Episode 1 The History of Safari with Richard E Grant


Episode 1

Similar Content

Browse content similar to Episode 1. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

This is safari in its heyday...

0:00:040:00:08

dangerous and bloody...

0:00:080:00:10

Yet romantic and luxurious.

0:00:140:00:17

The history of safari in Africa is a story that is far from simple.

0:00:170:00:22

It's entangled with the controversial story of white settlers,

0:00:220:00:26

colonial life and the spread of the British Empire.

0:00:260:00:29

As a white man born in Swaziland,

0:00:330:00:35

I've been on a journey through safari to try to understand

0:00:350:00:38

its complicated past and contentious present.

0:00:380:00:41

I've visited the most incredible landscapes and experienced

0:00:440:00:48

the thrills and seduction of wild animals first hand.

0:00:480:00:52

Jumbo, jumbo Kenya!...

0:00:520:00:54

Spectacular!

0:00:540:00:56

Look! There's a leopard, there's a leopard!

0:00:580:01:00

I've discovered that the story of safari is teeming

0:01:000:01:03

with extraordinary characters, wayward lifestyles and huge sex appeal.

0:01:030:01:08

So beds and hunting and safari were all shared in a very fluid way.

0:01:080:01:12

Absolutely...and no jealousy.

0:01:120:01:14

And I've tried to understand

0:01:140:01:16

why the excitement of hunting still draws passionate supporters.

0:01:160:01:21

There he is.

0:01:210:01:22

That was a lovely bull!

0:01:260:01:28

My journey has shown me that, ultimately,

0:01:280:01:31

safari is about exhilaration and freedom.

0:01:310:01:34

It's been the adventure of a lifetime.

0:01:380:01:40

In 1896, the British East African government

0:01:510:01:54

started building a railway line from Mombasa on the Indian Ocean coast,

0:01:540:01:59

through Kenya, to Uganda.

0:01:590:02:01

As the Empire expanded,

0:02:010:02:03

a trade route to the heart of Africa was deemed vital.

0:02:030:02:08

Nicknamed "The Lunatic Express", the line opened in 1903

0:02:080:02:13

and was soon transporting wealthy British adventurers

0:02:130:02:16

in search safari and big game hunting.

0:02:160:02:18

Nairobi became the main station.

0:02:210:02:24

It's here I begin my own safari.

0:02:300:02:33

Nairobi began in 1899.

0:02:550:02:57

It was as a simple railway depot on the Lunatic Railway Express.

0:02:570:03:02

Back then, zebra, lions, wildebeest, giraffes

0:03:020:03:07

roamed the dust track that pass the main street.

0:03:070:03:10

What initially began as a few huts and basic infrastructure,

0:03:100:03:13

then developed into a city that was never planned.

0:03:130:03:17

By 1907, it was declared the official capital of British East Africa.

0:03:170:03:24

Nairobi has grown into a noisy, chaotic city of over 2 million people.

0:03:330:03:38

But just minutes from the busy city centre

0:03:380:03:41

is a peaceful glimmer of a British colonial past.

0:03:410:03:44

This is the legendary Norfolk Hotel.

0:03:490:03:51

I've come to Kenya to find out about the history of safari

0:03:510:03:55

and how it is entwined with the controversy of a colonial past.

0:03:550:03:59

And The Norfolk is the perfect place to start.

0:03:590:04:02

Welcome to The Norfolk, I'm Richard Kinyemi, the manager.

0:04:020:04:06

Thank you, I'm Richard, too.

0:04:060:04:07

This mock Tudor edifice opened for business on Christmas Day in 1904

0:04:090:04:14

and was the place for wealthy Brits to begin their safari.

0:04:140:04:18

The Norfolk offered elegance and luxury in the wilds of Africa.

0:04:180:04:23

It represents how the British were keen to transfer

0:04:230:04:26

their entire lifestyle into the African bush.

0:04:260:04:29

The exotic opulence was a huge draw to the British colonists,

0:04:290:04:34

some of whom became notorious for their errant ways.

0:04:340:04:37

So, this was the epicentre of colonial life?

0:04:390:04:43

Colonial life, because here we used to have cottages

0:04:430:04:46

where they use to play billiards and wife swapping and all that,

0:04:460:04:50

according to the history.

0:04:500:04:53

And that doesn't happen now?

0:04:530:04:54

-There's no wife swapping now in Nairobi.

-Not any more!

0:04:540:04:57

Welcome. This is your suite.

0:05:010:05:04

Thank you very much.

0:05:040:05:06

Oh, wow!

0:05:060:05:08

-So welcome. Here...

-Oh, high luxury thank you, Richard.

0:05:080:05:12

-Your bedroom is over here.

-An oasis in the middle of Nairobi.

0:05:120:05:15

Thank you very much, I wish you a very good stay with us.

0:05:150:05:18

Overlooking the hotel, the main court here.

0:05:180:05:21

The grandeur and pomp of the Norfolk

0:05:210:05:23

is timelessly British and reminds me of my own history.

0:05:230:05:27

What I'm always struck by is how extraordinary

0:05:320:05:35

the contrast is between coming in on that train from Mombasa,

0:05:350:05:39

crowded with people, and the chaos of Nairobi traffic

0:05:390:05:43

where people don't stop for red lights or pedestrian crossings.

0:05:430:05:46

It's sort of higgledy-piggledy organised chaos.

0:05:460:05:50

And then you come through the Norfolk Hotel,

0:05:540:05:58

a bastion of colonialism.

0:05:580:06:00

And I suppose my upbringing in Swaziland

0:06:000:06:02

in the lasts gasps of empire.

0:06:020:06:06

I suppose, to my shame, I grew up in a household where we had servants

0:06:060:06:10

a cook, a housekeeper, two gardeners.

0:06:100:06:14

I couldn't even boil an egg when I went to university, burnt toast.

0:06:140:06:18

So to come back here as a white boy coming back to Africa

0:06:200:06:24

and the history of safari, it's a complete circle journey to go through.

0:06:240:06:30

I don't know how much you can, cat of nine tails

0:06:300:06:34

and lash yourself for colonial guilt.

0:06:340:06:37

Growing up in Swaziland meant living in a society

0:06:400:06:43

that was British in the extreme.

0:06:430:06:45

My father was head of education for the colonial administration.

0:06:450:06:49

Throughout my childhood, we regularly went on photo safaris,

0:06:520:06:56

as well as hunting trips with my father for venison,

0:06:560:06:59

though I never shot an animal myself.

0:06:590:07:02

The idea of hunting for pleasure never appealed,

0:07:050:07:07

but I want to know why it was so important to the early settlers

0:07:070:07:11

and what involvement the indigenous African people had.

0:07:110:07:15

To find out, I need to go back to the very beginnings of safari.

0:07:150:07:20

Safari derives from the Swahili word meaning "journey"

0:07:290:07:32

and was originally used to describe the trade routes

0:07:320:07:35

used by coastal Arabs and Swahilis who transported ivory,

0:07:350:07:39

rhino horn and slaves from the African interior to the Asian market.

0:07:390:07:43

The trade routes were extremely lucrative

0:07:450:07:48

and attracted the attentions of powerful European countries,

0:07:480:07:51

eager to get their hands on them.

0:07:510:07:53

This resulted in what became known as the "Scramble for Africa"

0:07:530:07:58

and, in 1885, at the Berlin Conference,

0:07:580:08:00

European leaders met to divide up Africa into independent spheres

0:08:000:08:05

of influence under European rule.

0:08:050:08:08

Britain bagged Uganda and Kenya which all came under British protectorate rule

0:08:080:08:12

and were christened British East Africa.

0:08:120:08:15

The newly acquired lands were vast with an abundance

0:08:170:08:20

of wildlife that the British government had big plans for.

0:08:200:08:23

They began advertising back home for the British aristocracy

0:08:230:08:27

to begin a pioneering new way of life and money-making enterprise.

0:08:270:08:32

In the early 1900s, British East Africa

0:08:330:08:36

proved an irresistible draw to the aristocracy back home.

0:08:360:08:40

They could come out here and buy hundreds of acres of land cheaply,

0:08:400:08:43

build homes at little cost, employ local people to work for them

0:08:430:08:46

whilst enjoying an idyllic year round temperate climate.

0:08:460:08:51

One of the first and most controversial British settlers

0:08:520:08:55

to take up the challenge was Hugh Cholomondeley,

0:08:550:08:59

the third Baron Delamere.

0:08:590:09:00

Lord Delamere acquired 100,000 acres of land

0:09:000:09:04

close to the equator in 1901.

0:09:040:09:08

He arrived by train and disembarked

0:09:090:09:11

at this level crossing and declared that the open plains

0:09:110:09:14

stretching around him would be where he would build his first home

0:09:140:09:17

and business venture, Equator Ranch.

0:09:170:09:22

I'd arranged to meet Professor David Anderson of Oxford University

0:09:220:09:25

to find out how Lord Delamere became one of the leading lights of early settler life.

0:09:250:09:30

David, was this the original house?

0:09:300:09:33

This is a more modern construction, but this is where the farm was.

0:09:330:09:36

You're right in the centre of it here.

0:09:360:09:38

How brave or bold or foolhardy was it, in your opinion,

0:09:380:09:42

to come here and take over a thousand of acres of unoccupied land?

0:09:420:09:46

That's a great question because you look at it now

0:09:460:09:49

and think, "How in heaven's name did they do this?"

0:09:490:09:53

He arrived here with almost nothing

0:09:530:09:56

and he lived like a pauper for a couple of years.

0:09:560:09:59

So this is not a rich British aristocrat coming to play around in Africa,

0:09:590:10:04

this is someone who is down on his luck, having hard times,

0:10:040:10:08

coming to make a fresh start, and by God did he work at it.

0:10:080:10:12

So how did he plan to make money?

0:10:120:10:14

What did he try to farm?

0:10:140:10:15

Well, he brought out, initially he tried sheep on the farm

0:10:150:10:19

and that was quite a shrewd notion, this was not a bad area for sheep.

0:10:190:10:22

But he tried to bring in exotic stock from New Zealand

0:10:220:10:25

and they did OK at first, but then they all died

0:10:250:10:29

cos they contracted fevers and other diseases.

0:10:290:10:31

Then he bought in Herefordshire Bulls from the UK,

0:10:310:10:34

had them imported at huge expense.

0:10:340:10:36

He sent his stockmen off to New Zealand to buy some other stock.

