As a place for working and camping Engaruka was superb. .....

Yet even in this beautiful place we suffered one horrifying reminder of the continual clash of interests between man and nature which has destroyed so much of the Africa which once was. Henry Fosbrooke, a former student of Louis's was at that time the local District Officer, and some of the Masai who had their manyattas, or homesteads, near Engaruka had recently complained to him about lions which were attacking their cattle: the trouble must have been quite serious, for normally Masai warriors welcomed the chance to hunt lions themselves. While we were at Engaruka, Henry drove down in a lorry and shot the entire offending pride. He and his wife stayed with us at the camp and Henry proudly exhibited the dead lions, slung into the back of his truck. It was one of the most appalling sights I have ever seen. How many destroyed lions has it taken to bring about today's attitude to them, in which Henry would not have been allowed to do such a thing at all, let alone to do it like an extermination of vermin.

The border with Kenya was closed in 1977 (reopened 17 Nov 1983).....

One effect of the enforced isolation in Tanzania has been to strengthen the ties of friendship and the bonds of mutual reliance between those of us who live on or near the Serengeti. George Dove had left three years before the border closed, and since his departure my closest neighbour has been Margaret Kullander, who has been a wonderful friend. She was born in Tanzania, though of British parents, and has spent most of her life in the country. When I first met her, Jim Gibb, her first husband, was still alive and they run a coffee plantation at Karatu, a village on the road from Ngorongoro to Arusha. After Jim's death, from a stroke, she married Per Kullander, a Norwegian who had been farm manager while Jim Gibb was alive. Gibb's Farm, as it is still called, has become a highly successful lodge and has a fine kitchen garden from which Margaret and Per have generously supplied my camps with superb fresh vegetables, so essential to our well being.