2019-11-02_The_Week_Magazine

32 LEISURE Travel

We are standing quietly in a pop-top
Land Cruiser, watching for the cheetah
that just approached and disappeared
behind the vehicle, said Norma Meyer
in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“Suddenly, with a scratchy thud and
our audible gasps, the spotted creature
lands on the back roof right before our
eyes.” Two passengers throw them-
selves into corners, and I flash back to
the time I witnessed the world’s fastest
mammal chase down and devour a
gazelle. This cheetah peers in at us curi-
ously, “as if we’re the surprise,” then
turns to scan the landscape. Cheetahs,
we’ll learn, often perch atop termite
mounds to survey for prey, and our
party crasher has decided a Toyota offers an
even better vantage. For more than a few
“oh, is my heart thumping” minutes, we’re
helpless bystanders to her hunt. Fortunately,
none of us has antlers.

During our week in northern Tanzania,
we will have many wild encounters. Some

This week’s dream: A truly wild safari in northern Tanzania

Ne

ws

co

m,

Ch

ris

tian

Ho

ran

Don’t sleep on the hotel

boom that’s hitting college

towns across the country,

said Christian Wright in The

New York Times. In Rhode

Island’s capital, a former

Biltmore has been trans-

formed into “a bustling local

hub” by Graduate Hotels, a

company that has recently

opened 19 stylish proper-

ties in cities and towns fre-

quented by college visitors.

The 1922 landmark combines

old and new, with an ornate

ballroom, yoga on the ter-

race, and an explosion of col-

ors from the lobby to the 294

rooms. Brown University and

the Rhode Island School of

Design are a short walk away.

graduatehotels.com; doubles

from $159

Hotel of the week

“Once the poster child for industrial waste, the

Cuyahoga has cleaned up its act,” said Kristan

Schiller in the Chicago Tribune. Earlier this

month—50 years after part of the 100-mile-long

river caught fire because of an oil slick—the

Cuyahoga officially became an Ohio Water Trail,

a distinction that makes it more accessible to

the public. The 1969 fire wasn’t the first, but it

helped spur the environmental movement and led

to the federal Clean Water Act. When I recently

moved back to Cleveland after years abroad, I

celebrated by paddling the U-shaped water trail.

My friends and I chose the scenic easternmost

portion, setting off in Eldon Russell Park near the

town of Burton. In no time, we’d spotted a great

blue heron. After decades of cleanup, bald eagles

and river otters have also slowly reappeared.

Stopping for lunch at the Iron Horse Saloon,

we found another way to celebrate the health of

Ohio’s rivers: fried walleye sandwiches.

Getting the flavor of...

A lobby for big dreamers

Last-minute travel deals

Holland America extras

Book a 2020 or 2021 Holland

America cruise by Oct. 31 to

secure multiple perks on select

voyages headed everywhere

from Alaska to Tahiti. Extras

include a free dinner, up to $800

in onboard credit, and half off

the standard deposit.

hollandamerica.com

Ski British Columbia

Get a head start on ski season

and save up to 30 percent on

winter stays at the Nita Lake

Lodge in Whistler, B.C. The

hotel sits beside a glacier-fed

lake and offers easy access to

nearby shops and slopes. Book

by Nov. 15.

nitalakelodge.com

SoCal wine country

Tour the wineries of the

Temecula Valley during harvest

season and you can acquire a

“sip passport,” good for five

free tastings, if you book a

midweek stay of two nights at

a participating local hotel. For

stays through Nov. 22.

visittemeculavalley.com

2,800 lions roam the golden grasslands of

Serengeti National Park, and my group

spots 25 of the big cats, including one lion-

ess that, to escape the flies at ground level,

is lounging with her cubs in the branches

of an acacia tree. Elsewhere, “spectacular

striped parades of zebras” and “thundering

caravans of bearded wildebeest” enthrall

us. At night, I leave my tent flaps

open to listen. “Into the wee hours,

zebras bark like little yappy dogs and

hyenas chillingly cackle and scream.”

On another day, we begin learning

about cultures of the region during

a visit to Lake Manyara National

Park. Mkopi, our guide, walks us

through Mto wa Mbu village, home

to members of 120 ethnic tribes, and

as we watch artists creating paint-

ings and carving figurines, he brings

us some banana beer. Once I blow

off the foam and sip the thick, tangy

brew, it’s passed around to be shared

by beaming locals. Later, in a Maasai

village where cooking has long been done

over open fires inside mud huts choked

with hazardous smoke, I’m introduced to a

woman whose arms are streaked with the

mortar she is using to add chimneys. “We

are very powerful,” says her friend.

G Adventures (gadventures.com) offers

seven-day Tanzania tours starting at $1,874.

Paddling Cleveland’s ‘burning river’

America’s largest astronomical viewing facil-

ity wants to share the cosmos with everyone,

said Erin Williams in The Washington Post.

Unlike most research observatories, the Oregon

Observatory “encourages aspiring astronomers

to get an eyeful through its scopes.” A typical

night draws 12 to 15 visitors, but earlier this

year, I drove a half hour from Bend to Sunriver

to attend a stargazing party that drew a bigger

crowd. Planet viewing is often a highlight, but in

spring and fall you can also see many globular

clusters—up to a million stars balled together

by gravity. At a telescope trained on Messier 3,

one of the biggest clusters, “I gaped at an object

of impossible beauty seemingly bedecked in dia-

monds.” Other telescopes pointed at the wispy

Cat’s Eye Nebula, the flat brim of the Sombrero

Galaxy, and the waxing crescent moon, whose

craters were “so textured, their nubby indenta-

tions appeared within arm’s reach.”

Central Oregon’s desert observatory

Providence, R.I.

Graduate Providence

Two lionesses peer down from an acacia tree on the Serengeti.