0:10:360:10:40

He thought merino sheep would be better, he brought those in at vast expense.

0:10:400:10:44

Shipping stock half way around the world to come here in the middle of nowhere.

0:10:440:10:48

It's an astonishing adventure,

0:10:480:10:51

you might say misadventure because none of it worked.

0:10:510:10:54

But as well as being an entrepreneur,

0:10:560:10:57

Lord Delamere was also an enthusiastic hunter.

0:10:570:11:01

He had grown up in the British aristocratic tradition

0:11:010:11:04

and had also spent many years hunting elephants for ivory across the African continent,

0:11:040:11:08

before settling in British East Africa.

0:11:080:11:11

But when it came to clearing his newly acquired farmland of wildlife,

0:11:130:11:17

Lord Delamere seemed to take the sport of hunting into questionable territory.

0:11:170:11:22

So how notorious was he?

0:11:250:11:27

He was ambitious and energetic and it's an interesting story,

0:11:270:11:30

he got involved in a spat with Sir Harry Johnstone

0:11:300:11:33

who was the Governor of Uganda and he wrote a nasty letter to the Royal Geographical Society

0:11:330:11:37

accusing Delamere of hunting with a Gatling gun,

0:11:370:11:41

which is an early machine gun mounted on a ridge top

0:11:410:11:44

in North Baringo and sort of creaming out the elephants.

0:11:440:11:48

Now Delamere always denied this and said he hadn't done it,

0:11:480:11:51

but Johnstone really made a fuss about it

0:11:510:11:54

and some of the mud certainly stuck to Delamere's reputation early on.

0:11:540:11:57

-Was it true?

-It could have been because there were

0:11:570:12:00

a lot of hunters in those early days who were exploitative.

0:12:000:12:03

Mostly looking for adventure, looking for a quick buck.

0:12:030:12:07

They were a dangerous crew because they were keen to do well

0:12:070:12:10

and they were prepared to exploit in order to do well

0:12:100:12:14

and, by God, in Kenya they did that.

0:12:140:12:16

Lord Delamere undoubtedly set the tone for settler behaviour

0:12:210:12:26

by refusing to allow wildlife to get in the way of British enterprise.

0:12:260:12:30

To make the African lands suitable for farming,

0:12:300:12:33

the mass slaughter of big game animals began.

0:12:330:12:35

This was made an enjoyable and sportsmanlike experience

0:12:370:12:41

by introducing the custom of the hunt, with some early settlers

0:12:410:12:44

even importing packs of hunting hounds from England

0:12:440:12:47

and riding out on the African plains kitted in traditional pinks or scarlet jackets.

0:12:470:12:51

A contemporary of Delamere's in the early days

0:12:540:12:56

was fellow hunter and sportsman Lord Cranworth.

0:12:560:12:59

Cranworth was pivotal in encouraging more aristocrats

0:12:590:13:02

to join the settlement drive.

0:13:020:13:04

He believed that the hunting sportsman had a vital role

0:13:060:13:08

in making British East Africa a success

0:13:080:13:11

and wrote an extensive essay entitled A Colony In The Making

0:13:110:13:15

Or Sport and Profit In British East Africa.

0:13:150:13:19

In his essay, Lord Cranworth did all he could to encourage

0:13:200:13:23

fellow aristocrats to head out to British East Africa. He wrote...

0:13:230:13:27

"British East Africa forms, in some respects,

0:13:290:13:32

"the most peculiar of his Majesty's Dominions,

0:13:320:13:34

"in that within so comparatively small an area

0:13:340:13:37

"it embraces so much variety and possibilities for British enterprise."

0:13:370:13:41

He then went on to offer tips for new arrivals.

0:13:410:13:44

"Do yourself well on the food line.

0:13:440:13:46

"Take plenty of wine after sun fall, more especially burgundy and port.

0:13:460:13:51

"They enrich the blood and are agreeable to the palate.

0:13:510:13:55

"Bear in mind and act on the old maxim -

0:13:550:13:57

"keep the spirits up, the bowels open,

0:13:570:14:00

"and wear flannels next the skin."

0:14:000:14:02

Later on in the essay, Lord Cranworth's wife,

0:14:020:14:05

Lady Cranworth offered her, Hints For A Woman In British East Africa.

0:14:050:14:10

"Having arrived up country,

0:14:100:14:12

"about the first operation will be to collect one's staff of servants.

0:14:120:14:16

"When one becomes accustomed to the sight of black faces,

0:14:160:14:19

"native servants will be found very fairly good.

0:14:190:14:22

"They are quite intelligent and soon assimilate any knowledge

0:14:220:14:27

"that one is in a position to impart".

0:14:270:14:30

Lord Cranworth concluded with a rousing appeal to British big game hunters...

0:14:300:14:35

"Present is the day of the sportsman,

0:14:350:14:37

"of the man of riches, of the white hunter."

0:14:370:14:39

Gung ho and spirited, the early pioneering settlers may have been,

0:14:460:14:50

but they also felt completely assured

0:14:500:14:52

of their natural right to rule and to exhaustively exploit

0:14:520:14:56

every resource and the native peoples of British East Africa.

0:14:560:14:59

In 1907, Ewart Grogan, a well known figure in the early settler years,

0:15:020:15:07

publicly flogged three of his staff on the steps

0:15:070:15:10

of the Nairobi Courthouse, for frightening his niece

0:15:100:15:13

by driving his rickshaw too erratically.

0:15:130:15:15

Lord Cranworth wrote that he knowingly exploited

0:15:170:15:20

the Masai and Kikuyu tribes by trading cheap trinkets

0:15:200:15:23

and opera glasses in exchange for valuable ivory.

0:15:230:15:26

This is the image of colonialism

0:15:280:15:30

that makes me feel uncomfortable about my own past.

0:15:300:15:34

But to get a better understanding of the early settlers,

0:15:340:15:37

who were generations before my time,

0:15:370:15:38

I want to meet their descendants whom I hope can tell me more.

0:15:380:15:42

First up, is Tony Seth Smith, at his home on the shores of Lake Naivasha.

0:16:040:16:09

So Tony, correct me if I'm wrong,

0:16:130:16:16

your pa arrived here 106 years ago, which would make it 1904?

0:16:160:16:22

1904.

0:16:220:16:24

And his elder brother Martin had come out the year before.

0:16:240:16:27

Why did he come here in the first place?

0:16:270:16:29

I think for adventure and it was, I suppose,

0:16:290:16:32

one of the last frontiers, you know Canada had been opened up

0:16:320:16:35

and the west of the United States and Australia and so on...

0:16:350:16:39

so they were in on virgin ground as they saw it.

0:16:390:16:43

Do you feel that they had a sense of entitlement

0:16:430:16:46

in the spread of empire and that it wasn't questioned in any way?

0:16:460:16:50

I think to a degree, in as much as the country was untamed,

0:16:500:16:54

undeveloped and they were bringing development

0:16:540:17:00

and civilization as they saw it.

0:17:000:17:04

And so they had a moral edge on the people who were already here.

0:17:040:17:08

But I don't think they felt that they were taking it away from them.

0:17:080:17:12

I was born and brought up in Swaziland

0:17:120:17:14

and my father always said to me, "Even though you are born here,

0:17:140:17:18

"essentially as a white person, you are a guest in this country."

0:17:180:17:22

So, I always had, I suppose, a wobble in my mind about

0:17:220:17:28

whether owning land or not... Whether I had a right to do that.

0:17:280:17:31

-Has this ever crossed your mind at all?

-No.

0:17:310:17:34

Kenya was a colony and Swaziland was never a colony.

0:17:340:17:37

No, it was a protectorate.

0:17:370:17:39

We came and colonised this country,

0:17:390:17:41

the British plus a few Scandinavians and things.

0:17:410:17:45

And we were issued land, we paid for the land, they didn't take it,

0:17:450:17:50

but I think people like my father also had a degree of,

0:17:500:17:54

"I wonder if this is fair to the African?"

0:17:540:17:57

I often heard him say, "The poor African, he's getting the thin end of the wedge."

0:17:570:18:02

But, of course, as I say you've got to remember

0:18:020:18:04

that there were only 1.5 million of them at that time.

0:18:040:18:08

And now there are 40 million,

0:18:080:18:10

so people who want to be critical see the country as it is today and say,

0:18:100:18:15

"How could you come and take land when it is so congested

0:18:150:18:18

"and everyone is looking for a patch of land?"

0:18:180:18:20

Well, it wasn't like that then.

0:18:200:18:22

You've got to take things as they were at the time.

0:18:220:18:27

For Tony's father's generation of early 20th century settlers,

0:18:290:18:32

the extraordinary wildlife was little more than

0:18:320:18:35

a pest that stood in their way.

0:18:350:18:37

Getting rid of them

0:18:380:18:39

would give Tony his first exhilarating experience of hunting.

0:18:390:18:42

It was like having weeds in your field of whatever,

0:18:450:18:47

it stymied your endeavours,

0:18:470:18:49

whether you were growing wheat or cattle.

0:18:490:18:52

Lions would eat the cattle, the leopards would kill the sheep,

0:18:520:18:54

zebra and reedbuck and so on would be in the crop flattening it.

0:18:540:18:59

And so game was considered vermin in those days and so on the whole,

0:18:590:19:03

on the white settlers' land, game was decimated.

0:19:030:19:06

It was a way of life, you know, one was brought up

0:19:100:19:12

with a rifle in your hand protecting your crops.

0:19:120:19:15

Do you remember when you first shot a big animal?

0:19:170:19:20

Yes, the first big thing was a Buffalo in our wheat

0:19:200:19:23

and I was really quite nervous about it.

0:19:230:19:26

And I was only about 13 or 14, I suppose.

0:19:260:19:30

And one's little heart was pumping away with excitement

0:19:300:19:34

as I got near this terrifying beast.

0:19:340:19:36

Anyway, to my delight and surprise, I got it.

0:19:360:19:39

What was the feeling after you'd just shot it?

0:19:390:19:42

It was a mixture of fear and exhilaration I suppose.

0:19:420:19:46

That's the whole point in hunting.

0:19:460:19:49

You've got to be... Of the dangerous wildlife,

0:19:490:19:54

you've got to have a certain amount of respect,

0:19:540:19:56

even if it's not actually fear,

0:19:560:19:58

you've got to have a lot of respect for it.

