Lions and Elephants, Hurrah.

The goal of the modern safari seems to be to shoot as many as you can of the ‘Big 5’ – lion, leopard/cheetah, hippopotamus, water buffalo and elephant. Only now, you do it with a camera instead of a rifle.

While sitting beside my tent on the rim of the Ngorongoro crater the first night after a full day of travel, I realized our journey (“safari” in Swahili) had already provided me and my travel partner – Western Heads East intern Meaghan Horgan – with more than we could have hoped for. We were blessed with clear weather as we traversed various topographies – flat, dry savannah, tropical forests, lush mountains and short scrub – making animal sighting easier.

We were greeted almost immediately by giraffes and a herd of approximately 13 elephants, crossing in front of us. Three hours in, we had already seen thousands of antelope, gazelles and zebras. Water buffalo and baboons made their way through the grass at every turn. Hippos resembled clumps of grey rocks floating in the water; warthogs and ostriches scampered about. We had also crossed paths with our first big cats, including a pair of lions, a leopard climbing out of a tree and a cheetah enjoying its freshly-killed Thompson gazelle – while fending off a flock of vultures. All of this happened within a few feet of us, which was surreal, especially considering there are no fences. This is the wild.

We were reminded of this as we came across the female lion, lazily lying under a tree near a pond. We watched as a gazelle sauntered over, separated from its mates. It fell over, possibly sick, then continued to the water hole. The lioness tensed on her haunches and sprang into action, catching herself a meal. Seemingly unimpressed, a male appeared from the tall grasses and decided to challenge a water buffalo. Without the female’s support, he ended up backing down, tearing off a piece of the gazelle as a consolation prize instead.

During the trip to Ngorongoro, too, we passed a number of Maasai, their easily distinguishable red or purple garments contrasted against the dry grass. Their villages, surrounded by fences of stick and brush to keep predators out, dotted the mountainous climb. Acacia and Baobab rose randomly from the vast terrain, but passing hollow, bleached bones served as a reminder that this is one part of the world over which you have very little control.

The Ngorongoro crater – the largest unbroken caldera in the world, and considered by many to be the eighth wonder of the world – was breathtaking in its beauty, though clouds and fog washed in over it in the morning. It is also considered by some to be the birthplace of civilization. The crater’s walls rose high and were scarred by the switchbacks that took 20 minutes to traverse to the bottom. The backdrop was stunning, with cascading hills, vast plains and the large Lake Magadi. We had our drive interrupted briefly as a large herd of wildebeests crossed the road in a perfectly straight line and, toward the end of the day, we completed our ‘Big 5’, spotting one of the very few remaining black rhinoceros in the crater.

The second night, we camped in the Serengeti and went to sleep to distant calls from lions and hyenas. I was bitten on my achilles by a tsetse fly, but though it really stung, I don’t think it has made me sick. It was an amazing and surreal night to look up at a partially-lit sky, pinpricked to let the heavens shine through the silence. Lit light blue, it was as though darkness should never completely fall over the sky, depriving us of the Serengeti’s beauty. I couldn’t believe I was standing in the middle of it at night, surrounded by all I had seen during the day.

Today, Meaghan and I rose at 5:45 to watch the sun rise over the park and to begin our trek home to Mwanza. We awoke to zebras, antelope and gazelles visible from our tent door; we passed lions as we exited the camp. On the way out, we saw many more animals and actually had a chance to get out of the car to take a rope bridge across a river in which a crocodile swam below. I didn’t want to lose my sandal. Or my footing. The most amazing experience came toward the end of the day when two long lines of elephants came together in a V, heading to the river to cool off. In all, more than 150 elephants of all sizes passed within feet of us. It pretty much summed up the trip for us: we were very fortunate to see all that we did; many people spend far more time and see far less.

Rock Point, On Point.

Smoky goodness and insect repellent: perfume of the outdoors. By now, the smell of campfire has worn off following my first tenting excursion of the year last weekend. Settling on Rock Point Provincial Park near Dunnville, Ontario, gffl and I set up camp and noticed an empty bird's nest in a tree looming over the site. Me being me, I made like a monkey to take a peek (and a 'peekture'). I won't, however, admit to scratching my sides while making monkey noises. Tent raised, we headed out for a stroll along the beach and were greeted by a vast array of topography: fossilized limestone shelves, dunes, shell, rock and sand.

