Kuwa Macho Kwa Wajangili

"Kuwa macho kwa wajangili. Grow eyes for poachers."

This is Warden Wilson Mutua's call to action, not just for his team of reserve wardens but for everyone traveling through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. Only by working together can we keep the threat of poaching at bay.

During our adventure on Kilimanjaro Safaris, a group of poachers are spotted on the reserve. As the truck reaches Magadi Gate ("magadi" means "guard"), we see that it's been smashed through. Wilson reaches out to us for help. Follow the poachers so the wardens can cut them off. Our truck is about to leave the protected boundary of the reserve.

It quickly becomes all too obvious that safari tours are not meant to be here. We descend into the gorge, where geysers erupt from hot springs all around us.

Coming up on the other side, we stumble upon the poachers' camp and some of their illegally obtained tusks and horns.

Ultimately, the poachers are surrounded and taken into custody. The baby elephant they had abducted (the one animal in the entire attraction that isn't real) has been recovered and will soon be reunited with its mother.

Warden Mutua thanks us for our help, but now what? We are way off the beaten path, and until the borders of the reserve are secured, further safari tours have been suspended. Our guide decides to drop us off at the safest place, a nearby Warden Post.

To ease our transition off the truck, the guide pulls up alongside an old wooden loading dock. These docks date back to Harambe's colonial period, but are still in use today. Ranches in the area truck their cattle here to offload them and escort them around the bend to the train station for transport elsewhere. Look closely, and you'll even spot the name of the transportation concern that works with the ranchers: Smythe-Wallis British East Africa Livestock Ltd.

Stepping away from the cattle chutes, we find ourselves safely at Warden Post #4. One of the wardens' jeeps has just pulled up, loaded down with items seized from the arrested poachers.

Poaching of ivory, hides, rhino horns and other wildlife contraband is a major concern throughout Africa. A growing, often poor population will sometimes turn to poaching as an easy way to make money and put food on the table.

Demand for these illegal goods comes from other countries, including the U.S., but there can be even greater demand for seeing these animals alive and well in the wild. In Harambe, eco-tourism has proven to be a boon to the economy.

The Lay of the Land

In the story of Harambe, the Harambe Wildlife Reserve is said to be 800 square miles. In actuality, Kilimanjaro Safaris is not quite that large, but it does cover a substantial amount of land. At about 140 acres, the entire Magic Kingdom Park could fit within the borders of this single attraction, with room to spare. That includes 100 acres for the safari itself and 40 acres north of the ride path (visible from some areas, but not accessible by the trucks) that help create the illusion that the savanna goes on forever.

Close inspection of a map of the Harambe Wildlife Reserve reveals many of the places actually visited during the course of the Kilimanjaro Safaris adventure, along with a few which have been thrown in just to make it appear as though the reserve extends beyond the borders of the theme park.

Safari vehicles leave the Departure Base to the south and head through the forest toward the Safi River, a popular spot for herds of hippopotami. The Serikali Bridge (below) is one of the landmarks pointed out on the map. The word "serikali" means "government." This was a bridge funded by the state to provide easier access to the savanna areas of the reserve. The bridge has definitely seen better days, though. It creaks and groans under the weight of the Tembo Trucks, as a pile of crocodiles waits below.

Once across the river, the trucks head into the Ndege ("bird") Hills for a spectacular view of the savanna and one of the reserve's ancient Baobab trees (artificial, remember?).

Although the Baobabs on the savanna are fake, the vast majority of the foliage here is real and was transplanted to the site during the construction of Disney's Animal Kingdom. One exception is this stand of trees (below). Known internally as "Tree Save," the oaks in this area of the safari were already here. To make them fit the African landscape, the oak trees were pruned to look more like acacia (the giraffes do their part to keep them that way).

On a trip through the savanna, everything appears completely authentic, but there is plenty of artifice. Elements have been created here and there to help give the area a look that is more distinctly African than Floridian.

The termite mounds (below), for example, are concrete but made to look just like the real thing. Termites create the mounds with a combination of earth and saliva, and they can get as hard as rock. Elephants and other animals like to rub up against them to, as Warden Mutua would put it, "scratch their itchy backsides!"

The artists at Walt Disney Imagineering also sculpted the roadway on which the safari vehicles travel. It only looks like dirt or mud, but is actually reinforced concrete. Each Tembo Truck weighs something in the neighborhood of sixteen tons and would sink into a real earthen road.

The roadway is particularly interesting in the places where it's made to appear as though the trucks are trudging through shallow water. Here, the sculpted ruts not only add a dramatic look, but also serve a purpose. They keep the "show water" through which the vehicles travel separate from the treated water that is part of the animals' environment.

There are also several places along the path where the road appears to go in different directions. Some of these alternate routes serve an operational purpose while others don't, but they're all accounted for on the map of the reserve. Riding through, be on the lookout for these roads, along with markers pointing the way to places like Tumbili Tented Camp or Wingu Kopjes.