0:19:580:20:01

One gets a lot of criticism for having done a lot of hunting

0:20:010:20:05

and being a hunter and being passionate about hunting,

0:20:050:20:08

but you have to have done it to understand it.

0:20:080:20:12

Hunting big game became a central part of the lifestyle of the early white settlers.

0:20:170:20:21

It was a sport they loved,

0:20:210:20:25

but out here on the African Plains they could take it

0:20:250:20:28

on to a much bigger and more exciting scale.

0:20:280:20:31

Fox and grouse were chicken feed compared to this.

0:20:310:20:34

Hunting in British East Africa was a man's game.

0:20:340:20:37

Rituals were established that glorified the triumphant hunter.

0:20:370:20:42

He would be photographed with his trophy kill.

0:20:420:20:44

Heads and skins were removed and preserved

0:20:440:20:47

for him to take home and adorn his walls.

0:20:470:20:50

If I'm going to try and understand the appeal and thrill of hunting,

0:20:500:20:55

I need to get first-hand experience.

0:20:550:20:57

I'm heading north, out of Nairobi towards Lake Naivasha

0:20:570:21:00

in the heart of the Great Rift Valley

0:21:000:21:03

and it's my first chance to see the magnificent wildlife.

0:21:030:21:06

This is absolutely incredible. Look at this.

0:21:060:21:09

I'm on my way to meet Gordie Church

0:21:090:21:13

who is a modern day professional hunter.

0:21:130:21:15

Gordie, I'm Richard.

0:21:180:21:20

Lovely to meet you. Welcome to Africa.

0:21:200:21:23

Hunting has been banned in Kenya since 1977,

0:21:230:21:26

so Gordie spends most of his time working in neighbouring Tanzania,

0:21:260:21:30

where he takes paying clients on hunting safaris

0:21:300:21:32

tailored to what they want to shoot.

0:21:320:21:35

I meet him on his father's 80,000-acre-estate

0:21:370:21:40

which operates horseback safaris.

0:21:400:21:43

Gordie, assume that I know nothing about what your job is.

0:21:430:21:46

What is it that you actually do as a professional hunter?

0:21:460:21:51

I guess from the outset when you are selling that hunt,

0:21:510:21:54

it's being able to make sure that you select the right trophy.

0:21:540:21:58

Making the approach,

0:21:580:22:00

that's all the tracking, and getting the wind right,

0:22:000:22:02

and making sure that your guest is comfortably in the best position,

0:22:020:22:07

and to guide him through the whole process

0:22:070:22:10

up to the point that he squeezes the trigger.

0:22:100:22:13

So, for people who've never hunted

0:22:130:22:15

or find the idea of shooting an animal as a trophy

0:22:150:22:18

a bizarre concept, what's the kick of doing it?

0:22:180:22:23

I think as a client who's never hunted before,

0:22:230:22:26

it's the thrill of being out in the wilderness,

0:22:260:22:31

not in a car in the safety of a car, but you're really out on foot

0:22:310:22:36

experiencing everything that Africa has to offer

0:22:360:22:40

in terms of its wildlife areas.

0:22:400:22:42

And there's a certain amount of adrenalin involved

0:22:420:22:46

in the actual hunt and in the stalk.

0:22:460:22:49

But its sort of more than that,

0:22:490:22:51

it's the adventure that comes with it.

0:22:510:22:53

Gordie offers to take me riding to see some

0:23:080:23:11

of his father's land and game.

0:23:110:23:14

Being out in the vast wilderness, I begin to understand the enormous

0:23:140:23:18

sense of freedom that the world of safari offers.

0:23:180:23:21

To experience the thrill of the hunt,

0:23:300:23:32

but without the kill, Gordie invites me to go tracking,

0:23:320:23:36

to see if we can get close enough to some game,

0:23:360:23:39

within shooting distance.

0:23:390:23:41

-We've got a herd of Thompson's gazelle down the bottom there.

-OK.

0:24:100:24:15

They're feeding quite nicely out in the open.

0:24:150:24:18

And the wind's in our favour.

0:24:180:24:21

So we'll just quietly creep our way down here.

0:24:210:24:24

Once we get within range raise the rifle

0:24:240:24:27

-and squeeze that shot off.

-OK.

0:24:270:24:30

We need to be quiet because they're quite crafty,

0:24:300:24:32

little creatures

0:24:320:24:34

so if they get our wind or if they see any kind of movement they will take off.

0:24:340:24:38

When we're close enough,

0:24:450:24:46

Gordie hands me the gun which he reassures me is unloaded.

0:24:460:24:50

OK, bolts open.

0:24:520:24:55

No ammo.

0:24:550:24:57

So what you want to do is, you want to pull that

0:24:570:24:59

tight into your cheek.

0:24:590:25:02

Grip that nicely and lean slightly forward into the shot.

0:25:020:25:06

Keep those legs spread.

0:25:060:25:08

Now, put that bead so that it's right in the bottom of that feed.

0:25:080:25:12

Holding the rifle and looking down the sights sets your pulse racing,

0:25:140:25:19

the sense of power is thrilling and electric.

0:25:190:25:23

I still don't think I could do it.

0:25:240:25:26

Maybe. I don't know.

0:25:290:25:31

Have you ever had people who have lost their nerve?

0:25:350:25:38

Yeah.

0:25:380:25:40

I've had...

0:25:400:25:42

It's a common thing called buck fever

0:25:420:25:44

when someone gets so excited that they start to shake.

0:25:440:25:48

But it's just a question of getting them to calm down

0:25:480:25:51

and think about it,

0:25:510:25:52

and the thing is you don't have to take the shot.

0:25:520:25:55

That's not the point.

0:25:550:25:57

The point is exploring this beautiful area and coming to this point.

0:25:570:26:01

We have many clients who get to that point

0:26:010:26:04

and think, "Yeah, it's too beautiful, I'm not going to take the shot."

0:26:040:26:07

You never have to take the shot.

0:26:070:26:09

Just even doing that, there's no question

0:26:140:26:16

that it's like being in The Secret Seven or The Famous Five.

0:26:160:26:19

The adrenalin rush that you feel that...

0:26:190:26:23

I don't know. Your...

0:26:230:26:25

Your DNA of hunting from God knows when kicks in,

0:26:250:26:29

but it's... If I could shoot and know that I'm not killing the animal

0:26:290:26:34

and could hold it up and then trot it off an hour later.

0:26:340:26:37

I'd do it like a shot!

0:26:370:26:39

It's very exciting!

0:26:390:26:42

Stalking and tracking with Gordie

0:26:470:26:50

has catapulted me back to my childhood.

0:26:500:26:52

I was just hit by an incredible nostalgia

0:26:540:26:57

because last time I did this I was hunting with my father

0:26:570:27:00

when I was a boy in Swaziland when he would shoot impala.

0:27:000:27:07

There was always this overwhelming regret that I felt

0:27:070:27:11

that you would be sitting on the back of a pick up truck

0:27:110:27:14

with the dead animal that was still warm

0:27:140:27:17

and wishing that it could come back to life.

0:27:170:27:21

Even without bullets, there's no doubt tracking and hunting game

0:27:240:27:28

has a buzz that's unique

0:27:280:27:29

and difficult to understand unless you try it.

0:27:290:27:32

Gordie had converted me into a hunter

0:27:360:27:39

albeit of the non-killing variety.

0:27:390:27:42

By the early 1900s, the settlers had realised they were onto a good thing

0:27:490:27:55

and that perhaps they could sell the experience and adventure

0:27:550:27:59

of big game hunting worldwide to paying clients.

0:27:590:28:02

An infrastructure for commercial hunting took shape in British East Africa

0:28:020:28:05

as wealthy tourists started to flock there.

0:28:050:28:09

To cater for the growing demand special safari outfitting companies

0:28:120:28:17

began to spring up in the rapidly growing town of Nairobi.

0:28:170:28:20

I headed to the National Archives where catalogues

0:28:200:28:23

of old newspapers are kept from the early settler days.

0:28:230:28:26

I wanted to look for adverts from the original outfitting firms

0:28:260:28:30

and met up with Professor Anderson again, who agreed to help me.

0:28:300:28:33

This is the East African Standard,

0:28:330:28:35

one of the first newspapers in the colony.

0:28:350:28:38

And here we have on the Standard for 1906

0:28:380:28:41

typical adverts that relate to the safari trade,

0:28:410:28:45

hunting and all the things that go with it.

0:28:450:28:48

And these are companies that outfit safaris.

0:28:480:28:51

So I could go and get kitted out here?

0:28:510:28:52

You could go and buy a safari chair and a tent

0:28:520:28:55

and camping equipment from Smith Mackenzie and Co.

0:28:550:28:58

-Excellent.

-There's another one describing themselves as

0:28:580:29:00

Colonial Stores Mombasa and Nairobi selling wholesale and retail.

0:29:000:29:05

Including Callum's Perfection Whiskey,

0:29:050:29:08

Ferguson's paints and oils, wines and spirits, green rot proof tents.

0:29:080:29:12

They're all huge, grand tents from 1903 with verandas with porches.

0:29:120:29:17

These are statements of status, class, importance

0:29:170:29:22

and, my goodness, no African sets foot in those tents.

0:29:220:29:26

So, embedded in the safari story, in its very material culture

0:29:260:29:31

is a history of separation and difference and distance.

0:29:310:29:34

Entitlement, luxury.

0:29:340:29:35

So, it would be the equivalent of the Times of London

0:29:350:29:40

having a huge advert for Harrods saying...

0:29:400:29:43

-Come here, we'll fix you.

-It's pretty sophisticated for 1906 and a tent.

0:29:430:29:47

It's a one stop shop.

0:29:470:29:49

So, this was an enormous business.

0:29:490:29:51

Huge business and these companies would put you in touch

0:29:510:29:54

with labour recruiters, who would also arrange for your porters

0:29:540:29:57

and transportation, food supplies, everything you needed.

0:29:570:30:03

They would sell you your equipment,

0:30:030:30:05

but they would also fix your trip for you.

0:30:050:30:07

As these companies grew, there would be one major client who would take the idea

0:30:110:30:15

of big game hunting, combined with extraordinary luxury

0:30:150:30:19

and transform it into a pursuit renowned the world over.

0:30:190:30:22

The recently retired President of the Untied States,

0:30:220:30:25

Theodore Roosevelt.

