A Mikumi Memory

 I haven't written about them in some time but the memory flashes that I've had for years are becoming more frequent. A picture suddenly jumps into my mind, interrupting and often totally unrelated to whatever I am doing: like, yesterday, standing in the utility room, a moment in Mikumi National Park utterly possessed me; lingered briefly; then faded, leaving the ghost of a memory.

I was standing in the back of a Land Rover next to Mrs MW as we were driven down a rutted track from the park gate to....

....the lodge where we were staying. It was built on a low hill with the dining area at the summit and the tents - each covered by a straw roof - arranged so they gave a views of the water hole where many animals, including....

....lion, came to drink.

Mikumi is one of Tanzania's newer game parks having been established in 1964. We had been warned not to expect too much, and that, because it was close to Dar-es-Salaam, it could become crowded but we had no complaint....

....seeing plenty of game - though we noticed that none of the elephant carried any weight of ivory, the result of years of poaching.

In any case we were never the twitcher sort of tourist who has a list of what he needs see. There is as much pleasure to be had from watching a majestic giraffe standing in the heat of the day under the shade of an acacia as there is in watching....

....the seething mass of a safari ant column moving through the dry dirt intent on mischief.

I am grateful to my brain for carrying round all these picture memories, and for the frequent surprises I have on seeing them; and after each event I feel so thankful that I experienced the moments that made them, often many years ago.