned arrow. He collapses high in the tree so the warriors must return to cut the tough-barked palm down with a machete, to retrieve the monkey (bad luck if they leave him) and get their precious arrows back.
“It was incredible,” 18-year-old Garrett reports. “On the way back, they snagged a few birds, snapped their heads, yanked out the feathers and gnawed on the raw flesh as they walked!”
The Hadzabe woman with our group finds ground potatoes, which she digs up and slings over her back in the piece of fabric she had tied around her bosom. Her wrinkled, deflated breasts, the result of nursing many children, swing freely. We shared a granola bar with her, which she accepted, but commented, “It’s OK, but it doesn’t stay in your stomach like a mouse.”
The reason we are able to communicate is because our drivers — Danny and Makinda — have accompanied us. They are Tanzanians and have been schooled for many years in natural history and the details of guiding. Although there are 135 tribes in Tanzania, all with their own tribal language, Swahili is everyone’s second language.
The Hadzabe are direct descendants of the first humans on earth. Louis and Mary Leakey, at the famous Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania, found the oldest known human skull — 2 million years old — and the oldest preserved footprints in nearby Laetoli date back 3 million years. Jim is a close friend of the director of antiquity there and was able to take the family on a special drive to see sites off limits to the usual tourist.
He also arranged for the Schorrans to visit a local boarding school for tribal children where an entire class sang us a welcoming song. At an orphanage in the city of Arusha, the Schorran children presented English readers, which they had carried in their backpacks all the way from home.
We also visited a Maasai Village where the regally dressed, red-blanketed pastoral people created another life-changing memory. A warrior’s jumping contest involved the Schorran males, while the females participated in a dance where they swung their elaborately beaded collars to the beat of their drums. Jim asked the chief’s son how many cows he’d be willing to offer to buy 16-year-old Carla. The answer was 20. Carla couldn’t decide if that was a compliment or not, until she learned that most Maasai girls only go for six!
All of these experiences add layer upon layer of wonder for the children, giving them an entirely different perspective on life and their fellow kinsmen all the way around the planet in a place as strange and remote as Tanzania. It came to an amazing climax in the Ngorongoro Crater, however, on the last days of our trip.
The Ngorongoro Crater is a blown-out volcano whose crater walls rise 2,000 feet above the crater floor. The floor is mostly level containing some of the sweetest and most nutritious grass on earth. Many of Tanzania’s ecosystems are present down there — grassland, swamp and forest — surrounded like a castle fortress. The crater’s perennial water source is fed by freshwater springs along the crater rim that flow into alkaline Lake Magadi, creating the perfect home to an astonishing variety of wildlife. And where there are animals, there are predators.
If any place feels magical, it would be the Ngorongoro Crater. And its beauty is unsurpassed with small cinder cones dotting the floor, each covered in lush grass the color of Ireland. This place is so far from the dry dusty plains we imagined we’d find.
Paul turned 50 in Africa, a milestone in anyone’s life. Like many, he approached it with trepidation and fear. But on the last night, the camp chef presented him with a beautifully iced and decorated birthday cake. All 13 crewmembers circled our table, chanted Paul’s name and sang wishes in Swahili. They banged on stainless steel chafing lids and whatever makeshift percussion instruments they could find. Nina kissed Paul as he tried in earnest to cut his cake, but the knife would not even score it, as the singers laughed. It was really elephant dung, collected, dried on a campfire, shaped into a cake and laboriously decorated. The kids buckled over in laughter when they learned the truth. Then the real cake was brought out and the children were moved to rise from their chairs and join in the festive procession.
They lovingly watched their parents, still seated by the candlelit cake, bittersweet that this amazing vacation would soon be over and grateful for the opportunity to be here. Ironically, 50 turned into one of the best experiences of Paul’s life. What better way to celebrate than in the wilds of Tanzania with those you love most?
INFO:
A visit to the Treks Web site provides complete information on the company and some of their activities (www.naturecorp.com).
Contact: The Naturecorp Group, Hemlock Springs, Kempton, Pa. 19529, 610-756-4486 jimbrett@naturecorp.com.
ART: With six numbered color images with captions.
CAPTIONS:
IMAGE 1. Leigh Schorran and Maasai women. Photo by Cindy Ross. SLUG: WF-FEATURE1-SCHORRAN
IMAGE 2. Maasai women dancing. Photo by Cindy Ross. SLUG: WF-FEATURE1-MAASAI
IMAGE 3. The regally dressed, red-blanketed pastoral Maasai created a life-changing memory. Photo by Cindy Ross. SLUG: WF-FEATURE1-VILLAGE
IMAGE 4. A lion pride on the Serengeti Plain. Photo by Cindy Ross. SLUG: WF-FEATURE1-SERENGETI
IMAGE 5. Wildebeest roam the Ngorongoro Crater. Photo by Cindy Ross. SLUG: WF-FEATURE1-WILDEBEEST
IMAGE 6. home away from home courtesy of huge Meru-style canvas tents. Photo by Cindy Ross. SLUG: WF-FEATURE1-TENTS
(Cindy Ross is a travel writer who lives in Pennsylvania.)
(C) 2006, CINDY ROSS. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
