The first explorers came to realize that the tent was the capsule they returned to after their African space walks during the day. Throw a blanket down on the ground in Africa and then be prepared to deal with venomous serpents and scorpions, per-haps ticks that could be, in the long run, even more deadly exposure to malaria-transmitting mosquitoes and the odd chance of getting dragged away into the night by something out of The Ghost and the Darkness. Theodore Roosevelt, who initially planned on roughing it in Africa with his son, Kermit, as the “early pioneers” had done in the Rockies and Great North Woods (and who were nonetheless “as hardy as bears, and lived to a hale old age, if Indians and accidents permitted”), grudgingly acknowledged that one had to care for oneself in Equatorial Africa as “he would scorn to do” in “lands of pine and birch and frosty weather.” The thing is, tents were not effected by safaris but evolved out of them. With porters, tents could be carried, pitched, and struck. Arab traders had shelters of Bedouin cloth woven from goat and sheep hair the loose weave allowed the wind to pass through in the heat and the smoke to escape, while rain swelled the fibers to make the fabric waterproof. Africans built huts and lean-tos as they traveled. Tents were not necessarily part of the origin story of the great African hunting adventure. Which led me to the belief, valid or not, that the best safaris should be under canvas.
Nobody wants to hear some fossil maundering about “back when,” but back when I began hunting in Kenya as a very young man, safaris still set off in lorries and traveled off the roads until they found, in the hunting blocks they had booked with the game department, the remembered campsites, or the newly prospected ones, at which to raise the tents.
And there’s nothing wrong in hunting in a certain style, if you wish. That’s far from the rule of safari in Africa, but it is trending. And, if the mood strikes, you can also hunt big game. Direct-satellite television, plunge pools, under-floor heating, gourmet dining, gymnasiums, and conference centers can all be found in one lodge or another in Africa. There are places where it isn’t a “safari” without cell service-or, better, Wi-Fi.
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