Guest Comment by Paul Shushan
Dear Deeper Africa,
There is such a poverty of animals in the States compared to Africa. Here, I sleep in the woods, no problem. There, you think there’s nothing around and then you look behind a termite mound and find nine lions. It’s thrilling; it makes your heart pound. Although mostly we saw lions sleeping during the day. Like big house cats, it’s startling to see how little they really do. They walk 30 yards, look at the herd. And flop. We saw topi, hartebeest, Thomson’s Gazelle, Grant’s Gazelle. And the Agama lizard – bright blue with a red head. When they pop up on a rock, you think you’re having a hallucination. We learned so much every day. It was like a new language.
And the hippos. We walked down to a pond that was full of hippos, their backs like smooth boulders sticking out of the water. You could hear them blow. And the crocodiles were across the pond, watching cautiously. Believe it or not, hippos are so strong they can snap crocodiles in half. After about 15 minutes, a crocodile started across the pond pointed right at us. We could just see the tip of his nose and his eyes. Then, when he was about 15 feet away from us, he just disappeared. Snap! We never saw him again.
In the beginning, we noticed little on the game drives, but we learned to become much more observant. So it was great. As the Land Cruiser rolls along, we would all be busy staring into the middle distance and then our guide would spot something in close. To spot the leopards, you have to learn to look up in the trees. And then, there was an awesome profusion of birds. You look in the air above you and it's overwhelming. It takes a long time to appreciate how much there is, everywhere you look.
As Americans, we're so naïve about the world. A trip like this opens your eyes about the rest of the world. Being there. Seeing how people live, it all becomes more real.
Paul Shushan
Morrison, Colorado
USA