0:30:250:30:27

The President arrived in East Africa

0:30:290:30:31

at the end of his second term in office and he trailblazed into town,

0:30:310:30:36

accompanied by his 19-year-old-son Kermit and a vast entourage.

0:30:360:30:41

Roosevelt chose the hunting outfitters Newland & Tarlton to kit out his safari.

0:30:460:30:51

The company also provided him with the first generation

0:30:520:30:55

of newly founded professional hunting guides,

0:30:550:30:57

R J Cunninghame and Philip Percival.

0:30:570:31:01

These men were experienced hunters who would lead the elder statesmen

0:31:010:31:05

through the dangerous bush in search of his trophies.

0:31:050:31:10

The former president's arrival was a huge coup

0:31:100:31:13

for the burgeoning British ex pat community

0:31:130:31:15

and they were keen to play host to him while he hunted.

0:31:150:31:19

Roosevelt began his safari on land owned by Lord and Lady Pease

0:31:210:31:25

who were still building their home when the party arrived.

0:31:250:31:28

In the pastures close to the Pease family home on the Kapiti Plains,

0:31:310:31:34

I met Don Young, the current owner of the Newland & Tarlton safari farm.

0:31:340:31:40

What are you recreating here today?

0:31:400:31:42

We've taken a photograph from Roosevelt's safari

0:31:420:31:45

of Roosevelt's personal sleeping tent that he had set up when he arrived.

0:31:450:31:49

So we're going to put up the Roosevelt tent

0:31:490:31:52

and kit it out the way Roosevelt had it done back in 1909.

0:31:520:31:55

And on what scale was this safari undertaken?

0:31:550:31:58

-How many people did it involve?

-It was huge.

0:31:580:32:00

When he arrived at the Kapiti Station

0:32:000:32:05

there were 250 people waiting for him

0:32:050:32:07

with 20 armed soldiers to escort him.

0:32:070:32:10

And they all shouted out, "Greetings to the king Of America!

0:32:100:32:13

"Greetings to the king of America",

0:32:130:32:16

and they were all in their perfect Newland & Tarlton uniforms

0:32:160:32:19

and it was a small army, actually.

0:32:190:32:22

So, out of those 250 people that were lined up at the station

0:32:220:32:26

what was the division of what they each did?

0:32:260:32:28

Roosevelt himself had six assistants

0:32:280:32:30

and they stayed with him throughout the trip

0:32:300:32:33

until they got to the Sudan where they switched all the porters over.

0:32:330:32:36

By then there were 500 porters.

0:32:360:32:39

By modern US dollars standards, this was a one million dollar safari.

0:32:390:32:45

This was the biggest thing that ever happened to Kenya

0:32:450:32:48

and it literally put Kenya in the consciousness

0:32:480:32:50

of millions and millions of people

0:32:500:32:52

that would otherwise think of Africa only as the dark continent.

0:32:520:32:55

If you want to help the guys, let's both grab a line

0:32:550:32:59

and we'll stretch these out and hammer in the steaks.

0:32:590:33:02

OK. I'll get a mallet.

0:33:020:33:05

Despite being out in the African bush,

0:33:110:33:13

Roosevelt refused to lower his living standards

0:33:130:33:15

and set the style for luxury on safari.

0:33:150:33:18

His tent was fitted out just like home,

0:33:180:33:21

he even bought his own writing bureau

0:33:210:33:24

and leather bound book collection.

0:33:240:33:26

So, this was done every night.

0:33:260:33:29

How long did this safari go on for?

0:33:290:33:31

It went on for a year.

0:33:310:33:33

Roosevelt, of course, dined extremely well on safari,

0:33:330:33:37

eating the fresh game meat that was killed daily and cooked on an open fire.

0:33:370:33:41

How do you like your lamb, Richard?

0:33:430:33:45

-Charred.

-Charred. We can do charred.

0:33:450:33:48

He encouraged his entourage to dress up for dinner

0:33:510:33:54

and to enjoy fine wines and malt whiskies.

0:33:540:33:57

Richard, we've set a table as if this was Teddy Roosevelt on safari

0:33:570:34:01

at dinner, so you've done a great job baking some bread

0:34:010:34:05

and you've grilled some meat which we'll have in a minute.

0:34:050:34:08

I've also set things out like Roosevelt wrote...

0:34:080:34:10

Binoculars were invented during Roosevelt's lifetime

0:34:100:34:13

so these would have been quite new technology.

0:34:130:34:16

He went round and was given a pair

0:34:160:34:18

-so this is the Roosevelt-era pair of binoculars.

-Oh, right.

0:34:180:34:21

And really exciting, we have a lovely photograph of Roosevelt standing

0:34:210:34:25

with the latest Eastman Kodak Camera and we actually

0:34:250:34:28

managed to find in Nairobi the exact edition that

0:34:280:34:31

Roosevelt was carrying with him on safari

0:34:310:34:34

-and this is just to give you an idea how...

-This is a Kodak?

0:34:340:34:38

This is an Eastman Kodak, all the pictures of Roosevelt on safari

0:34:380:34:42

were taken on cameras like this.

0:34:420:34:44

You could actually adjust this for depth of field and frame your picture

0:34:440:34:48

by moving the bellows back and forth.

0:34:480:34:50

By which time you could be gored by a rhinoceros.

0:34:500:34:52

By which time you would be run over by a rhino.

0:34:520:34:55

Although it sounds contradictory,

0:35:020:35:04

Teddy Roosevelt was both an avid hunter and devoted conservationist.

0:35:040:35:09

He brought with him a vast team of scientists

0:35:100:35:13

and justified his year-long-hunt by proclaiming he was shooting

0:35:130:35:17

as many animals as possible in the name of natural history

0:35:170:35:20

and transporting his trophies back as specimens

0:35:200:35:23

to adorn the museums of New York.

0:35:230:35:25

Among his team of scientists was Carl Akeley,

0:35:280:35:31

a hunter, inventor and sculptor who revolutionised taxidermy

0:35:310:35:35

by creating giant dioramas, reconstructed scenes

0:35:350:35:39

from the African bush with plants and real stuffed animals.

0:35:390:35:43

Akeley and Roosevelt's scientific endeavours,

0:35:450:35:48

attracted worldwide interest and expectation.

0:35:480:35:51

Don't forgot, there was our big safari,

0:35:520:35:55

the Newland & Tarlton safari, 250 porters,

0:35:550:35:59

following them like a little shadow universe, parallel universe,

0:35:590:36:02

were reporters from all over the world.

0:36:020:36:04

There was an entire safari that followed him around

0:36:040:36:08

and every time he allowed them, they came in and took his pictures,

0:36:080:36:12

he had his own private photographer called Heller

0:36:120:36:14

so most of the images we have were shot by him.

0:36:140:36:17

But this is a media circus.

0:36:170:36:19

If they were moving this great phalanx of an army through the bush,

0:36:190:36:24

how did they not frighten every bit of game off?

0:36:240:36:28

There's your point, they had to put the camp aside

0:36:280:36:31

and then they would ride out for an hour or two into the game country.

0:36:310:36:34

This is virtually what's called a naive wildlife population,

0:36:340:36:37

they'd hardly seen other humans or hardly been hunted,

0:36:370:36:41

so the game was so thick.

0:36:410:36:42

And if you read Roosevelt,

0:36:420:36:44

the biggest problem with the hunt was Roosevelt himself.

0:36:440:36:47

He was blind in one eye, typical Roosevelt,

0:36:470:36:50

he'd been boxing in the White House.

0:36:500:36:52

He'd been punched in the eye by one of his mates

0:36:520:36:54

and haemorrhaged and he went blind. But he wouldn't let anyone know this.

0:36:540:36:58

-So how good a shot was he?

-Lousy.

0:36:580:37:00

-Lousy shot.

-So it was a case of he took a big old blast

0:37:000:37:03

and somebody else had to go and...

0:37:030:37:05

Lesley Tarlton. As hunters do today,

0:37:050:37:07

the professional hunters today stand right off the shoulder.

0:37:070:37:11

-So it's like an actor with a stuntman.

-Absolutely.

0:37:110:37:13

While Teddy Roosevelt may have been a poor shot,

0:37:160:37:19

during his year-long-safari he personally bagged 216 animals

0:37:190:37:23

and the sum total killed or trapped by his party

0:37:230:37:28

totalled a staggering 11,788 animals, all in the name of science.

0:37:280:37:34

By the time Roosevelt's epic safari was over

0:37:380:37:41

newspapers and newsreels around the world

0:37:410:37:43

had championed his landmark achievements.

0:37:430:37:46

When he returned to the US, Roosevelt wrote his seminal book

0:37:510:37:54

African Game Trails, which glorified his safari

0:37:540:37:57

and set an impossible precedent inspiring many other American's

0:37:570:38:01

to emulate his frontier adventures.

0:38:010:38:04

Wannabe cowboys like Buffalo Jones turned up

0:38:040:38:07

in British East Africa and attempted to tame the wild game

0:38:070:38:11

using wild west methods on the African Plains.

0:38:110:38:15

The frontier spirit was in the American blood and they loved it.

0:38:160:38:21

Within a few years of its beginnings as a simple rail depot,

0:38:300:38:33

Nairobi had been transformed into a westernised town,

0:38:330:38:37

the hub of a burgeoning safari industry

0:38:370:38:39

and home to an expanding community of British ex pats

0:38:390:38:42

who were growing rich on its profits.

0:38:420:38:45

Society developed a British way of life.

0:38:490:38:51

The newly founded Turf Club held weekly race meetings

0:38:540:38:57

and polo matches and families entertained with luncheons,

0:38:570:39:00

picnics and garden parties.

0:39:000:39:03

Emerging from the First World War, the British government set about

0:39:050:39:09

encouraging more gentry to emigrate

0:39:090:39:11

to support the push for colonisation.

0:39:110:39:13

Their masterstroke of recruitment took place here

0:39:150:39:18

at the then Theatre Royal, in the heart of Nairobi

0:39:180:39:21

where they advertised plots of land up for grabs.

0:39:210:39:25

The protectorate was offering a new way of life

0:39:250:39:28

that safari encapsulated,

0:39:280:39:30

freedom, luxury, power, danger and excitement.

0:39:300:39:33

A land free from the restrictions of life back home.

0:39:330:39:37

At the end of the First World War, 1918,

0:39:440:39:47

the British East African government renewed their attempts

0:39:470:39:51

to lure more wealthy Brits to come and settle permanently in Kenya.

