The next morning, we met our traveling companions – a Frenchman named David, and three guys who grew up together in Utah – Mark Perkins plus brothers Troy and Read Flake (left to right in picture above). The Frenchman was aloof and didn’t say much. (Perhaps that’s because he’s been living alone in remote African bush villages working for the U.N. and other agencies for the last ten years.) But fortunately, Mark, Troy, and Read were interesting, fun, and loved to laugh, so we had a blast with them. Troy just finished taking the bar exam after months of grueling study, so he had invited Mark to join him on a multi-week recovery trip. His older brother Read, who works for United, took advantage of free standby tickets to join them for a week in Kenya and Tanzania.
We had our first bonding moment at a rest stop when a 3-foot baboon jumped through the window of our Land Rover, grabbed one of our lunches and some sun screen and jumped out of the window. Fortunately, we were not in the Land Rover at the time but just outside it. The “Jackie Chan Fast Action” award goes to Read Flake. Seeing the animal grab his sunscreen, Read gave the baboon a swift kick as it jumped down from the window, prompting the thief to drop the sunscreen to give priority to the lunch box as he scampered off (a good compromise for both sides). Not only did Read get his sunscreen back, he managed to get a video of the baboon in the act of thievery. Check out the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=korqy8DoofY
We had a lot of fun with Read, Troy, and Mark (who now live in Illinois, California, and Arizona). Our conversations ranged from debates on wrongful injury lawsuits (with a spirited defense from Troy, the attorney in waiting) to alleged sites of lost Inca treasures.
We even had to hitchhike back to Arusha after our Land Rover broke down on the side of the road (unfortunately, there’s no AAA in remote Africa). Fortunately, a sympathetic tourist who had a Land Rover to herself for a private safari (I wonder how much that cost?), stopped to pick us up. We had such a good time with Read, Troy, and Mark that we hope we get to travel with them again sometime.
As for the safari, Ngorongoro Crater is one of the most fantastic places we’ve ever seen. Millions of years ago, a volcano blew its top, leaving a massive crater about 12 miles across. Animals that go down to the crater floor (now lush grassland) have a hard time getting out, so Ngorongoro has wild game literally everywhere you look. In just a few hours, we saw lions, giraffes, elephants, hippos, rhinos, herds of zebras and wildebeest, cheetahs, jackals, baboons, monkeys, impalas, antelope, ostriches, flamingos, and many more. If you can only go to one place for a safari, go to Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania. We’ll let the pictures convince you…
After saying goodbye to Read, Troy, and Mark, we boarded a bus to Nairobi, Kenya for our next adventure.
- Steve