It turns out the area had been submerged in the Caribbean 350 million years ago, as indicated by fossils from the coral reef embedded in the slabs of limestone that line the coast. Forming divots in the rock, evidence of trapped plant and animal life is featured prominently in the limestone, which was eventually sheared off by advancing glaciers as the Earth's continents took shape. It's easy to lose yourself for hours, poring over the landscape for increasingly interesting examples of prehistoric life. Highlights from dinner included campfire-roasted peppers, garlic and potatoes.

On Saturday, we caught a drive-by view of Niagara Falls ($18 to park nearby - incredible) and of some of the rest of Las Vegas North (what a tacky, over-the-top city). Q: "What would a crazed Frenchman say, bobbing along the river, about to plummet over the falls?" A: "Chutes!"

We continued on our short trek to quaint Niagara-on-the-Lake and poked around for a bit. I'm not so sure I've seen that many preppy people walking around in such a concentrated area in quite a while. Oh, and men in pale yellow pants, not a hair out of place. Women, with chunky necklaces, prim collars and, also, not a bouffant hair out of place. We also stopped in at the Inniskillin winery and admired the row upon row of grapes. Hopefully, none of them sour. On the way back, we came across an ostrich farm and had to stop to check them out. Despite being able to run at speeds of up to 65 km/h, the (very large) male and a female took their time coming to see us. Go figure. Like they had their heads in the sand or something. They are mighty impressive birds up close.

Rock Point is a really neat park to explore, particularly if you are even a closet rock hound. Unfortunately, the weather was, surprisingly, a little chilly for swimming this past weekend (unless you had the body temperature thermometer of a child), but there was plenty to see, including various waterfowl, the little critter I found above, pretty shells and plenty of fossils. During the drive, we also came across a couple more signs that could be included on the blog, but we didn't get the camera out in time. They included one advertising the sale of "Tree Wood" (as if there is another kind) and a butcher operating under the name, "People's Meat Market". Wonder if that was intentional. On a couple of fronts.

Day Two: Roses, Bouquets, Sausage.

A rather inauspicious start to day two of camping after a night of violent illness. Not good. Vomiting 17 times really tends to take its toll on the body. Not to mention the lack of sleep associated with being up all night. Being the clod that I am, I must say that I did in fact get some sleep...Sorry 'bout that. But we did awake to a brilliant sunrise that struck the opening of the tent quite nicely.

Really, this sign says it all. Of course, we had to go in to check out what else the store had. Really, the sign DID say it all: they had buckets of roses, buckets of flower bouquets and a freezer full of sausage. Nothing else. At least the sausages weren't in the same freezers as the flowers.
Back at the Wheatley campground after a LONG hike out to the bridge we could see from our site. Pretty walk, but long. With lots of bugs.
Thanks for this pictures, SCS, I really like the blur of the leaves. Or maybe it was just that hot and the camera was too lazy to focus.

Dinner down on the beach. Much driftwood.

Including this one.
Sunset on the way back to camp after a long day.

Day One: Lusty Circle.

Day one on the southern-Ontario trip of excellence, also known as "get the heck out of Dodge, 2006 (pt. 1)". First little left-turn of the day (after of course, stumbling across some honey-roasted cashews and Niagara peach salsa) is tiny Port Glasgow. Quite pretty. But, um, I must question a trailer park of older folks living on "Lusty Cir.". Just somehow doesn't seem right. Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm old fashioned. "Hi, I'm Randy and I live on Lusty Circle, let me give you a hand." Um, no thanks. But welcome to Port Glasgow!

Beautiful spot with hibiscus (no, really, they are!) growing beside some very steep steps down to the beach. A very cute dog was having a ball (figuratively), doing the appropriately-named doggy-paddle in an effort to escape the omnipresent heat.

Wheatley Provincial Park. The sun is beating down. The humidity is high. The temperature on the (very nice) Nissan Maxima reads 34 degrees. Bow to the air conditioning because it's going to be warm in that tent.
Okay, cool off time at the beach. Gosh, I love the water.

The view from the campsite, out to a quaint wood bridge. Over a marsh. The myriad birds and muskrats (saw one!) would hold their AGM this evening. At least it seemed friendly. Not many points of order.
View to the other side, with campfire smoke hanging limpidly over the marsh.
Fire preparation 101. Cook baby, cook: I'm a hungry.
The end result: actually impressive for campfire cooking. Salmon (wild) and yams, er, sweet potatoes, with potatoes and roasted garlic. Yum. Oh, and a smidge of wine.