Page 117: FASCINATION OF EAST AFRICA
The 1967 East African experience of Helen and me is a delight to record.
After embarkation at New York City on the ocean liner SS Brasil, of the Moore-McCormack Line, we disembarked at Capetown, South Africa. From that southernmeost seaport we rode the famous “Blue Train” whose passenger seats were furbished with royal blue leather with mahogany trim that was beautiful. What makes this so interesting to recall is that this had been the private train of German Kaiser Wilhelm II of World War I. It had come into African ownership as a result of Germany’s defeat and loss of its African colonies. Kaiser Bill’s imperial name was emblazoned on the outside of the car in which we rode.
Extra mattresses cost 75 cents but were not to be furnished unless expressly ordered. Several persons complained the next day of their “hard” beds before learning that mattresses had to be specifically ordered!
Helen and I detrained at Johannesburg in the Union of South Africa and visited Olga and Fritz Fuerst who were residents of Johannesburg for many years. We later transferred to a car/train route to Kruger National Park (named for the Boer war leader Oom Paul Kruger). In Mala Mala Park we stayed in a beautiful rondoval (round native African thatched dwelling). This was exciting to us as our first sight of Africa’s phenomenal wildlife in their natural habitat of “Born Free.”
Page 118: (Photo) Caption: Grevy zebras, northern Kenya, East Africa with Mt. Kenya in the background. Note they have white bellies, large heads and big ears which is in contrast to the common Burchell zebra with the wider stripes which go around their bodies.
Page 119: (Photo of lion) Simba resting in tree to keep away from the flies at Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania, East Africa.
Page 120: The Land Rover tour had a special rear seating for the uniformed pith helmeted guide for shooting if presented with any unlucky confrontation with animal ferocity. The dinner meat of the impala, the large dark red antelope, tasted very good. On occasions the impala herds had to be thinned out which is why their steak was available at that time.
To Kenya
Then we flew from Johannesburg on a CD-10 to Nairobi, the renowned modern capital city of Kenya in East Africa. All around there still exists, if diminishing, and indescribable and phenomenal wildlife of lion, elephant, wildebeest, giraffe, rhino, zebra, antelope, leopard, cheetah. Encroaching presence of man constructs the habitat of the amazing variety of African animal life and endangers their existence.
The DC-10 took 4-1/2 hours of elapsed time for the equivalent distance from New York to San Francisco, and yet we had penetrated only to the east central portion of the vast Dark Continent of Africa.
After a few days in Nairobi where we stayed at the New Stanley Hotel and often visited The Thorn Tree Cafe, Nairobi’s Cafe de la Paix, we then drove to Mombasa on the Indian Ocean to rejoin the SS Brasil. Arrangements had been made for Mimi [daughter Mina Minton Paterno] and her husband, Dr. David L. Cappiello, to fly down from Adana, Turkey, where he was stationed as an orthopedic surgeon in the Air Force. This was for the family get-together cruise through the Suez Canal and then westward in the Mediterranean and the Italy of family nostalgia.
Page 121: Three Safaris
My interest and curiosity had been whetted. Later that year Boyd Brown and I took a 21 day Wing Safari (conducted by Lindblad Travel, Inc.) to that picturesque East Africa and its phenomenal wildlife.
While in Kenya I arranged with Syd Downey (Ker, Downey & Selby Safaris, Ltd.) to guide us in a tented safari.
The first available date was in 1969.
Helen and I agreed that it would be nice to have along on this safari our good friend, Dr. Donald W. Richie and wife Peggy. Guide Syd Downey had 18 black boys follow in an International truck, each having a particular chore to do. One was a cook; another made the fires; others washed clothes, drove vehicles or spotted the wild beasts. I influenced Helen to sleep on the tent side nearest to the lions so she could hear the great cats in their nocturnal prowl as I was not that interested in being that close to them.
Syd Downey’s big truck carried a gas-fired refrigerator to make ice cubes for cocktails and chilling French wine for dinner as embellishment of our “roughing it” in wild Africa!
Page 122: The three safaris were photographic – not for hunting. It has never been my cup of tea to shoot wild animals. Love of nature was imbued in me as a little boy. Dad had given me a 22 rifle and on the farm at Armonk I spotted a cat bird. I aimed, shot and felt sure of having hit the bird. But looking up from the gun barrel I still saw a cat bird so I shot again and hit it. Upon going to the scene I found two dead birds destroyed by me. This made me remorseful. It was the only time I ever used a gun for hunting.
Mother, of course, was an animal lover. The lifetime careers of Helen and myself have been embellished, we think, by Nature’s providence of animals as companions and farming properties.
At the time “Penny,” our Yorkshire that Toni had given us in Rome as a gift, is a feisty delight. She is the smartest dog we have ever had.
(Photo) Caption: “Flora Pretty Penelope” better known as “Penny” resting in the grass with a pink bow in her hair.
NEXT: CHAPTER XVI • NAPLES SINCE 1970
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