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Two Weeks with Pat and Quail
When Pat and Quail arrived, I had been suffering with back
problems and was not sure I could make the great fishing trip-a 6+ hour drive
north of Tanga to Shimoni, Kenya and the Shimoni Reef on the Pemba Channel. One
day of Pat and Quail in Moshi, and then brother-in-law Tom’s arrival, convinced
me that there was no way I would miss this trip. So, 36 hours after they
arrived, we were all piling into our safari car. (See previous blog!)
Here are a few pictures that were not in that Shimoni blog.
Early morning Pat and Quail head stand ready to head to the fishing boat.
Nikoli's Fish with A tired group
Smuggler's cove for a beer after the day
Pat chatting with Greg & John
Pat and Quail on the Shuwari with their new friends
Pat's new best friend
Terrie, Pat, Quail and Bob make up this first group of fisher folk!
Bob and Quail chat on way back from a long day.
Here is the entry for Quail's Blue Marlin "BLM cane took lure run then line cut off. Pay no attention the the 2007 year as the handwritten date is 20/1/15! Poor Quail.
Well, Quail may have missed his Marlin, but he still got to kiss one of the girls, Mia Hemphill.
The morning after we returned from Shimoni, Pat, Quail, John
and I packed and headed up to Marangu Hotel.
With the exception of sleep, I cannot imagine a more magical day and
night. We were given amazing rooms that looked right at the mountain from our
little verandahs.
John and Quail look at the view from the veranda of our rooms.
Seamus, his nephew Anthony and Quail--the great Walking Stick Trade!
Perhaps the most special moment for all was when
Seamus greeted us and after a bit of settling in returned to talk to
Quail. Quail had asked for a
recommendation for finding a “real African walking stick.” The two had a long
discussion about families, walking sticks and were agreeable about the
significance of walking sticks. Within
15 minutes Seamus and his nephew returned with a +60 year old walking stick and
made a trade; Seamus’ family’s walking stick for Quail’s special NC Laurel wood
walking stick that had traveled around the world. All of us were standing
looking like idiots with our mouths open.
There is actually no way to imagine how after 15 minutes Seamus could
see a “kindred” soul or someone who treasures everything that he is given like
Quail does.
After this amazing experience we made a quick dash to Lawi Mushi's house and his beautiful carvings. Pat and Quail picked the rough of "The Blind Drummer" and heard the story of this man from Lawi. They were completely taken with the story and chose this carving. When Lawi brought it to Moshi, I couldn't believe the incredible beauty of the carving.
Here we are with Lawi and his daughter "Christa"
We had a delicious lunch, met with their safari guide
Winluck. This is always an
adventure.
Our guide Roderik with lucky Pat and me!
The hike down to the falls was beautiful and not too much of it was hard. We were definitely rewarded when we got to the bottom.
A hike had been arranged for
us to the Ndoro Falls in the afternoon and then dinner at night.We went on our happy walk and it was perfect. Maybe we were actually thinking that we were
walking off our lunch, but I can tell you that the scales did not lie when I
came home from Marangu. We got the
safari settled, had drinks outside in the incredibly beauty that is the Marangu
Hotel, and then got the grand tour of the archives and the “teaching room” for
the hikes.
(Amazing old photos of the Mountain in the early days--from The Kilimanjaro Mountain Club)
No need to bet that we heard
the great stories again, especially about “the Hemingway Room.” You only need to individually e-mail us to
hear this amazing story…(as most people remember there were Hemingways in this
area quite a bit, though most were not Ernest) We had one of the most simple
and best dinners that I can remember in Moshi…from home baked rolls, to
vegetable soup, to this amazing baked chicken and then to desserts that were
just unbelievable. Sleep was
unattainable maybe because of the long drives and time on the boats, or maybe
because I blew my sleep machine up after 10 years (the old 120 to 220 problem).
We had another delicious breakfast and
off to Moshi.
Here is the clocktower in downtown Moshi (all cities have clocktowers in he "center of town" This is not the center anymore, but used to be.
The downtown Mosque (beautiful, and located right next to the Hindu Temple and across the street from the big Catholic Church. )
Mr. Shah and John
The Moshi story is great because Quail stopped everywhere
chatting and talking to people. A two-hour
downtown trip turned into 6 hours. At
one point I dragged Quail into a shop just to get away from the street boys that
he had engaged in conversation. We were
like Magnets. Even the Zantel shop
(which had closed at 12:00) let us in because they know me, and there were so
many young people surrounding us. We
later stopped at Chui Traders, and Mr. Shah proceeded to bring out all of his
photos to show Quail.