0:39:510:39:56

So in a piece of spectacular showmanship

0:39:560:39:59

they invited everyone to a national lottery draw,

0:39:590:40:03

parcels of land were handed out at knock down prices.

0:40:030:40:07

They anticipated a few hundred people at best,

0:40:070:40:11

but they were swamped by over 2,000.

0:40:110:40:15

It was absolute mayhem in here.

0:40:150:40:17

Chaotic! It was like a tombola roll up, roll up!

0:40:170:40:21

£200 for this piece over here!

0:40:210:40:23

£100 pounds over there.

0:40:230:40:25

Blah, blah, blah.

0:40:250:40:26

HE JABBERS

0:40:260:40:31

It was absolutely jammed right here

0:40:310:40:33

in what was formally the Theatre Royal Nairobi

0:40:330:40:37

and which today, ironically, is divided up

0:40:370:40:39

into a church service down below and the Cameo Cinema up here,

0:40:390:40:44

which until very recently showed films

0:40:440:40:47

of a rather, shall we say, vibrant nature!

0:40:470:40:51

It's an extraordinary thing that you could have the presumption

0:40:520:40:55

that you could come from another country

0:40:550:40:59

in the northern hemisphere and arrive here, open plains,

0:40:590:41:04

open land and think, "Well, there's nobody living on it that we can see.

0:41:040:41:07

"We'll have it and we'll build a theatre here and call it the Theatre Royal, Nairobi."

0:41:070:41:12

Bonkers!

0:41:140:41:15

The marketing campaign paid off.

0:41:200:41:23

In 1920, British East Africa became a fully-fledged colony and was renamed Kenya.

0:41:230:41:29

Safari was entering its boom years, as hoards of wealthy tourists

0:41:290:41:34

flocked to the freedom and thrills that Africa offered.

0:41:340:41:38

To get a taste of the luxury that 1920s safari now offered,

0:41:400:41:45

I headed south-west from Nairobi and into the Masai Mara.

0:41:450:41:48

The Mara is breathtaking.

0:41:510:41:53

Acacia trees are scattered across the vast plains and big game animals roam freely.

0:41:530:42:00

Driving though it is awe-inspiring.

0:42:000:42:02

TRUMPETING

0:42:020:42:05

(There's a baby.)

0:42:190:42:21

(Spectacular. Jambo, jambo, Kenya.)

0:42:240:42:27

What's so jaw-dropping about this landscape is that

0:42:400:42:44

the Kruger National Park in South Africa feels almost suburban

0:42:440:42:49

in comparison in the sheer scale of what there is all around you here.

0:42:490:42:54

That's the thing I was completely unprepared for.

0:42:540:42:57

I'm en route to find the Cottar's 1920s Safari Camp.

0:42:580:43:02

'American-born Charles Cottar was the first in the family line to head out to Kenya to settle in 1910.

0:43:040:43:11

'Cottar soon earned a reputation as a fearless hunter and brought danger and excitement to safari.

0:43:110:43:17

'He also tapped into the growing American market

0:43:170:43:20

'as safari became an elitist pastime for the super rich.

0:43:200:43:24

'Cottar's Safari Service first opened for business in 1919

0:43:260:43:31

'and the latest in the family to take over the helm is Calvin Cottar, Charles' great-grandson.'

0:43:310:43:36

Thanks, James. Asante.

0:43:360:43:37

-Hi, Calvin.

-Richard, how are you?

0:43:400:43:42

-Welcome to camp.

-Ah, thank you.

0:43:420:43:44

CALVIN MAKES THE INTRODUCTIONS

0:43:440:43:48

-So you're fourth generation?

-I am fourth generation.

0:43:540:43:58

-Welcome to camp.

-Thank you.

0:44:010:44:03

-So this is an Edwardian drawing room, under canvas in the middle of the Mara.

-Yes.

0:44:030:44:08

And this created that elegance that you see in films and the whole mystique about safari,

0:44:080:44:14

it comes from that period of time, especially in the '20s when it was very much a luxury item to do.

0:44:140:44:20

And they played on that, my family and people in that business made their camps as unique as possible.

0:44:200:44:28

I'll show you some family heirlooms.

0:44:280:44:32

Here's my grandfather's hat, his original hat,

0:44:320:44:36

and a lot of original books from that era.

0:44:360:44:40

This gun was used for shooting a very big buffalo in, I think, '56.

0:44:420:44:48

-Is that why it's got this buffalo on here?

-Exactly.

0:44:480:44:51

-Does it still work?

-Oh, very much so. Oh, yeah.

0:44:510:44:54

It looks to me like walking into Meryl Streep and Robert Redford in Out of Africa.

0:44:560:45:00

-Is that what people say when they arrive here?

-Yes. That's what we want them to feel.

0:45:000:45:05

Who were the hunting and safari clients who were attracted to come here then?

0:45:060:45:12

It was mostly American commercial families or railroad families.

0:45:120:45:16

-They were the ones that had the big money.

-Money enough.

-Yeah. Big money.

0:45:160:45:22

Cottar's safari boomed in the 1920s and '30s.

0:45:280:45:32

Charles had three sons - Bud, Mike and Ted - who were all big game hunters.

0:45:320:45:37

But as with Roosevelt's original safari, the Cottar safari wasn't just about killing.

0:45:390:45:44

Together the brothers pioneered the genre of natural history film-making at considerable risk to themselves

0:45:470:45:53

by skilfully luring wild animals close up to the cameras.

0:45:530:45:58

And it was Charles' thirst for danger that would prove fatal.

0:45:580:46:03

In 1940, he was gored by a charging rhinoceros and died aged 67.

0:46:030:46:08

His sons vowed to carry on the family's safari tradition.

0:46:080:46:12

RUMBLE OF THUNDER

0:46:120:46:14

Do you feel the spirit of all these men in you and here?

0:46:140:46:18

Right here, yeah, because, OK, my great-grandfather was killed by a rhino

0:46:180:46:23

five kilometres over there.

0:46:230:46:24

My father was hit by buffalo and very nearly killed

0:46:240:46:28

three kilometres over there and my formative years was all here.

0:46:280:46:31

My first hunting experience was here.

0:46:310:46:33

It's a magical place and I've come back to my roots which is here.

0:46:330:46:38

THUNDER CRASHES

0:46:390:46:41

-The gods are talking to us.

-They are.

0:46:410:46:44

Full-on rain!

0:46:490:46:52

Pure organic water.

0:47:020:47:04

Oh, it's beautiful!

0:47:040:47:06

The Cottars were also innovators in the use of early motorised vehicles for safari.

0:47:160:47:22

Charles ordered four American Ford chassis and parts to be shipped to Mombasa.

0:47:220:47:27

The vehicles were assembled by his three sons and within a year,

0:47:290:47:32

they'd replaced the traditional use of porters, ox carts and donkeys.

0:47:320:47:36

To keep this tradition alive, Calvin has maintained a '20s style vehicle

0:47:390:47:44

and he took me out into the Mara to get a flavour of that bygone era.

0:47:440:47:48

Let's see if we can cross this stream up here.

0:47:480:47:53

What happens if we get stuck?

0:47:540:47:56

Well, I've got you to push.

0:47:560:47:59

This is it. This is it, Calvin!

0:48:000:48:04

Buffalo!

0:48:100:48:11

Oh, there's herds of them.

0:48:110:48:14

-They're all around us.

-Yeah, yeah.

0:48:160:48:19

Oh, Calvin, they're everywhere, they're everywhere, everywhere.

0:48:190:48:25

There must be 600 of them or more.

0:48:260:48:28

'It's awe-inspiring to be surrounded by these dangerous and unpredictable wild animals.'

0:48:300:48:36

Calvin's taking us in.

0:48:360:48:39

Might be Custer's last stand!

0:48:390:48:40

How aggressive are they?

0:48:420:48:44

They can be quite aggressive.

0:48:440:48:46

As long as they're on your side of the car, I'm not worried.

0:48:460:48:50

-Extraordinary.

-That's a big buffalo. See that buffalo there?

-Yeah.

0:48:520:48:55

If you were on the third last day of a buffalo hunt and you hadn't succeeded in getting a big one,

0:48:570:49:02

he would be very, very huntable, this one.

0:49:020:49:04

You know, the the Holy Grail is 50 inches between the curves,

0:49:040:49:08

one outer end of the horn to the other outer end of the curve is probably about 44-45 inches.

0:49:080:49:14

STARTS ENGINE

0:49:140:49:16

Look at all of them run.

0:49:180:49:19

HOOVES POUND

0:49:190:49:22

God, the sound of it!

0:49:220:49:26

Seeing such impressive big game close up was the perfect end to the day at Cottar's Camp.

0:49:440:49:50

And although we weren't hunting as they would have done back in the 1920s,

0:49:500:49:55

I was beginning to get seduced by the heady luxury of it all.

0:49:550:49:59

-Good afternoon.

-Oh, jambo, Francis.

-Jambo.

-Cheers.

0:49:590:50:05

ICE CLINKS

0:50:070:50:09

It's incredible to imagine that in the 1920s people would have come on safari

0:50:100:50:16

and trekked into the middle of nowhere in the Masai Mara

0:50:160:50:19

with all this luxury tenting and equipment and baths available,

0:50:190:50:23

but I tell you, I can imagine that after a day of hunting and safari,

0:50:230:50:29

this is the way to go.

0:50:290:50:30

Chin chin!

0:50:300:50:32

Oh, this is the life.

0:50:360:50:38

Colonial settlers became giddy with the freedom of their African lifestyle -

0:50:520:50:57

safari being the natural extension of this.

0:50:570:51:00

But the burgeoning colony would soon gain the reputation as a wayward society.

0:51:000:51:05

Free from the strictures of British rules and regulations, a minority became uncontrollable.

0:51:090:51:16

Boozy romps and sexual shenanigans were rife, and the infamous Muthaiga Club was the hub,

0:51:160:51:21

so much so that no cameras have ever been allowed inside

0:51:210:51:25

and filming is not permitted in the grounds to this day.

0:51:250:51:29

Colonial stalwarts declared that a small minority were tarnishing the colony's reputation,

0:51:290:51:35

but the clique, nicknamed the Happy Valley set, carried on regardless.

0:51:350:51:40

And this free and easy loosening of morals became an integral part of safari.

