Dear ECS: You never forget your first safari

Dear ECS,  

You never forget your first safari.  Unless, of course, you are not yet writing permanent memories to your brain.  We took a family trip to Kenya a few weekends ago and you got to go on your first safari.  

Wow!  2 years old and on a getaway weekend to Nairobi....If you had told my childhood self that I would be taking getaway weekends to Nairobi, I would have been incredulous.  And excited.   This trip was awesome in every sense of the word and you loved the trip so much.  I had been looking forward to taking you on this trip basically since we arrived in Addis, and really even before.  You have loved animals since you were a very little baby and what better place to see animals than on safari in Africa?

A few days before we left for Kenya, I was talking with a friend at work – mostly talking about how much I was looking forward to watching you watch animals.  He casually mentioned that he had taken his daughter on safari in Zambia when she was three and had thought the same thing, but then she didn’t remember it.  Of course she didn’t; remember it – she was 3!  And you probably won’t remember this first safari either.

This short conversation kind of threw me for a loop, as it liquefied some (incorrect) assumptions I had about all our adventures together.  I know intellectually that memory starts to fill in when you are older than your tender age of two.  I know that most of my earliest memories, if not all, are based on pictures of those events.  Where does my actual memory begin and what is a fill-in memory based on the photos and our family narratives around those moments, and pictures.  On this front, you will have many, many pictures to create your own memories from, probably terabytes of pics and videos.  Your mom and I will tell you as many times as you let us about our adventures, like your first safari.  And I will have my memories of these moments as long as I am alive.

The highlight of the trip, by far, was taking you on your first safari.   I went on my first of these about 5 years ago to the day we went, when your mom and I went on a couple day safari in Tanzania.  One of thosedays was one of the best of my life – a day spent continually in awe of the various animals.  A few weekends ago was different from going into the Ngorongoro Crater, but indelible in the same fashion.

As a family, we headed into Nairobi National Park in the morning after our arrival the evening before. I did not know what to expect, having never been to this park.  We had heard good things about the park, with the proximity to one of the largest cities in the region being lauded as a positive.  But I was a little skeptical, thinking that the best parks around the world are usually far from urban centers.

I was wrong.  Thankfully.

We spent the morning and into the afternoon driving on beat up paved and dirt roads, with our own car and driver meaning we were flexible and responsive to being in the park with a 2 year old.  You did a bush pee in the park, which warmed my heart and got you excited to pee near impalas. 

More importantly, we got to see many of the coolest animals in the world in their own natural setting.  Watching a dominant male impala protect his harem of female impalas from a secondary herd of solo males.  Seeing zebras at the end of the day and you pointing to them and squalling in delight – ‘ZEBRAS!’ We saw a lion lounging in the high grass protecting a recent buffalo kill.

Highlights;

- Two separate points in the day we parked near giraffes eating off acacia trees maybe 40-50 feet from the road.  The first time it was raining and the second had the sun out in force.  Both times, you stood excitedly at the nearest window to the majestic animals and looked with such intensity at them eating and walking around the forest.  You wanted to be right there, and no where else.  Same as your mom, same as me.  The second time we watched the giraffes, you kept asking where one of them was going as it circled the nearest tree eating.  “Where he going daddy?”  And when we started to pull away and go look for more animals, you didn’t want to leave.

- A second cool moment came as we parked near a little lake and creek flowing from the small body of water.  This space attracted a ton of birds, and a massive croc.  In the middle distance there was a huge bird, which we thought at first was a ground bound- Secretarybird.  But nope, it was a fish eagle, chilling on the ground right next to the creek.  After a few minutes, we noticed flopping underneath the eagle, and then it becomes obvious that the eagle has a fish in its talons trapped on the ground, waiting for it to die.  A vulture swoops in and disturbs the eagle, which rises slowly from the ground with the fish in its talons.  Then it becomes obvious how large the fish is, maybe 3 feet long and in truth too big for the bird.  The weight of the fish makes it hard for the eagle to fly and somehow the fish wriggles out of the talons and flops into the little creek.  The reality is that fish is probably not long for the earth with huge talon holes in its side, but for a moment it is free and back in its habitat. You ask plaintively – “why they do that?” 

Nature honey, that is why they do that.

Love,

dad