(Aleem's shelves)
At 3:45 (with only
15 minutes left before Aleem’s grocery closed) Mr. Shah was at pictures from
1963. Of course Quail charmed Aleem as
well, and Aleem reminded us that he would always open if I called him after working
hours. (gracious)
Their next day featured the early morning arrival of Winluck and
their safari began. I have to say that
the house seemed very empty without the presence of Pat and Quail, though new
visitors arrived the night they left.
Their visit was to meet with the Doris Duke Scholars from Duke who are
abroad. These visits seemed to go well
until terrible weather was predicted for both Amsterdam and Boston, their entry
point back to the states. They
rearranged their flights in accordance and were gone before the drama of Pat
and Quail’s return from safari began.
I am including several of Pat and Quail’s safari pictures,
just because they are so wonderful.
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| Pat Quail on the rim of the crater |
The
migration pictures were excellent, the animals were prolific and the birds many
and beautiful.
Of course no safari blog is complete without my favorite animals (nigirilover after all) The warthogs-
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| The beautiful blond hair of this warthog is not even caked with mud! |
It is truly wonderful to live through the words and cameras of friends. Because these safaris are now so expensive, we cannot go on them anymore. But we certainly love to see the photos and hear that at least at some level the animals are managing to at least marginally escape the poachers and developers. I hope that these pictures remind people of things that are going to be gone if something does not change in terms of these amazing national preserves, stop the poaching of any animal, the development of new roads and hotels....
The portender of disaster
might happen could have been the flat tire in Ngorongoro that Quail helped to
change (despite the lions near by).
As the group was leaving the parks, the
safari car broke down and drama was great.
The driver of the car behind theirs was a friend of Winluck's. At first they tried just to pour water into
the radiator, but that only worked briefly.
Next the towing began with a chain.
It might have gotten them to Manyara-town in the terrifying way of
towing up the hills and gulping, gripping hands going down the hills, if it
were not for the Masai and cows crossing the road, and the lorrie that pulled
in front of them. Suffice it to say, no
tow was going to get them to Moshi. It
was clear that they were going to have to come home in some other way. During the wait time, they hung out under a
small thatched place near the workers quarters and survived a thunderstorm,
though they were appreciably soaked. When they finally arrived in Moshi well
after dark, gin flowed even as their stories allowed us to live every event.
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| Gin is Good |
But, we were not done even then. We had another fairly restful day with just a
few visits downtown, but that night, we headed out with our friends Greg, Terrie, Nikoli and Jenn to Mkulima. It was an inauguration for the whole gang except John and me, and we loved the comraderie that happened at this fabulous restaurant. Even our waitress remembered John and me, and proceeded to hug the entire group, one by one.
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| Oh dear, no beers yet?????She will be there soon. Mkulima love. |
The following day, we headed to The Emmanuel’s for lunch
and then planned to go to the hash in Machame following the lunch. Nick and Sylvie’s house is a paradise on
earth. We strolled around seeing all the
flowers and trees and plants.
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| Not the best shot of these two, but sorry no reading glasses |
Pat and Quail
both listened and talked non-stop. By
the end of our visit not only had Sylvie invited them to come back, spend a
month and help Sylvie work through her family archives, and stay with
them. Quail walked out with the borrowed
1800’s book “The Complete Angler”. For
the rest of the visit, Quail regaled us with poems and insights from the book.
Sadly we left that lovely lunch and headed to the hash.
Bob had set a tough one, so Pat, Quail and I
went walking around the little area that features a really nice river, and a
camp ground.
We walked up to a small
village area spoke to many folks who were walking, and managed to avoid the
piki-piki (motorbikes). We ambled back
to the camp where beer and bites were being served, and the hashers were coming
back, some covered in mud, most of them having slipped down rocks on their rear
ends.
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| John and Lisa Join us for pizza and drinks on the porch! |
Pat and Quail’s last day with us was just a day on the
porch. Other than the frantic searching
for the yellow fever vaccines, it was nice and relaxing. But, then time to go to the airport and our
visit was at an end.
