Okay, okay! If you insist...

Gosh, I'm disappointed no one asked me about being chased by lions or by baboons or by a hippo!

I wonder why? Surely the fact that no one is reading my blog has nothing to do with it! Nah!!!!! That's not it.

So, Mr. MineAllMine, won't you please tell us (me and my friends here) one of your stories, please? Huh? Come on!!!!!!

Well, if you insist.



We were visiting Meru National Park. When I was a little boy, there was a movie about a lion named Elsa. This true story took place in Meru National Park. In real life, the savannahs of MNP were even more spectacular than in the movie. Mount Kenya towered in the near distance, it's snow capped peak so close to the equator took my breath away. I can remember gazing at it in awe from our camp in the morning... I just can't remember which direction it was from the camp, but I think it was north-east.

Okay, this isn't one of the stories I intended to tell. I just came from doing a web search on MNP. I wanted to find out where that mountain was, but I read something that broke my heart.

When I was there, we were taken to a special preserve in the park... it was where the Park Service rangers and security personnel were housed. At various times, animals who were of special interest, and in special danger were brought there for safety.

We arrived within hours of the birth of a new, white (square-lipped) rhinoceros. I remember seeing this beautiful beast, grazing on hay and cut branches, looking deceptively serene, while her newborn struggled to nurse. Now, to just about any but die-hard animal lovers, I'm sure it's hard to imagine a beautiful rhinoceros. Trust me. Looking at this monsterous beast with it's baby at it's side I was moved by the beauty of it.

I just found out that the last rhinoceros, a white, in MNP was poached in 1988. This park, home to rhinocerii for millenia, is no longer.

While white rhino are not extinct, at least not yet, I'm sadded by this. I don't understand why this happened. I don't understand the poacher mentality.

I don't feel like telling my story any more. Maybe later.