Only in Africa (3)

Going back in my mind to the late 1960's, I remember our first camping trip to the coast of Kenya.  Did we do a beach holiday like the other ex-pat teachers ?   No, we did not !  Being keen on natural history, and especially birds, we decided to go to Mida Creek and the Arabuko-Sokoke forest area, to camp just above high water in the mangrove swamps.  

One morning, I went for a walk along a forest track by myself, and being very quiet, I saw on the path ahead of me a golden-rumped elephant-shrew !    An extra-ordinary animal .... 

(picture from Google)

Much bigger than an English shrew - about 8 or 9 inches in length, plus tail, it was just running along the path towards me, with its extremely long snout whiffling from side to side.  Of course, I didn't have a camera .... but the memory of seeing it stays with me, especially as its the only time I ever saw one.

However, its not the elephant shrew or the birds that are my 'only in Africa' moment.   The next day, we went for a walk along another narrow track .... this is Africa, remember, with very little population in the 'bush' away from the metropolis of Mombasa .... and we were startled to hear faint sounds, not of birds, but Eine Kleine Nachtmusik  wafting through the trees !  Mozart in the jungle ?   

A little further on, the music had stopped and we were accosted by two barking but friendly dogs who appeared out of the trees.   They were soon followed by an elderly (white) man who came to see what or who had disturbed his dogs.   He greeted us like long lost friends, and invited us in.   (It was always the way in Africa to invite in unexpected visitors  for anything from a cup of coffee, to a meal, or to stay for a week or more !)   

So there we were, really in the middle of nowhere, being invited into the home of a strange Scandinavian man, who lived alone with his dogs in a ramshackled house.  HOWEVER, after a drink, he took us to see his music room.  A large separate building, roughly the size of a generous double garage, with a few comfy chairs, and an enormous array of speakers, arranged around the room, and all connected to a turn-table, on which he played LP vinyl records !   He seated us in the centre of this room, so that we would get the best balanced sound from the speakers, and proceeded to play more Mozart !

Only in Africa would you find Mozart, miles from civilization, in the middle of mixed miombo/mangrove woodland !