Berg

Hear Wally's Call from Africa

Click for [RealPlayer]  [Windows Media]

(Requires FREE RealPlayer or Windows Media)

We just had, for me, the most interesting game drive of the season yesterday here in Ngorongoro Crater. We saw a couple of the black rhinos that live in this area, very close to the vehicles.

Then just a little bit later we watched a cheetah off in the grass. We found the cheetah because we saw a gazelle that she had just killed. Beautiful animal, we watched her for some time. Then we saw a hippo that had lost a fight with another hippo and was kind of wondering around, quite injured and dazed. And, of course, as we drove away we realized that that fellow was not long for this world down there in that crater with all those predators wondering around. He's huge, but he's injured and he may have been a meal last night, even.

We saw a very interesting scene over on the other side of the crater where apparently a jackal had killed a flamingo and the hyenas came, of course. It was pretty interesting watching these creatures spar over the game that had just been taken. There were a couple baby jackals who were getting a little bit of chow, but there was a big hyena around that was more interested in her children getting the chow, so it was quite the interesting scene to watch. Beautiful time down in the crater yesterday.

Very happy, satisfied time for this entire crew after our successful climb on Kilimanjaro. I left you on the summit, or near there, the other day. Sue had turned back quite early in the climb, due to her breathing problems, due to her cold, but was satisfied with her effort. John had a bad day with his stomach, which happens sometimes traveling in the Third World. He pushed hard but he knew that when he turned back he really needed to. The guide Mark was instrumental in getting both of them back to camp and down to Mweka Hut all of a sudden.

Unfortunately, Lance and John had to fly back to New York. The rest of us are out here enjoying safari. I left the summit the other day with Wally Cox, and myself and Bill up there, the three of us especially. Others had already started down, slowly. Patty and Rick were right with us, too. But, we were up there enjoying, feeling as high was you can. And it was really great being on the summit. Wally was thinking about his five-month-old boy back in Phoenix. And I mentioned how enjoyable it was to be up there with Bill.

I didn't even know it at the time, but Bill's wife Nicky had surprised him with this climb, to come to Kilimanjaro with me and do this climb, only two weeks before he left. And he's the kind of guy, he keeps himself in shape and is always psyched for a new adventure, and there we were on the summit of Kilimanjaro just a couple days ago. Amazing experience.

We'll continue to keep you posted from safari and I'll continue to check in about the continuing adventures in Africa, upcoming adventures in Antarctica and everything else. So we'll be on this cyberline for the rest of August and on into September for a couple of weeks.

—Alpine Ascents Guide Wally Berg, MountainZone.com Correspondent