The
Treetops Hotel,
Aberdare
National Park,
Aberdare Mountains, Kenya!
It's
evening . The mosy-tents are grouped in a semicircular alignment.
Ant
and John sit on collapsible field chairs. I found a semi comfortable
log on which I perch. We dig up old memories of previous Safaris,
previous adventures.
Out
of the blue John looks at me and asks: “Do you remember the
Treetops Hotel?”
Do
I remember the Treetops? You bet I remember the Treetops.
“In
the Aberdare Mountains” I say. “Beautiful area.”
John
nods his head. “Yep, lovely hotel” he adds.
It
had the narrowest dining room. Just enough space for a table and a
row of 12 chairs on each side. Not enough space for a waiter on
either side.
“The
little platform running on a toy track was a brilliant solution”
John
adds.
Ant
looks questioningly at both of us.
A
more detailed explanation is necessary.
“To
overcome lack of space, they just laid a toy track down the middle of
the
dining
room table, a round platform on 4 little wheels, soup pot on top,
everybody helped themselves and pushed the pot down to the next
diner.” John explains.
“A
brilliant solution to a space problem” he adds.
“Yes,”
I said, “there was also the mysterious placement of the seating
cards... instead of sitting next to me, you ended up with this
red-haired lady Journalist from Ireland.
I've
never figured out how this happened.”
“ 'twas
a miracle” John said.
Another
important, even if not miraculous, event took place at the Treetops
long before.
On
the 5th of February 1952 Princess Elizabeth of England and
her new husband stayed there. During the night of the 5th
to the 6th King George VI passed away. According to the
Constitution, Princess Elizabeth, being first in line, automatically
became the
“Queen
of England (and territories).
So,
it is said, she climbed up into a tree one day as a Princess, had a
wonderful time and came down the next morning as a Queen.
“Yes,
I remember the Treetops well.
Observed
from an underground observation tunnel at the Treetops.
This Elephant finally succeeded in pushing over this tree.
A family of Bush Pigs
Warthog
Colubus Monkeys
Please come back tomorrow
for another "AntiVirusSafari"
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