Hemingway Adventure (1999) (20 page)

Big game drew Hemingway to Africa in the 1930s.

His old stamping ground is now Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Seeing game on foot is not an option for most tourists, but it was the way Hemingway preferred to do it. Thanks to my trusty escorts, Ali in the cap and Jackson in the Masai robe, I see more than most visitors to these plains.

The green hills of Africa - wooded slopes of the Chyulu Hills as seen from Ol Donyo Wuas. In the distance, a panorama of dry plains, dust rising from an approaching vehicle. Somewhere beyond that lurks the tallest mountain in Africa.

The inspiring first sight of Kilimanjaro from a light plane. Kibo, the 19,340-foot summit, is on the right.

With Richard Bonham (like Hemingway, an Honorary Game Warden), taking a look at the constipated cheetah. When it’s well enough Richard will release it back into the wild. It’s ‘half-tame’ according to Richard, but it turns half-wild when I try to pat it on the head.

The day of a circumcision ceremony at a Masai village.

The grandmother of the circumcised boy mixes blood and milk outside his hut.

Lighting a fire with sticks for the feast later in the day.

Blood is taken from one of the cows.

Comedy spear-throwing. Young Masai warriors cracking up.

Inside the hut: grandmother and mother tend to the boy (behind the curtain) who will take two weeks to recover.

Rescuers at the Hemingways’ plane after it crash-landed beside the Murchison Falls, Uganda.