Night One: La Pepita was just the type of place I had hoped for. With the energy of a favorite neighborhood restaurant, it was absolutely packed and we would not have gotten a seat at 9pm without reservations (early by Spanish standards). We decided to give ourselves over to the chef and let them choose which tapas to bring out for us to share. With a lovely bottle of Catalan wine to accompany the meal, the dishes started to arrive. In fact, they arrived so quickly we could barely keep up. They were tasty, some exceptionally so, but the restaurant was so busy that it felt like the small kitchen was simply pumping out tapas as fast as it could, and as a result the pacing was definitely off.
In 1996, French chef Joël Robuchon – considered the best chef in the world at the time – retired (temporarily) and handed the baton, or rather the spatula, to Ferran Adria – the owner and chef of elBulli, located two hours north of Barcelona in the small coastal town of Roses. It rocked the gastronomic world that a Frenchman – always the epitome of culinary excellence – was handing over the reins to a Spaniard – a Catalan even. The following year elBulli received its third Michelin star, and in 2003 Ferran Adria graced the cover of the New York Times Magazine with the headline “The Nueva Nouvelle Cuisine: How Spain Became the New France,” accompanied by a fourteen-page article. Since then, the culinary world has not been the same.
But mousie,
In proving foresight may be vain,
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go oft astray,
And leave us not but grief and pain,
For promis’d joy.
-Robert Burns
9/21/12
September 21st, 2012: It’s our last night in Africa. We’ve decided to leave Lion Encounter a day earlier than expected and have sequestered ourselves in the Protea Hotel in Livingstone. Kim’s been suffering from a cold for the past few days and it became obvious that we needed to get a decent shower and a good night’s sleep in before we begin our two-day journey back home (twenty-four hours of which will be spent in the air). It’s not how we wanted to end our time in Africa. Then again, it’s reflective of how our trip has been. We leave feeling conflicted, worn out, and let down. We’ve seen some gorgeous sights, heard some amazing sounds, traveled to some humble places, caught up with some much-missedlions and friends, and have met and madesomenewones along the way.
At the same time, that nagging question: To what end?
I dreamed about you, baby.
It was just the other night.
Most of you was naked
Ah, but some of you was light.
-Leonard Cohen
Darkness and light
Over the past several months as I’ve been interviewing people for our Profiles series the answer I’ve been most interested in from each was their response to the question, “How do you explain the spell a place like Africa casts on you to someone who hasn’t traveled there?” Of the dozen-plus interviews most have replied with some variation of, “It’s the laid back attitude of the continent,” or, “It’s simply an indescribably beautiful place.” (Paraphrasing, of course.) But it was answers from photographer Bruce Colin and ALERT COO David Youldon that struck me the most and best capture what the essence of Africa is to me.
“It is the light, the quality of light,” Bruce told me. “That is the magical ingredient for me.”
For several months prior to our departure we’d been hearing that Lion Encounter was expecting new cubs around the time that we would be volunteering there. Once we arrived, however, there seemed to be as many different predictions on the cubs arrival date as the number of people we talked to, so we put it out of our minds as it seemed unlikely they would arrive as soon as originally expected. After all, This is Africa.
On the afternoon of our return from Zimbabwe we were scheduled on a walk with the 2MZeds. As we were leaving the White House to walk over to their enclosure we saw Cara, the Lions Manager, in her pick-up truck announcing that she was on her way to pick up the cubs! Of course, all the staff and volunteers were abuzz with an excitement that would later turn to grumbling when we returned from the walk and discovered that we were tasked with cleaning out the crates the cubs had traveled from South Africa in. But afterwards, as a reward for our efforts, we got to go over and take a peek at the newest arrivals. We walked over to their enclosure as quietly as a couple of dozen people tingling with excitement can. They were still recovering from their long journey and adjusting to their unfamiliar surroundings, but they seemed to be in good spirits.
Deus impeditio esuritori nullus.
(No god can stop a hungry man.)
On our way to get ice cream! (Photo courtesy Dirk van der Maas.)
The six of us are crouched underneath some roadside scrub trying to seek relief from the blistering sun and heat. We’d spent the past hour walking the 500 meters of the M10 between the road to Lion Encounter and the turn-off to Dambwa, picking up trash and getting the oddest stares from the cars, semis, and random bicyclists who happened to pass us by. It was okay, though; this is one of those activities that, while it might have me grumbling about the heat, it wouldn’t have me complaining about the work. (In fact, Kim was actually smiling and happy to be out picking up trash. She is an odd one, that way.)
Why? Similar to spending a morning refilling one of the Dambwa Pride’s water pans, it’s work that makes a direct and tangible difference. As well, it’s good public relations for both ALERT and Lion Encounter. It’s not walking lions for the photo pay-off, it’s walking along the side of a busy highway under an unrelenting African sun, picking up trash that’s been thrown out of passing vehicles and showing that we’re good citizens of the world concerned with something more than how our pictures turned out.
We thought we had enough garbage bags to cover whatever roadside trash we’d encounter, but it was obvious almost from the outset that we were woefully unprepared to clean up even this small stretch of Zambian motorway. So while the pickup truck was off getting more bags we took respite from the pounding heat, and as a way to help pass the time I asked everyone a simple question.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
-Ernest Hemingway
All hail Zulu! All hail the King!
Unlike the thrice-daily Ngamo research sessions at Antelope Park, while we were at Lion Encounter research sessions inside the Dambwa Stage Two release site consisted of two morning sessions that took place only once a week. So it wasn’t until our final week at LE that we were (happily) given the chance to see and study Zulu and the Dambwa Pride up close. With a packed breakfast courtesy the kitchen staff at LE, Kim and I headed out to the release site with ALERT researcher Jacqui, fellow vol Georgia, a driver, and Kennedy – one of the lion handlers.
kimpluscraig.com
