SUNSET AT KILIMANJORA

Hawera Star, Volume L, 7 February 1931, Page 16

SUNSET AT KILIMANJORA

(Written for the ‘

■QUIiIXIG' the Great War 1 was a member of the* South African Forces, whidh took part in ncarJy all the fighting that was done in German East Africa. L had boon pretty badly knocked about at the Warni Fiver scrap, and the subsequent dash by iur column after Yon Letton's men through the jungles and swamps had not improved my health to any extent. So it came about that near the end of Augustll 1910 1 found myself sent to the military hospital at Xairopi to recuperate. As Nairopi is quite a. nice little town with plenty of social life and amusements the change was much appreciated. The little city lies in a hollow, but the hospital was on the heights well above the I own, and the bracing enervating air of the African highlands swept through it day and night. I had the luck to be put in a ward which overlooked the Athi plains. From our stoop we could see day after day the multitude of game that grazed below us. The Athi plain is portion of the Government game reserve and thousands'" and thousands of buck of all sorts in view. Kudoo, Ilartebeeste, Eland, Tsesebe arid the Übrquitous Springbok moved about at their own sweet will. Here and there were groups of Zebra and now and again the awkward clumsy figure of a giraffe could be seen trotting along with its funny wobbly gait and long ungainly neck stretching ahead. It was a hunters paradise, and never a hunter dared trespass in it. The animals knew this as well as we did. ■Straight and level as a floor the veld stretched in front of us until it emerged into the horizon miles away. About fifty miles ahead was a vast blue and grey bulk tipped with silver. This was >

Memories of African Veldt

iStar” by P.H.Th)

I Mount Kelemanjaro the highest peak-in Jail Africa. Dim and faint it seemed as the <day owing to the haze. Yet when the wind blew toward us we could feel the snow-cooled air in spite of distance. Solid and stark and crowned with eternal snow. Forbidding! This was • the impression it gave if seen through la good glass during the day. Blit in the evening? Oh, those evenings! During my six weeks in the hospital I never failed to see the sunset on Kilimanjaro, and the beauty and wonder and awe of that gorgeous spectacle is witn me yet. Softly the light of day on the veld has changed from brilliant sunshine to a faint and ever-deepening block. The stunted trees and grazing animals mysteriously vanish one by one as the darkness falls. With the evening hour • Kilimanjaro is thrown into bold relief against the horizon, and appears to be not more than a few miles away. 11 is snow topped crown is immoculate in its virgin white. Tin' gullies and Krantz.es of his mighty sides! show dark and drear. The white turns to gold and down the mountain side broad bands of coloured light creep into view. Emerald, purple, pink, light blue and grey, orange and saffron as the light falls on acres of dry grass. From the foothills the ever-darkening pall of night rises to engulf the rain - bow hues of the upper slopes. Thai [ breeze comes in little puffs which make' the colours ripple and shimmer. Gradually the brilliant tints are emerging into the velvet darkness. Then the final rays of the setting sun dye the snows of the mountain top a blood-drenched crimson. This fades away to a faint rosy pink and nothing. ’flic stars come out in all their flaming splendour and the wonder of another day is over.