0:51:420:51:46

The macho sport had undoubted sex appeal

0:51:460:51:50

which lured women and a new breed of seducer hunters emerged, promising romance in the wilds of Africa.

0:51:500:51:56

One of the most famous was Baron Bror von Blixen.

0:51:580:52:01

Blixen was a Swedish aristocrat brought up in the hunting tradition

0:52:010:52:05

and was portrayed in the Hollywood epic Out of Africa, in 1985,

0:52:050:52:08

as the adulterous husband of Karen Blixen.

0:52:080:52:12

Throughout the '20s and '30s, Bror had a string of wealthy clients

0:52:120:52:16

queuing up to pay for his services and his reputation as a prolific lover became legend.

0:52:160:52:23

But what was it that Bror had that made him so adored?

0:52:250:52:29

'I met his godson, Ulf Ashcan, to find out.'

0:52:290:52:32

-Ulf, can you show me a photograph of Bror?

-I can indeed.

0:52:320:52:37

This is not typical of Bror at all

0:52:370:52:41

because very seldom did you see him dressed up in a suit and a tie.

0:52:410:52:48

But this is a more typical picture and he wasn't one of these guys who had bullet belts.

0:52:480:52:54

-No macho posturing?

-Nothing! He just carried a gun and a few bullets in his pocket and that was it.

0:52:540:53:01

So considering that he wasn't conventionally handsome,

0:53:010:53:05

-he was a legendary ladies man.

-Yes! That's right!

0:53:050:53:08

And one of the secrets was that if he met a lady,

0:53:080:53:14

his concentration was so total

0:53:140:53:18

that that woman or girl thought that she was the only woman on earth.

0:53:180:53:25

He never wavered, I mean, he never took his eyes off the particular person that he was speaking to.

0:53:260:53:34

He just looked them in the eye and talked to them, and he listened.

0:53:340:53:37

He was a very good listener.

0:53:370:53:39

That was his secret.

0:53:390:53:41

For the women lucky enough to be on a Bror Blixen safari, nothing was too much trouble.

0:53:410:53:46

He would cater to their every whim.

0:53:460:53:49

If we go back to this particular safari, which they had two aircrafts on standby

0:53:490:53:55

because once a week the matriarch demanded to be flown to Nairobi once a week to have her hair done.

0:53:550:54:03

Hair done for the hunt? I love that!

0:54:070:54:09

And not only that, the plane then came back fully laden with Evian water for her bathtub.

0:54:090:54:17

-Beryl Markham said that when he died, he broke the mould.

-Yes.

0:54:180:54:23

I think she was right.

0:54:230:54:25

And they were lovers as well, were they?

0:54:250:54:27

I think definitely yes... in a friendly way.

0:54:270:54:30

-So beds and hunting and safari were all shared in a very fluid, open way?

-Absolutely, yeah.

0:54:300:54:40

-And no jealously, which was the best of all.

-Are you like that?

0:54:400:54:46

Er, I probably was.

0:54:460:54:49

-Now no more?

-No.

0:54:510:54:53

Bror Blixen became the highest-paid professional hunter of his generation.

0:54:550:55:00

He formed a professional partnership with fellow hunter Denys Finch Hatton,

0:55:000:55:04

another legendary womaniser famous for his love affair with Karen Blixen.

0:55:040:55:08

Blixen and Finch Hatton combined to become safari's first generation of heart-throb hunters.

0:55:110:55:17

The thing that comes across most about Bror Blixen for me

0:55:200:55:24

is that he was a man's man that people wanted to befriend and to emulate

0:55:240:55:29

and was also irresistible to women.

0:55:290:55:32

So the best of both worlds.

0:55:320:55:35

Lucky bastard.

0:55:350:55:36

By the late 1930s, safari was attracting hordes of wealthy European and American clients,

0:55:420:55:47

but the promise of passion and romance under the African stars couldn't last forever.

0:55:470:55:54

Back in Nairobi, affairs became widespread.

0:55:550:55:59

In fact, one story revealed that jealousies could boil over with fatal consequences.

0:55:590:56:04

In 1941, a high society murder scandalised the colony and became national news back home in Britain.

0:56:060:56:13

Lord Joss Hay, the Earl of Erroll, was murdered on the outskirts of Nairobi,

0:56:130:56:19

in a torrid story that would inspire the feature film White Mischief.

0:56:190:56:23

Now we're going to go on a sort of murder mystery tour here

0:56:270:56:31

of where these events took place. What happened was this...

0:56:310:56:35

Sir Jock Delves Brougton, who was about 55, married a great beauty called Diana Caldwell

0:56:350:56:41

and they had been married for only two months, barely off the boat from Mombasa

0:56:410:56:46

and the Casanova of Kenya, also known as Lord Joss Hay, the Earl of Erroll,

0:56:460:56:52

who had bonked and bedded and cuckolded most of the husbands around here

0:56:520:56:57

fell madly in love with Diana.

0:56:570:56:59

And this is where it really gets going.

0:56:590:57:02

Lord Erroll had a flagrant affair with Diana

0:57:030:57:07

and it soon became hot gossip on the terraces of the Muthaiga Club.

0:57:070:57:10

But six weeks after the affair began,

0:57:120:57:14

Erroll was found dead in his car in the early hours of the morning on the 25th January 1941.

0:57:140:57:20

He had been shot at point blank range.

0:57:200:57:23

Jock Broughton was arrested on suspicion of murder but was found "not guilty".

0:57:250:57:31

However, unable to reconcile with Diana, he returned to England,

0:57:310:57:35

where two years later he committed suicide by overdose.

0:57:350:57:38

It remains an unsolved mystery

0:57:470:57:50

and it was this murder in the middle of the Second World War

0:57:500:57:55

that brought notoriety and infamy to a very tiny minority

0:57:550:58:01

of the aristocratic white settlers here in Kenya.

0:58:010:58:04

The horrors of the Second World War erased all prospects of going on safari,

0:58:140:58:19

and the once lucrative trade from Europe and America evaporated.

0:58:190:58:23

Once the Allies were victorious,

0:58:260:58:28

the colonists set about rebuilding their most famous industry

0:58:280:58:31

and the catalyst once again came from America,

0:58:310:58:35

this time from the pen of the famous writer Ernest Hemingway.

0:58:350:58:40

Hemingway went on safari in Kenya in 1934 and again in 1953.

0:58:400:58:46

In a series of novels, he described safari with manly mastery,

0:58:460:58:51

transforming the great white hunter into the role of hero.

0:58:510:58:55

He described a world of glamour, danger and sex

0:58:550:58:59

that was inevitably snapped up by Hollywood and it was show time!

0:58:590:59:03

A stream of romantic movies followed, glamorising safari,

0:59:080:59:12

like Mogambo starring Clark Gable, Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly

0:59:120:59:17

and King Solomon's Mines starring Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr.

0:59:170:59:22

Hollywood portrayed white hunters as protectors, killers and womanisers, yet at one with nature.

0:59:220:59:28

The women in the movies trembled at the hunter's machismo

0:59:280:59:32

and were drawn irresistibly into their beds.

0:59:320:59:36

The movies had huge appeal to audiences worldwide

0:59:360:59:40

prompting a tourist boom in pursuit of the Hollywood dream.

0:59:400:59:44

Hollywood undoubtedly reignited the allure of safari in the early '50s -

1:00:121:00:17

tourists flocked to Kenya,

1:00:171:00:19

still known as British East Africa, in search of romance and adventure and trying to bag the Big five.

1:00:191:00:25

As the demand for hunting grew rapidly, so did the demand for a new generation of professional hunters

1:00:251:00:31

to guide and protect people going through the dangerous bush.

1:00:311:00:35

I'm now heading north to the foothills of Mount Kenya

1:00:371:00:40

to meet one of the last professional hunters from that era still alive to tell us his tale.

1:00:401:00:45

Great white hunters are unusually guarded about recounting their hunting days,

1:00:461:00:51

but we contacted Mike Prettejohn, a hunter from my father's generation who agreed to meet.

1:00:511:00:57

'Mike was considered one of the most fearless hunters of his era,

1:00:591:01:03

'but unbeknownst to anyone, his generation would be the last.'

1:01:031:01:07

Mike, Richard.

1:01:071:01:10

Nice to meet you. Come along in.

1:01:101:01:12

Thank you very much.

1:01:121:01:15

Mike, when did you become a professional hunter?

1:01:161:01:19

I became actually a professional hunter in 1957.

1:01:191:01:24

And I was brought up amongst wildlife

1:01:241:01:29

and so I hunted ever since I was a boy of six, basically.

1:01:291:01:33

And how close to death did you ever come?

1:01:341:01:37

What adventures did you come up against?

1:01:371:01:41

I was thrown by a rhino once.

1:01:411:01:43

I was knocked down by a buffalo and had...the bullet shot through the buffalo,

1:01:431:01:48

it went right the way through the buffalo out of its neck,

1:01:481:01:51

I had my feet around its neck and it knelt down and was pushing me along the ground.

1:01:511:01:57

My gun bearer actually shot it through the backside,

1:01:571:02:01

it went all the way through out by the neck into the back of my leg.

1:02:011:02:05

And I never realised I had so many holes,

1:02:051:02:10

I had a lot of problems with this leg because the bullet moved up

1:02:101:02:13

and a year later a doctor took it out from up top here.

1:02:131:02:16

-You had a bullet in your bum and you didn't know it was there?

-I didn't know it was there.

1:02:161:02:21

I've heard of tough, but that's really tough! God!

1:02:211:02:26

But one close call with death made Mike a legend in the hunting community,

1:02:271:02:31

when he was asked to help shoot a rogue lion that was killing local cattle.

1:02:311:02:36

One of our pet bulls had been taken out

1:02:371:02:40

and so I went and I didn't have my own rifle with me

1:02:401:02:44

and I borrowed a rifle and it was old ammunition

1:02:441:02:49

and although it hit the lion pretty severely, it didn't kill it straightaway.

1:02:491:02:54

It was just lying under a bush and I could see its stomach was just going up and down,

1:02:541:03:00

so I realised it was alive.

1:03:001:03:02

And so I walked around to try and get a shot of its side,

1:03:021:03:07

but it obviously heard me coming and it suddenly just whipped out

1:03:071:03:12

and I remember it coming towards me with its tail driving it like the propeller of an aeroplane.

1:03:121:03:20

And I put out my hand to stop it

1:03:201:03:23

and I fell over, it came down on top of me

1:03:231:03:26

and I put my leg up and it grabbed my leg in its jaws.

