ADVENTURE IN AFRICA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22210, 10 September 1935, Page 13

ADVENTURE IN AFRICA

JUDGE AND HIS WIFE QUEST FOR BIG GAME TOUR THROUGH WILD COUNTRY Mr. Justice Ostler, at present on 12 months' lcavo of absence from tho New Zealand Supremo Court Bench, has, with Mrs. Ostler, been spending a holiday in Africa, where tho Judge, a wellknown big-game hunter, had announced his intention of obtaining some sport and also a cinema record of his travels. In a letter to relatives written from Nairobi on June 23 Mrs. Ostler gave an interesting account of their travels during a motor journey from Capetown to Lake Tanganyika, near which the Judge has an interest in a farm property. Following are extracts from Mrs. Ostler's letter:

"Wo set out to tho Lupa goldfields over terrifically high country, up to 8000 ft., and corkscrewy roads, and found we had been misled as to camping conditions, no water being available, so we had to go back 20 miles to Mbeya and stay there the night. We pushed on to Corfack's Hotel, a good place at the foothills of the Livingstonia Mountains. The proprietor is a fine old man, an ex-Public Works engineer. He has asked us to stay further afield on his farm on our return, so we are all agog to go. One has to travel on a donkey. Meeting With Masai Warriors

' 'From here we went over 100 miles to the Luganga Country Club, in a teaplanting district, a very nice place run by the widow of an Irish Major-General (Carey Barnard), and from there we went ou over 100 miles and camped in a very wild spot. 1 shot a bird and the Judge went after buck. "On the way to Arusha from hero we met 300 Masai warriors in full war paint (red ochre) and brass ornaments; a marvellous sight. They have very large spears and shields. L got some splendid photographs, and the Judge got a 'movie.' They insisted on crowding all around me and I got covered in red ochre, but it was worth it. They danced and sang and were very picturesque and exciting. 1 had my hand nearly pulled off, as they all insisted on shaking it! Famous Game Jleserve

"Eighteen miles inside the Kenya border we stayed at Namanga_ Hills Hotel in a big-game reserve. A\c saw thousands of all kinds of wild animals, but no enormous ones except lots of lovely giraffes. Later wo came across the famous Alhi Plains, comprising one hundred miles of game reserve, and saw tens of thousands of all kinds of buck, as well as hyaenas, jackals, ostriches, zebras; heaps of them only a few yards away 1 "We got stuck in thick black mud for 2| hours on tho Alhi Plains and, after unloading everything and digging and digging, the boys got us out. I here was no wood there, only longish grass, so they had to cut masses of that and shove it under tho wheels. "We have had two days here at Nairobi and will be guests at Government House to-morrow. It is a lovely place with a magnificent garden. Hie next day we leave for a trip north to Uganda and as far as the Murchison Falls on the Nile."