Soon, the safari trucks pass the red clay pits and into elephant territory. Disney's Animal Kingdom has one of the largest and finest facilities for African elephants in the world, with more than six acres of natural habitat. That acreage is spread across three different onstage areas which can be connected or separated. The bridge above, for example, leads from one area to another and can be closed off if needed.

This functionality has allowed the Animal Programs team to conduct groundbreaking studies in elephant communication. At times, it has also enabled having a matriarchal herd in one area and a lone bull in another, just as they would be in the wild. As a result of this and other efforts, Disney's Animal Kingdom has been extraordinarily successful in breeding African elephants.

Moving on past the Zamani Rock Paintings ("zamani" translates as "former" or "ancient"), the trucks emerge onto the Kifaru Plains, home to a population of white rhinos (is it any surprise that "kifaru" is Swahili for "rhinoceros").

At the southern edge of the plains are Wingu ("cloud") Kopjes. Pronounced "copies," kopjes are rounded rock outcroppings found in the savannas of eastern Africa. Wingu Kopjes are a popular destination for safari guides, since they're often frequented by lions.

At this point, having spotted several of Harambe's marquee animal species, most safari tours would make their way back to the Departure Base and call it a day. However, should you find yourself out with a guide who goes by the call sign "Simba One," fate may have other plans...

Protecting Africa's Living Treasures

The Harambe Wildlife Reserve was established in 1971 to preserve and protect native wildlife threatened by rapid population growth and the encroachment of agriculture and industry. A close look at the map reveals that the reserve is surrounded by ranches, coffee and banana plantations, and a phosphate mine. The marked area to the west of the Safi River is known as Gazetted Territory, land that is documented by the government as wild, but does not fall under the protection of the reserve due to limited resources.

The reserve covers 800 square miles and is open to tourism and licensed photo safaris, but hunting and poaching is strictly forbidden. Enforcing these rules is a staff of wardens. The wardens regularly patrol the reserve by jeep, truck and plane. Their job is similar in many ways to that of park rangers in the U.S., except for the fact that they occasionally face heavily armed poachers.

The wardens operate out of a series of Warden Posts scattered around the perimeter of the reserve. Warden Post #4 (above) is located in the southeast region, not far from the Pangani Forest Conservation School.

The head warden on the Harambe Wildlife Reserve is Wilson Mutua. Wilson was born in Harambe and has lived around and cared for the native wildlife here his whole life. Warden Mutua coordinates all the anti-poaching efforts of the reserve's warden team, but he also works closely with the safari tourism companies and visiting researches like his old friend Dr. Catherine Jobson.

An interesting side note: The actor who portrays Warden Wilson Mutua at Disney's Animal Kingdom is Abdoulaya N'Gom, who has appeared in a variety of movie and film roles over the years. For Disney, he played Kip, one of the porters in the 1997 comedy George of the Jungle. N'Gom was born in Senegal in French-influenced West Africa. For the part of Wilson Mutua, he had to learn to pronounce Swahili words correctly and to speak with the correct East African accent.

Departure Base

Once your safari tour is booked, simply head down to the Kilimanjaro Safaris Departure Base to board one of their Tembo Trucks for a day trip through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve. The Departure Base is a busy place, with trucks constantly coming and going. It's no surprise Kilimanjaro Safaris is the biggest tour operator in Harambe.

Many of the guides working for Kilimanjaro Safaris are locals who know the reserve and its animal population well. Some of the guides they hire, however, are students or foreign nationals living in Harambe, but with the proper training they too are perfectly capable of conducting the tours.

The Departure Base includes an office for the coordination of activities. Atop that office sits a small break space, where the guides might refresh themselves before heading out into the bush with another group:

For the safari guests waiting to board, there are several informative signs. The language on the signs is somewhat formal in nature and would seem to indicate a British connection, perhaps in the ownership of the company.

A Tembo Truck pulls in to the base and it's all aboard for the photo safari tour. The Tembo Trucks are actually modified GMC trucks, custom built to carry nine rows of passengers and to run on natural gas (far better for the animals and environment).

The trucks are loaded down with supplies, just in case anything should happen out there, and come with game spotting guides to help visitors identify the native wildlife they might see.

Everyone set? Then as they say in Harambe, "Twende! Let's go!"

Let's Go on Safari

We've had a nice time in Harambe so far. We've seen the sights, shopped, dined and taken in some local color, but now it's time to get down to business. After all, the main reason most people come to Harambe is to tour the Harambe Wildlife Reserve and see native wildlife in a natural environment.

By far the most popular way to see the reserve is aboard a Tembo Truck with one of the guides from Kilimanjaro Safaris. This type of excursion would typically last anywhere from a few hours to the whole day (not "two weeks" as is often ad-libbed by Safari Cast Members).

The base of operations for Kilimanjaro Safaris is located just past Mzee Mbuyu ("Old Man Baobab"), where Harambe's historic district borders the reserve. Visitors here are welcomed and presented with a quick lesson in Swahili. Impress your guide when you ask to see duma and kifaru (that's cheetah and rhino to you and me).

