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Wednesday, March 17, 2010 Orono Weekly Times - 7 AFRICA Continued from page 5 connectiveness of nature." But Jim was too busy birding to pick up a paint brush. "For me, leisure time meant getting the tripod, putting on the large lens, and chasing the birds, while everyone else was around the pool drinking vodkas and orange," he says, with a laugh. "There was so much I didn't want to miss. I'd just go from sun up to sun down." In fact, one morning, the Sherri and Jim awoke before dawn because Jim had asked their local driver to take them out an hour earlier to catch the sunrise. The driver took Jim and Sherri and one other couple out, and although they only went about 15 minutes from camp, it became one of their most memorable experiences, says Jim. The sunrise was spectacular, but what happened next moved him to tears, even in the retelling, as he admits he is "still coming down from the emotions of the trip." "We got our pictures as the sun started to come up," recalls Jim. "And we turned around to go get breakfast. Then the driver asked us, 'Do you really want to blow your minds?' And we said, 'Okay.' He told us to close our eyes, and we agreed, and he took us down one of these real side roads, basically off road, for about 10 minutes. "We could hear animals, and hear them part as we approached, but the driver told us, 'Don't open your eyes yet. Give me about a minute.' We parked and waited, and we could hear the animals come back. Then he said, 'Okay, open your eyes.' We were surrounded by wildebeests and zebras, 'Thousands of them!' I said. The driver laughed at me, 'Thousands? Would you believe 1.4 million?' We were surrounded by 1.4 million wildebeests and 600,000 zebras! You'd look 360 degrees around you, right out to the horizon, and it was all animals. It was great. You just can't imagine that many animals!" "I'm not a religious person, but it was spiritual," says Jim, his usually strong voice now almost a whisper. "It makes you feel really small." Altogether, Jim estimates he saw 58 species of mammals, including lions, leopards, cheetahs, serval cats, elephants, rhinoceros, hippos, giraffes, wildebeests, Cape Buffalo, zebras, gazelles, impalas, and oryx. He also saw about 360 species of birds, a number he says he was pleased with, "considering it wasn't a bird trip." For Sherri, one of the highlights was meeting the Maasai people. Traditional, nomadic cattle-drovers from a warrior culture who live on the Serengeti alongside most of the wild animals, the Maasai have an aversion to eating game and birds, and subsist almost exclusively on their cattle. "We went to this Maasai village," says Sherri. "Our tour guide knew the Wildlife photos by J. Richards chief. The people were still living like they did years ago. Their houses are circular, just one room about 10 feet across with a dirt floor, built out of sticks and cow dung. "They speak English so we were fortunate enough to ask them some questions. We asked them all sorts of questions about what they eat - milk and blood from their cattle. If they want to marry, they have to ask permission from the chief and the father of the bride, and they have to supply a dowry, like two goats, or a goat and a cow." Sherri and Jim saw the villagers perform a number of traditional dances, wearing their bright red, tribal capes. "I was very intrigued," says Sherri. "Here is this very primitive group, still living off the land, and they seem very happy." "They're hard working people," says Jim, "especially the women. The men protect the flock of animals. The women walk six miles with 10-gallon pails on their backs, trudging across the Serengeti, lugging water and sticks for firewood." Back in the towns of Tanzania and Kenya, things were different. "We saw proud people, and reckless poverty," says Jim. "They were a very oppressed people for decades. Only recently have they had a democracy and a right to vote. They really appreciate their freedom." Jim says that Sherri brought an extra suitcase of school supplies, along with rubber balls and skipping ropes, for the local children. "You know what they asked for most?" asks Jim, still incredulous about the answer, "pens, for school." It moved the Richardses so much that they started collecting the complimentary pens from the lodges to give to the children. "They were so happy to get them," says Jim. Apart from the lodges, the group also spent six nights in tent camps. The tents, however, were not your typical canvas structure staked to the ground. Instead, they were on a solid platform with hardwood floors raised about six inches off the ground, complete with fullsize beds and electricity. "We enjoyed the tents better than the lodges," says Jim. "There was just a screen between you and nature. We kept the walls down at night for the fresh air. You could hear the warthogs and hippos grunting, and the lions roaring all night. You were that much closer to the wildlife you went there to see." "It was awe-inspiring," he says. "It's going to take years to get over it, if we ever do." With plans to visit the Antarctic and the Galápagos Islands next, Jim says it may be a couple of years before they can revisit Africa, but it is definitely something they want to do. In the meantime, Jim says he has about 21,000 photographs to sort through from the safari tour. He plans to use the photos to give an illustrated talk (a PowerPoint slide show) here in Orono about the mammals of Africa, sometime in the coming months.