1:03:261:03:30

As Mike wrestled with the lion, his unarmed companion took a photograph,

1:03:321:03:36

hoping that the flash would scare it away.

1:03:361:03:38

He hadn't got a gun or anything so the best defence

1:03:381:03:42

was to take another picture and the flash...

1:03:421:03:45

obviously I think the lion thought another bullet was coming so he jumped off.

1:03:451:03:50

So flash photography saved your life?

1:03:511:03:54

I would say the flash photography saved my life, yes.

1:03:541:03:57

When you describe it, it sounds as though it's so vivid,

1:03:571:04:00

it sounds as though it could have happened yesterday, and how old are you now?

1:04:001:04:05

-77.

-How old do you feel?

1:04:051:04:07

45.

1:04:071:04:08

So when you talk about this, does it seem as though it was very recent?

1:04:081:04:12

Yes, it does, it seems like yesterday really.

1:04:121:04:14

What I find personally extraordinary is that many of these...

1:04:191:04:24

elder statesman of safari and hunting that I've met here

1:04:241:04:28

are the age that my father, if he'd have lived, would have been,

1:04:281:04:31

because he was dead at 52 so there's, um...

1:04:311:04:35

..a great, I suppose, feeling of nostalgia for me of what I could have had,

1:04:381:04:44

so...it's a bit embarrassing, but I feel that loss in speaking to them.

1:04:441:04:50

So it's almost like finding, er... proxy fathers along the journey.

1:04:501:04:57

You get a sense that somebody who has lived in another era

1:05:011:05:06

although you're still in the present but what they're talking about

1:05:061:05:11

and their sensibility and their code of honour, if you like,

1:05:111:05:18

is absolutely present in who they are now.

1:05:181:05:21

So very nostalgic for me.

1:05:231:05:25

You got me there, bloody hell.

1:05:271:05:30

The '50s and '60s, while full of adventure for professional hunters,

1:05:381:05:42

marked the beginning of the end for hunting in Kenya.

1:05:421:05:45

By now, the landscape had radically changed.

1:05:471:05:51

The once open lands, teeming with wildlife that early settlers had been tempted by,

1:05:511:05:56

were depleted and parcelled up for development.

1:05:561:05:59

The population was rapidly expanding,

1:05:591:06:03

there were greater demands for farmland and hunting was spiralling out of control.

1:06:031:06:08

The growing African population who had little option for buying land for farming

1:06:081:06:13

were forced to turn to poaching from private land and National Parks,

1:06:131:06:17

either for food or for ivory to sell.

1:06:171:06:20

As a result, they killed vast numbers of animals indiscriminately.

1:06:201:06:25

Meanwhile, conflicts over land rights resulted in the Mau Mau uprising,

1:06:251:06:30

as the colonialists and Kenyans were locked in fierce battles,

1:06:301:06:33

resulting in 100 settlers and 10,000 Africans being killed.

1:06:331:06:38

The war culminated in the end of British rule and on 1st June 1963, Kenya was declared independent.

1:06:381:06:46

This is one of the happiest days of my life.

1:06:461:06:49

'But the new African government failed to get a grip on poaching and the situation escalated.

1:06:551:07:01

'Peter Mwangi was a poacher in that era.

1:07:051:07:08

'Decades later he is a gamekeeper and patrols the Aberdare Forest to conserve the animal population.'

1:07:081:07:15

Peter, this is enormous, what animal is this for?

1:07:151:07:20

This is for trapping buffalo.

1:07:201:07:22

If the animal comes across to put inside like that, it is caught like that.

1:07:221:07:29

-So this is guaranteed to kill the animal.

-Yeah. Argh!

1:07:291:07:33

Peter, can you explain what this monster is?

1:07:361:07:39

Those are bad elephant traps.

1:07:391:07:43

They are put down and covered by soil so the elephant cannot see it.

1:07:431:07:50

When it is starting to move there,

1:07:501:07:52

-it is...inside their legs.

-So it's injured...

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:07:521:07:59

Inside here. After moving, maybe two to three days, it's defeated how to move.

1:07:591:08:07

Start lying, no food and it is dead.

1:08:071:08:10

So then poachers can come and get it?

1:08:101:08:13

-Tusks.

-Tusks.

-Yeah.

1:08:131:08:15

Peter, when you were a poacher, what weapons did you use?

1:08:151:08:19

Well, when I was a poacher I was using spears and spear it.

1:08:191:08:25

And would it die instantly?

1:08:251:08:26

-There and there.

-What, through the neck?

1:08:261:08:29

No, no, through the heart.

1:08:291:08:31

I did very bad work and knowingly.

1:08:341:08:36

So when did that change, when you became a conservationist?

1:08:361:08:40

Um...it came, that time there were professional people, professional hunters.

1:08:401:08:48

They came to my place, they asked if there was someone who could show them the bush to hunt

1:08:481:08:53

so I was appointed to take them out by somebody.

1:08:531:09:00

When I took them out into the forest, I was given five shillings per day,

1:09:001:09:05

five shillings for one day and we killed one bongo on licence,

1:09:051:09:11

professional licensing, I realised those animals can give you money.

1:09:111:09:19

I started to live slowly by slowly to stop that work of poaching.

1:09:191:09:24

While Peter Mwengi and Mike Prettejohn were once hunters in the same era

1:09:281:09:33

but from separate cultures, today they work together

1:09:331:09:36

for the conservation of the Aberdare Forests.

1:09:361:09:40

But their relationship is a minority in the history of safari.

1:09:401:09:45

By the late 1960s, poaching had continued to rise and National Parks like Tsavo

1:09:461:09:52

lost 35,000 elephants and 5,000 rhinoceros.

1:09:521:09:57

As the wildlife population continued to plummet across Kenya,

1:10:001:10:03

a growing conservation movement was making any form of hunting ever more unacceptable.

1:10:031:10:08

Finally the Kenyan Government decided to impose a ban on all forms of hunting in 1977,

1:10:081:10:15

in an attempt to conserve the wildlife that remained.

1:10:151:10:19

Despite the ban, safari continued to expand, reinventing itself along the way.

1:10:211:10:25

Cheap air travel meant ever more tourists could fly into Nairobi for the safari experience,

1:10:251:10:31

with the gun being replaced by the camera.

1:10:311:10:33

By the '70s and '80s, photo safaris became a mass market.

1:10:341:10:38

But the history of safari proves that there are always people willing to pay to shoot wild animals.

1:10:401:10:45

And safari hunters spread to Tanzania, Somalia, Uganda,

1:10:451:10:50

Botswana and South Africa where it is still legal.

1:10:501:10:53

Morning.

1:10:551:10:57

'North of Johannesburg in South Africa, is the Melorani Ranch owned by Stewart Dorrington.

1:10:571:11:02

'Stewart's hunting operation allows him to plough the profits he makes from clients

1:11:021:11:08

'back into breeding new stock.

1:11:081:11:10

'He agreed to let me follow a hunt with his friend Peter Flack.

1:11:101:11:14

'Stewart and Peter are hoping to find an older animal,

1:11:171:11:21

'past breeding age that would either die of natural causes soon or be culled.'

1:11:211:11:26

We're looking for an impala or a wildebeest so then we just want to make sure

1:11:261:11:30

that it's not a young animal, it's still going to be breeding, that it's an older bull

1:11:301:11:35

and it's still a nice animal if you want to put him on the wall.

1:11:351:11:39

Sometimes you will see exactly what you are looking for

1:11:421:11:46

and then you'll drive past, out of ear shot and out of sight and then put in a stalk.

1:11:461:11:52

Shall I walk in single file?

1:12:051:12:06

-(Yes, if you can walk behind Peter.)

-Behind Peter, OK.

1:12:061:12:11

(I'll just walk in front here.)

1:12:111:12:13

(The breeze is good, it's straight into us.)

1:12:131:12:17

'After only ten minutes of tracking, Stewart thinks he has spotted the perfect animal.'

1:12:211:12:26

(There's a wildebeest here.)

1:12:281:12:29

That was quick.

1:12:561:12:58

That was a lovely bull.

1:12:581:13:00

Yeah, that was a nice bull.

1:13:001:13:01

-I just went behind his leg.

-I could see the blood, the lung blood,

1:13:031:13:06

so he obviously hit... it went right through the vitals.

1:13:061:13:12

And we can still hear him going around?

1:13:121:13:14

He's down and it's just the nerves kicking.

1:13:141:13:17

There he is.

1:13:171:13:19

-So what is that movement now, nerves or...

-Just nerves.

-Pure nerves.

1:13:361:13:39

That's what I thought was going on down there. Sometimes with their last...

1:13:391:13:44

That's amazed me that he was still going. They are tough things these wildebeest.

1:13:441:13:49

It's the toughest animal pound for pound, I think, on the African continent.

1:13:491:13:55

If they were as big as buffalos, people would hunt them in armoured cars.

1:13:551:13:59

'Peter's adrenalin was clearly pumping

1:14:021:14:05

'and it reminds of tracking with Gordie Church and how emotionally charged I felt back then.'

1:14:051:14:09

Taking him off has no impact on the population really because he's not a breeding bull.

1:14:111:14:16

-What happens next?

-Well, we normally clean him up

1:14:161:14:21

and take a couple of photos.

1:14:211:14:24

'Stewart prices the animals he offers for hunting according to their breed.

1:14:291:14:33

'Shooting the wildebeest cost 825 US dollars,

1:14:331:14:37

'while the most expensive animal he offers is the sable antelope

1:14:371:14:42

'costing 9,750 US dollars.

1:14:421:14:47

'Safari hunting in South Africa is booming, with clients like Peter ready to pay for the privilege.

1:14:471:14:53

'Although it sounds like a huge contradiction,

1:14:551:14:58

'Stewart is convinced that paid hunting can play a vital role in helping the animal population grow

1:14:581:15:04

'and there's no doubt he loves both his land and the wildlife that roams it.'

1:15:041:15:08

Can I ask you about this farm here or ranch?

1:15:111:15:15

It's where your mother and her father lived and it's now been converted

1:15:151:15:20

-from a traditional farm back to the land as it would have been before anybody farmed here.

-That's right.

1:15:201:15:28

And that's because the value of game supersedes livestock.