If you haven't already reserved a truck by phone or online (or with a Fastpass for that matter), just stop in to the Booking Office, and they can take care of you.

Spend a moment here, and you may notice details like the first money they ever took in (a 200 shilling note) or the framed business license from the Harambe Council of Commerce. The date on the license tells us this office was established in 1996, although surely Kilimanjaro has been operating out of Nairobi and Mombasa for much longer. If you're in the room long enough, you may even hear the phone ring... and the answering machine pick up.

The Booking Office is also filled with references to other safari touring options offered by Kilimanjaro, as well as promotions for some of the things that can be seen on the reserve. Among these attractions is Big Red, the matriarch of a herd of elephants living on the reserve. She gets her name from her habit of covering herself in some of Harambe's distinctive red clay soil, something elephants do to help stay cool and protect from sunburn.

Big Red has recently had a calf who has taken up the same habit, earning the nickname Little Red. Although Big Red and Little Red don't figure as prominently into the story line of Kilimanjaro Safaris as they once did, they remain in spirit.

Even better, several real African elephant babies have been born at Disney's Animal Kingdom since it opened, giving Guests the opportunity to witness elephant mothers and calves interacting just as they would in the wild.

The Upside-Down Tree

The entrance and Fastpass distribution areas of Kilimanjaro Safaris are set around the base of a massive Baobab tree, under a structure inspired by a bar in Kenya that was a popular spot for the Imagineers during their research trips there.

Baobab trees (Adansonia digitata) are a common sight on the East African savanna. They grow to be incredibly large, storing water inside the sponge-like wood of the trunk to help the trees survive the long dry season. When the rains come, usually about three months out of the year, the Baobabs sport leaves and large white flowers and are typically pollinated by fruit bats.

Of course, the iconic Baobab trees seen on the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom are creations of the Disney Imagineers (sorry if that spoils it for anyone). Real Baobabs of this size would have to be more than a thousand years old and are practically impossible to transplant.

That's not to say there aren't real Baobab trees in Harambe. You just have to know where to look. I understand that Imagineering Landscape Designer Paul Comstock and his team planted seven real specimens (most of them saplings) throughout the land of Africa, but I'm most familiar with one:

This Baobab was relocated to Disney's Animal Kingdom from a parking lot in Miami (hence the white paint on its trunk). It's estimated to be about a hundred years old, so it's quite a bit smaller than its cousins on the savanna. This specimen is also different in that its branches are never barren. It's topped with bright green leaves all year long, since the climate of central Florida is considerably wetter than that of eastern Africa.

When It Comes to Safaris... We Go Wild!

Although there are many things to see and do in Harambe, the primary reason people come here is for the wildlife. Tours of the Harambe Wildlife Reserve and its environs are very popular, and the biggest tour operator in town is Kilimanjaro Safaris. Taking its name from Mt. Kilimanjaro on the Kenya and Tanzania border, Kilimanjaro Safaris Co. runs a variety of tours out of Harambe, Nairobi, Mombasa and Arusha.

Kilimanjaro's Tembo Truck Excursions ("tembo" is the Swahili word for "elephant") are by far the most popular (and as far as theme park reality goes, the only ones anyone can actually do). We'll take a detailed look at this tour and the reserve itself in future blog entries. In our story of Harambe, though, there are many more safari options. Kilimanjaro Safaris alone also offers East African Birdwatching, the Samburu Fishing Safari, a Selou Bushwalk, Mt. Kilimanjaro Climbing Trek, and "Barefoot in Lamu" with everything from sportfishing to donkey rides.

That's just the beginning. Harambe is home to many smaller outfits, each with its own unique approach. Twiga Travel Agency ("twiga" means "giraffe") provides personalized service. Kinga Hot Air Balloon Trips offers to take visitors "above it all" for a romantic view of Africa, complete with Champagne breakfast at touchdown. Notice how they've posted their advertisement right next to one for Kilimanjaro Safaris, and they even take a shot at the big dog with the line, "Tired of the dust and jolts of East Africa's famous road system?" Subtle, no?

Then there's Cap'n Bob's Super Safaris. Actually created by the Imagineers as a joke, it's meant to be the low-rent sort of operation the professional guides at Kilimanjaro Safaris would make fun of. The ad is very reassuring, though. "Trust us!" it says, "Captain Bob invented economy camping." Then they add, just in case you're not buying it, "Camping doesn't mean 'Cheap' - It means 'Value!'"

And while Kilimanjaro and some of the other tour companies will take you through the beautiful Harambe Wildlife Reserve, Cap'n Bob's Super Safaris isn't exactly licensed to operate in that area. Instead, Cap'n Bob offers day trips to Mauti Crocodile Farm ("mauti" means "death" in Swahili) and the Ujinga Ranch for camel rides ("ujinga" roughly translates as "stupidity").

My favorite detail? Listed next to the phone number for Cap'n Bob's is the note, "Ask for Ed." It's as if the whole operation is run out of some guy's apartment. My advice? Stick with Kilimanjaro.