The story behind the artwork
Excerpts from travel journal of Tanzania, January 20 - 21, 2005
Thursday,
Jan 20th
Serengeti / Ngorongoro
It's
morning and we're just waiting for them to load the trucks, then we're
off to "cheetah town" and then to camp on the rim of the crater.
Last night I heard the hyenas again. They were sniffing around my tent,
circling. Maybe where I had spit when brushing my teeth. Then I remember
hearing one of them lapping up water. I thought of the two water basins
outside my tent. Then I heard it dump the water completely out and chatter
away. Fish said this morning he saw the whole thing and that one of the
hyenas ran off with the basin.
Yesterday, while we were trying to nap a thunderstorm blew through. It
only lasted about forty minutes and it really cooled things off. It made
for a pleasant afternoon game drive. We watched two male giraffes butt
heads and necks. This is called "necking" according to Bob's
animal behavior book. I'll never forget that strange sound. They seem
so gentle and graceful, and languid most of the time. Who would think
they could cause any harm to one another? The thwack, thwack of those
massive muscle-bound necks! Later, we stopped by a new hippo pool. It
was packed with hippos, snorting and pooping and blowing bubbles. They
are seriously disgusting! One lifted its rump in the air and defecated
all over another one's face. There was also a dead one lying there, all
four bloated feet up in the air and there was a small crocodile that kept
trying to break in through its navel for a snack. Like trying to remove
a big hippo cork. He was unsuccessful. It was all quite fascinating, in
a revolting way. Next, we headed to the bar at the lodge and had a few
beers.
...
Now we are at camp. It is a stunning view from the rim of the crater.
I can see the clouds turning pink as the sun is starting to set. They
told us to watch out for brush pigs tonight and elephants. I saw some
elephants from my tent, and heard a trumpeting sound. Too cool! It's already
starting to cool down, tonight will be the chilliest. I suppose we're
at about 7,000 feet right now. During our game drive today out of the
Serengetti we stopped by "cheetah town." We saw about seven
total. One was perched on a rock, one eating her kill, and one with two
cubs. Absolutely adorable. We had a picnic lunch at one of the many bizarre
rock islands throughout the vast plains area. We also saw two lionesses
and one lion lying by the road. One rolled over on her back, her huge
belly exposed to the sun. The male had a nice mane, but he never raised
his head.
...
I'm looking forward to the noises I will hear tonight. Pigs would be a
new one. And to see elephants roaming amongst our tents would be unreal!
Friday,
Jan 21st
Ngorongoro Crater
Last night was super cool. The temperature was cool, too, perfect for sleeping. We took an evening "field trip" to the Wilderness Lodge for a few beers. They have a huge deck overlooking the crater. We got there just before it went completely dark. I'm sure it would be an amazing view at sunrise. On the way back to camp we came across several hyenas along the road. They are so cool, I just love 'em. They may be my favorites so far. They're up there with the cheetahs. Back at camp we were finishing up dinner and I heard a loud crack and turned. There was an elephant walking through the campground right next to us. "Oh s##t! There's an elephant!" I announced. Luckily we were all feeling pretty loose from our happy hour, so it wasn't scary. And the elephant didn't hang around long, but all hands were on deck shoving all the food inside the jeeps, immediately! It was quite a scramble. Too cool. The rest of the night was comparatively uneventful, a distant barking, some heavy footsteps with no other sounds. Beerman told me the next morning there had been buffalo grazing around the site all night long. I crawled out of my tent to pee around 3 am and saw nothing... I checked. The moon was so bright and the stars were brilliant, I didn't even need a flashlight, except of course, for the routine check for the flash of eyes...
(PBS video of "necking" behavior)
necking
acrylic
on canvas
40x30"
Additional Links:
My short video from safari showing the necking behavior.