By Bob Van Leer

  (Sienna Springs Camp, Kenya, East Africa, Feb. 6, 1995) - We are staying tonight in an a well-set-up tent camp in the Masai Mara, not far from the Tanzanian border.

  In game drives this morning and afternoon, we have seen a lot of the African wildlife, including elephants. But we have not yet seen a lion. We arrived here this morning after a 40 minute flight from Nairobi in a DC-3. This was the first successful airliner, designed in the 1930s and its military version served the country well in World War II. DC-3s were in general use in U. S. airlines until the 1950s and 1960s, and were replaced by jets and turbo props. But they are still in use in other parts of the world.

  Our DC-3 landed on a one-runway strip with a decided slope in the Mara without incident, something many newer planes can't handle. The plane was well-maintained, unlike some planes we have flown in Russia and Cuba.

  Much of the Mara is a national park and the Masai are no longer able to graze their cattle in the park. As we drove from the airstrip to the camp, we drove alongside a fire inside the park. Our guide said the Masai set the fires outside the park to make way for new grass. But they have no way to control where the fire runs. Around and in the fire area were hundreds of big white birds, yellow-billed storks. They were gathered for a feast. The fire drove small animals and snakes from their burrows and the storks dined on barbecued small wildlife.

  The temperature during the day is hot, but the evenings are more comfortable. This safari is for wildlife viewing only. Hunting is not permitted in the park. Guests are driven through the park mostly in minivans with a few smaller vehicles. Guests are not permitted to leave the vehicles. For one reason, there are animals in the park that would have you for lunch.

  The animals are accustomed to the vehicles and hardly notice them. The vehicles don't bother them, and they have likely tried a bite and they don't taste good, so they are a neutral feature in the landscape for the wildlife.

  We saw a half-dozen elephants and a number of giraffes. We did not see lions, but we did see cheetahs and one serval cat, sort of like a small leopard. The Mara teems in various types of antelope and deer-type animals. Common are Thompson's gazelle, impala, topi, wildebeest, hartebeest and others. We saw hundreds of zebras, ostriches, and a number of warthogs that tear away with their tails standing straight up.

  The tent camp is not what we're accustomed to calling tents. they have indoor plumbing, showers, and electricity seven hours a day. The swimming pool, however, is rather small. Hot water is available at 4:00 p.m. Behind each tent is a small tank of water. At 4:00, someone comes by, fills the hole under the tank with wood and starts a fire.

  Day and night there are strange sounds coming from the woods surrounding the camp. Vervet monkeys play all over the camp. The tents have to be kept closed up when unoccupied to keep the monkeys from getting in and trashing the tents.

  The camp is surrounded by a wire fence and the gate is closed at night. We met a young Masai man named David, carrying a traditional spear. He said he patrolled the camp all night long in case something gets by the fence. Tomorrow we are going game viewing by balloon.