I just love the book , i read it a long time back and this was my second reading.While the first time i was very young and enjoyed how Corbett tracked down and shot down man-eaters conveniently ignoring other details ,this time the details of life in the remote villages and corbett's narration was even appealing.
The man-eaters reminded me of my own experiences of a different kind of man-eaters ( no, not my boss),lions of nakuru. Besides flamingoes,nakuru in kenya is famous for it's leopards. In fact the leopard was the main reason that drove me to nakuru. I had seen all the big 5 except the leopard in masai mara I was dying to see the leopard,but sadly, i never spotted the leopard even in nakuru Leopards are supposed to be exteremely shy animals and avoid humans as far as possible.
Nakuru also has couple of lions.Most recently one or two lions turned into man eaters and had killed a ranger the previous week.That news was enough for us to close windows when we passed by that place where the lion encounter happened. Man eating lions are bad news for tourists,not just a danger,but as rangers look out for them and eliminate them if possible.So the lions try to avoid the jeeps and cruisers as much as possible.
But then our timing was also terrible rather stupid ,we reached nakuru town at 10:30 and then had break fast and then entered the national park around 11:30 and left at around 5 in the evening. Thats as stupid as the timing can be,sadly no one was willing to sacrifice their jolly break fast at the hilton and their early morning sleep,and by 10:30 everyone was hungry adding to the delayed brunch at nakuru town.
We tried Nyoma Choma out there at nakuru ,roasted goat is called nyoma chyoma ,its almost a staple diet in kenya Probably, next time i will consider the option of staying at the nakuru lodge and try for early morning or late night game drives (all by myself and alone). One the way to nakuru there is another lake called lake naivasha,and we thought this was lake nakuru,as lake naivasha also has lots of flamingos ,but then no lake can beat the bird spectacle of nakuru.
On return from nakuru we stopped briefly at the view point on the rift valley. The breathtaking view, as you approach Nairobi, Kenya is unforgettable. The huge expanse of the great rift, stretches for thousands of miles in either direction, stretching from the Middle East, down through Africa to Mozambique.
The painful part of kenya game drives is the huge park fees collected from non residents It costed some 2500 ksh per person for the entire trip to nakuru and the park fees itself costed another 2400 shillings (1 usd = 73 shillings).Well, I have no complaints as long as the fees is utilized properly for the maintenance of the park and does'nt go into some corrupt ranger's pockets.
Asante (thank you) and kwaheri, (goodbye) Kenya!
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