Ilka Chase

In the 1960�s my school holidays were in the Serengeti where my father was Assistant Game Warden-cum-Seronera Lodge Manager.

Seronera Lodge was the only place to stay; just six mabati & thatch rondavels, en suite with cooking areas, self-catering but with accommodation nearby for guests� cooks. My mother had a big kerosene freezer where guests could keep their perishables. You can see the concrete plinth of the house which was our home to this day, just by Park HQ.

We had some great pets, among them an abandoned lion cub which I used to bottle feed, and an otter which came from Lake Victoria. Major Ian Grimwood gave Mother the otter; it lived in the bathroom at night, in a few inches of water in the tub. There was an illustrated chapter about it in a book called �Elephants arrive at Half Past Five� by Ilke Chase who stayed at Seronera on one of her safaris and met us all.

These were the days when Joy and George Adamsons were in the Serengeti, working on the release of Elsa�s cubs (remember the books Born Free, Living Free and Forever Free?) They used to call into our house in the evenings on the way back from the Mbalangeti area where they had been trying to locate the released cubs.