Cheetah invasion Courtesy of Burton

We then packed up Donna and the car and headed to Munich for ISPO. It had snowed the previous night, and so I stopped on the way to Munich for a few powder runs in Germany. It was my 58th day of riding this season (January 31) and the 11th country I had ridden in. I wonder if anyone in the world has ridden in more countries this season (let me know if you have). The show itself was a lot of fun. We had all brands in the stand (Burton, anon, R.E.D. and Gravis), and Analog had it's own booth next door. The lines were super well received and the trade show scene was in full swing - late nights and early mornings. I watched the Super Bowl at the Hard Rock cafe, which didn't even start until after midnight (Euro time). It was not a week for sleep. The kids hit the show one day and must have each collected 50 lbs (20+kilos) of stickers. Taylor even scored a free skate deck. All that negotiating we did in Morocco helped them hone their begging skills for the trade show.

From ISPO, we were lined up to head back down to Africa to check out the central Africa/Safari experience. To be honest, I didn't have real high expectations for this leg of the trip, and some of us were bitter about leaving Europe in the midst of one of their best snowboarding seasons in a long time, but we were committed and off we went to Arusha, Tanzania. After a night in Arusha, we flew a little single engine plane out to a grass airstrip in the middle of the Serengeti bush with our guides Mike and Kirimbi. The Serengeti is a 5,790 square mile (14,500 square km) national park, but this ain't Disney World. It's the real thing. You don't get out of your vehicle unless you are damn sure there are no hungry lions around. I'll spare you the 'why to stay in the car stories'. Going on a safari is exactly what you would expect. You cruise around checking out animals all day. What words can't describe is the whole vibe that you experience watching these animals in action.

"It (safari) was the 'circle of life' in full color minus the Disney characters."

One day when driving around, we saw a pack of three cheetahs stalk a herd of wildebeests. They ultimately tackled one and proceeded to eat it alive. It was somewhat disturbing, but at the same time insanely pure and real. Two hours later we saw a baby wildebeest being born. It got up and started running with the herd less than two minutes after being born. It was the 'circle of life' in full color (minus the Disney characters). During our safari we saw a total of 38 species of animals (listed below). In the case of wildebeests we saw over 20,000. In the case of Rhinos, we only saw two. It was the elephants, hyenas, cheetahs, warthogs and giraffes that we dug the most. Seeing a giraffe in a zoo is one thing. Seeing one running full speed in the wild is another story. They look like they are going in slow motion (as they are so huge), but they are going pretty damn fast.

Our accommodations were equally cool. We stayed in tents, but we had real beds, showers, and even lights. The food was super good and we played every sport imaginable with the crew; soccer, football, stick ball, ultimate and even touch rugby. When you are out in the bush with someone for a week, you get to know each other pretty well, and these guys were so much fun.

On our last day, we went to check out a local school of the Maasai Tribe. We had to drive in two separate Land Cruisers to get there but we were in radio contact. I was with Kirimbi (one guide) and some of the others were with Mike (the other guide). Mike came on our radio telling us that they had spotted the same three cheetahs that we saw munching the wildebeest two days before. They had apparently already eaten their kill for the day as they were taking a nap. Mike pulled up right alongside them in the car, and to everyone's amazement, the cheetahs then got up and all jumped up on top of their car. George said one slipped part way into the sunroof right above him, but pulled himself up. They were all scared shitless inside the car surrounded by cheetahs. We drove to the spot as quick as we could, and sure enough there they were. This kind of stuff just doesn't happen here, and the guides had never seen anything like it. Apparently, these three cheetahs were followed by a woman photographer for the first two years of their lives and they were not as freaked out by people as most animals here. We pulled up right along side their Land Cruiser and took hundreds of photos of them with the cheetahs on top. Getting them off the rig proved to be somewhat difficult, but they finally got the idea when Mike started to drive off with them on the car. The school we checked out was awesome, but all we could talk about was those cheetahs.

Later that afternoon we visited a Maasai Enkang. This is the name for the hamlets/villages where they live. Being surrounded by all these predators, one would think that they would be big meat eaters, but they don't believe in hunting except when a lion or hyena is poaching their cattle, in which case they hunt them down. It's all about their cattle, which they take very good care of, sometimes taking their herd miles away from home looking for good grazing. Occasionally they will slaughter and eat a cow, but they won't kill a young one out of respect, as it has not had a full life. They prefer to milk the cows and make yogurt from the milk. Their other source of nutrition is cow's blood, which they get by nailing the cow in the neck with an arrow. After extracting a few quarts (liters) of blood they patch up the puncture with cow dung. They then drink the blood for protein. They don't grow any crops. It's all milk and blood. Thanks to the fact that our guide Kirimbi was born a Maasai, they were happy to have us visit, although their contact with honkies (white westerners) like us was minimal. They were happy to let George join in on their dance and they all had to check out our belly buttons as they had never seen one before. These people were completely insulated from modern civilization. They live the same way they always have and are behind in so many ways, but they were every bit as happy as any town I've visited, and they were very healthy. Makes you wonder if they might know something we don't.

One more night in our tents, and it was back to Arusha. After ten days in Tanzania, it was time to head for Innsbruck and get back into winter. We were stoked to be heading to the mountains, but Africa was ten times the experience we expected. I know I'll be back for sure.

— Jake Burton, Burton Snowboards