1:15:281:15:34

Yah, exactly, the economics basically dictates the land use at the end of the day

1:15:341:15:40

and I have no problem with that with game because I love wildlife

1:15:401:15:44

and it's always been my dream to turn this into a reserve and a domain for wild animals.

1:15:441:15:50

From the hunting we managed to invest the proceeds into rare species,

1:15:501:15:54

so not only have we brought back the species that used to be fairly common here,

1:15:541:15:58

we've brought back species like the white rhino

1:15:581:16:01

and the sable antelope, and it's causing this huge population explosion.

1:16:011:16:05

So Stewart are you saying that - it sounds like a contradiction in terms -

1:16:051:16:09

that you have hunting but because it's controlled and licensed

1:16:091:16:13

that increases the amount of game that there is.

1:16:131:16:16

Absolutely. It's totally true that way

1:16:161:16:20

and it incentivises when you are then looking after your own game.

1:16:201:16:24

You're not going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg, you want to have another goose

1:16:241:16:29

so you look after your game better than probably many of the National Parks are being looked after

1:16:291:16:34

because you want them to be fruitful and multiply.

1:16:341:16:38

When Stewart took over Melorani, 26 years ago,

1:16:391:16:42

the wildlife on his land consisted of only a handful of kudu and warthog,

1:16:421:16:47

but today he has over 2,500 head of game.

1:16:471:16:53

Even though hunting safaris are in a minority in Africa,

1:16:531:16:56

Stewart's operation has shown me

1:16:561:16:59

that hunting might still have an important role to play in conservation.

1:16:591:17:03

But what about Kenya -

1:17:121:17:14

the historical home of safari,

1:17:141:17:17

where the hunting ban still remains?

1:17:171:17:19

Oh, last night we had a four-hour higgledy-piggledy drive down a track

1:17:411:17:46

like I've never been in anything like in my life,

1:17:461:17:49

from the foothills of Mount Kenya to this camp Il N'gwesi.

1:17:491:17:54

And I've just woken up now like Lazarus.

1:17:541:17:58

This is the Garden of Eden.

1:17:581:18:01

Spectacular!

1:18:031:18:06

Hunting or not, safari has always been about the sheer power and glory of the African landscape.

1:18:121:18:19

This is Il N'gwesi and I hope that lodges like this signal the future of safari in Africa.

1:18:191:18:26

Il N'gwesi is run by the local Masai community.

1:18:261:18:30

The idea for the lodge came from local white settlers who helped generate the funding to build it,

1:18:301:18:36

but the Masai have been involved from the start

1:18:361:18:38

and were responsible for the lodge's unique eco-friendly construction.

1:18:381:18:42

'The current Lodge Manager is Ochene Sakita Mayiani.'

1:18:441:18:49

So this is the first Masai run and owned safari in Kenya?

1:18:491:18:53

Yes, indeed. This is the first Masai owned and managed safari in Kenya.

1:18:531:18:59

And when the first guests arrived here,

1:18:591:19:02

was that a shock when people actually arrived?

1:19:021:19:04

Oh, oh, I can tell you it was a shock because we did not understand how to handle,

1:19:041:19:09

until the first time we'd seen tourists.

1:19:091:19:11

So for us at that time it was difficult, because these were different people,

1:19:111:19:15

the colour, the pink colour, it was difficult for us even to shake hands.

1:19:151:19:20

I tell you, we wanted them to keep their distance.

1:19:201:19:22

So you're saying that when you first met the pink people, you had to keep them at a distance.

1:19:221:19:28

How long did it take to learn or adopt a Western style of business to run the safari camp?

1:19:281:19:36

It took us quite some time, more than one year to slowly understand.

1:19:361:19:42

-And are you making money?

-Yeah. We are making money now, yeah.

1:19:421:19:46

-And what happens to it?

-The revenue that we generate from this one

1:19:461:19:50

is again ploughed back in the community

1:19:501:19:53

to support the various produce and programmes we have in the community.

1:19:531:19:57

These are water, education, that is schools and bursaries for the school children,

1:19:571:20:03

it goes to assist in conserving the eco system, yeah.

1:20:031:20:08

Il N'gwesi has been the inspiration behind ten other African-run safari lodges

1:20:101:20:15

that have been set up across Kenya over the past decade.

1:20:151:20:19

Whilst still in the minority, Il N'gwesi feels like the way forward

1:20:191:20:24

to experience a truly integrated African safari, free of any colonial echoes.

1:20:241:20:30

It's 6.30am here on the Mara and we're about to go up in a balloon ride.

1:20:421:20:45

I have no idea which direction we're going in,

1:20:451:20:48

what the wind will be like or where we are going to land.

1:20:481:20:51

My journey through safari was coming to an end and it would finish in a truly magical way.

1:20:541:21:00

For all the bloodshed and colonial exploitation,

1:21:001:21:04

I have discovered the emotional heart of Africa still beats on.

1:21:041:21:08

I'm back in the Masai Mara, this time with guide Toby Fenwick Wilson.

1:21:121:21:17

Toby represents the new breed of British settlers

1:21:171:21:20

who cater for the super wealthy on safari in Kenya once again...

1:21:201:21:24

..and he's taking me on the trip of a lifetime.

1:21:251:21:29

For me this is the elemental Africa,

1:21:291:21:33

wildlife below us and unspoilt wilderness.

1:21:331:21:36

This is the perfect, perfect time

1:21:381:21:41

because the night shift is essentially changing with the day shift.

1:21:411:21:45

So these are the first grumbles of activity.

1:21:481:21:51

Anything that I say, any words are going to be chicken pellets compared to what you see here, you can't...

1:21:521:21:58

no word can take in what this is.

1:21:581:22:01

Look! There's a leopard!

1:22:011:22:04

There's a leopard!

1:22:041:22:06

There's a leopard going through!

1:22:061:22:09

Wow! That's wonderful.

1:22:091:22:10

Good, I've never seen that... that's...

1:22:161:22:19

Hippos down there.

1:22:281:22:30

They've literally just come back, they'll have been out grazing, they'll have just pottered back in.

1:22:301:22:35

We're going right over it.

1:22:401:22:42

That instant adrenalin sort of pow!

1:22:471:22:50

that you get, like being a five-year-old.

1:22:501:22:54

This is the closest I'll ever get to feeling like a bird or Sinbad on a magic carpet ride.

1:22:561:23:02

-A wild dog, no, a hyena.

-A hyena.

-A hyena!

1:23:021:23:06

Floating over the Mara conjures up the hypnotic spirit of freedom

1:23:061:23:11

those early settlers must have experienced over a century ago.

1:23:111:23:14

Leopard, elephant, giraffe, baby giraffe, baby hippo...

1:23:171:23:23

gobsmacked human!

1:23:231:23:25

-Jambo.

-Jambo.

1:23:331:23:35

'After recovering from a breathtaking flight,

1:23:371:23:39

'Toby treats me to a champagne breakfast in the bush.'

1:23:391:23:42

POP! There we go. Whoops!

1:23:421:23:45

'Toby's clients are the top end of safari today.'

1:23:451:23:48

The biggest kick for me was seeing that leopard.

1:23:481:23:51

'They come from all around the world and include film stars, IT moguls, and bigwigs from Wall St,

1:23:511:23:56

'who all crave the freedom of safari.'

1:23:581:24:00

A lot of these people are cash rich, time poor.

1:24:021:24:05

And they're coming out here to actually have a bit of space,

1:24:071:24:10

slough off that chaos of the busy lives they're leading.

1:24:101:24:15

I mean, you get these great mandarins that are coming in from Wall St or wherever it is...

1:24:151:24:21

They are out of their comfort zone and in the hands of some lunatic guide,

1:24:211:24:25

already they are slightly on the back foot, that would be slightly nerve-racking.

1:24:251:24:29

But you can see them, they're slightly twitching, "Where's my telephone?" and all that stuff.

1:24:291:24:34

And by day two or three the nervousness has gone, the twitching's gone,

1:24:341:24:39

the Blackberries are out, the face is relaxed, ten years younger.

1:24:391:24:44

And my whole ambition in a safari is to get someone in this context

1:24:441:24:51

and have the ability to think, repolarise,

1:24:511:24:55

enjoy the animals.

1:24:561:24:59

You're trying to allow them into your head and give them an opportunity

1:24:591:25:05

to see why you're so passionate about this lifestyle and that is what I am trying to tune people in to.

1:25:051:25:12

You understand it, it's in your blood, it's in my blood,

1:25:121:25:15

but if I can in some way

1:25:151:25:18

instil even a percentage of that unknown inner feeling,

1:25:181:25:24

then I've done a good job and I'm happy.

1:25:241:25:26

'After a journey through the history of safari, I wasn't ready to leave Kenya yet.

1:25:311:25:36

'I still had one last animal I wanted too see.

1:25:381:25:42

'Lion are the royalty of the African plains and Toby heard on the bush telegraph

1:25:421:25:47

'that a pride had been spotted on a nearby hillside.

1:25:471:25:51

'Seeing them close up would complete my own personal Big Five.'

1:25:511:25:57

-Yeah, yeah, there they are, directly ahead do you see sitting on the...?

-Yep.

1:25:571:26:03

It looks like three of them but I may be completely wrong.

1:26:051:26:10

They are there, aren't they?

1:26:101:26:12

Old Swazi boy eyes.

1:26:121:26:16

Oh, my God! One, two, three, four, five, six...

1:26:201:26:24

..seven. There are seven here.

1:26:281:26:30

Oh, a youngster, look.

1:26:301:26:33

I was just thinking, Richard, it's one thing seeing lions

1:26:391:26:42

but in this geographic context it just couldn't be more perfect, could it?

1:26:421:26:48

-It couldn't.

-It's sublime.

1:26:481:26:51

Like generations of settlers before him,

1:26:531:26:55

there is no doubting Toby's genuine love for Africa and its wildlife

1:26:551:26:59

and I know that once it's in your blood, it never lets you go.

1:26:591:27:05

Oh, there's another...

1:27:051:27:06

Eight all together.

1:27:061:27:09

Yeah, it's on the move.

1:27:091:27:11

'Safari is still a story of white settlers in Kenya,

1:27:111:27:14

'but the search for freedom that inspired so many to come here in the first place,

1:27:141:27:18

'is what attracts over a million tourists to visit every year.

1:27:181:27:23

'I hope it's a freedom that carries on inspiring and feeding the human soul into the future.'

1:27:251:27:31

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

1:28:021:28:04

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS