George Dove

After this brief reconnaissance [to Laetoli] they returned to Olduvai to find that the pool which they had been using for their water had turned to mud and become the property of a resident Rhino, who used it for his daily ablutions. Worse still, in order to keep the wallow moist he urinated into it freely. More inviting water supplies were available both at the spring at Olmoti and at Ngorongoro, but petrol was too short to be used for this purpose. They tried to collect rain water off the roofs of the tents, forgetting that the canvas had been impregnated with insecticide; there were dire results, and all the party were violently ill after drinking the water. By this time they were also running short of food. Sam White and Peter Bell were due to return to England, and the lorry taking them back to Nairobi was to bring much needed supplies to the garrison at Olduvai; but it never returned.

For the next fortnight Louis and Mary's diet consisted almost entirely of rice and sardines. An even greater hardship was the lack of cigarettes, and they had to resort to picking up fag ends scattered round the camp. When the lorry failed to appear after two weeks they set out to look for it. At one point they had to turn back as the road was in such a terrible state, and they spent the rest of the day helping to extract Indian traders' lorries from the mud. Their reward was a little flour and sugar, but they were still very hungry. Next their own car overturned in a gully, and they spent a whole day trying to extricate it with a plate and some spoons. (The lack of proper tools seems curiously uncharacteristic of Louis, who was usually so efficient.) Watching their efforts was a crowd of supercilious Masai warriors who considered it beneath their dignity to do any manual labour. It was just as well that Louis did not try to press them: almost at that very moment the District Commissioner at Narok was being murdered by Masai for ordering them to help with road work. Louis and the Masai treated each other with mutual respect, and many of them had cause to be grateful for the treatment they received at the clinics he ran at Olduvai.

The lorry turned up just in time to pull the car back on to the road - its delay had been caused by clutch trouble. (By a curious coincidence the man who mended the clutch at the Motor Mart in Nairobi became Mary's nearest neighbour at Olduvai thirty-five years later: he is George Dove, a 'character' with magnificent waxed moustachios who ran a delightful little tourist lodge at Ndutu, some thirty miles from Olduvai, in the early 1970's.) The car itself was in far worse condition than the lorry had been, with the whole of the bodywork damaged, but amazingly it was still able to run. Louis and Mary returned to Olduvai to pack up before setting off for their next target, a place called Engaruka.

Russell's partner, George Dove, sported an enormous waxed mustache as his trademark. Dove was a pleasant, hardworking man with his heart in the right place. George, and his son Mike, built two important tourist lodges, Kimba camp at Ngorongoro Crater, and Ndutu Lodge on the southern border of the Serengeti national park.

Footnote: After Tanzania's independence there were a number of deportations of whites from the country. Because of this uncertainty George and his family settled in Australia.

Dear David,

I finally looked at you site. A BIG mistake - I spent too long there last night & will have to visit it several more times. VERY NICE

I followed the George Dove links. The first picture is one where I kick myself every time I see it. How I allowed the picture(I am a photographer as well) to be taken in the lousy tourist chair rather than sending one of the staff for a canvas safari chair; I will never know.

Reading the links; there area a number of errors there that I had not noticed - I was there when they happened - in reading the original (or I have had the original & not really read it). It could prove a very useful site to people researching East African characters. Having spent the time last night; I had best get to work (one of the things I am doing is working on a new book list).

Salaam,

Jerry

One of Russell's hunters was Jackie Carlyon, who hailed from Cornwall, England. He was a nephew of fiery soldier Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen. Carlyon, who had private means, came to Africa as a mining engineer, but got a job stooging for a license with George Dove and Russell Douglas. Carlyon was one of the most likeable of men, and one of the few "gun nuts" in the hunting community. He constantly experimented with heavy-caliber weapons, and was an acknowledged ballistics expert. He was also an outstanding shot with heavy rifles, despite his rather puny stature. In 1962 Carlyon's promising career was snuffed out in a car crash, when he was killed with his gunbearer driving from Arusha to Nairobi.

"This is my bible," said Mzee Tony adding that he has been with the book since 1966. It was given to him by one George Dove of George Dove Safaris, a company, which had employed him as a clerk and barman first at Kimba Lodge in Ngorongoro and later at Ndutu Safari Lodge between 1966 and 1969.

Following that stint Tony resigned and came back to Arusha town where two years later in 1971 New Arusha Hotels Ltd employed him. Mzee Tony, who was born in Kilema on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and reached 54 years on 2 October this year, is married (for the last 22 years) to Veneranda Lyimo with whom they have six children.

In January 1967, with four of my Peace Corps colleagues (vacationing in East Africa from Liberia), we stopped at the Kimba Tent Camp on the rim of Ngorongoro crater and were welcomed by George Dove. We didn't have enough money to stay at the Lodge and they said go to the tent camp nearby. We were glad we did. We spent a memorable night as George recounted over dinner hunting safaris he had been on facing lions and other wild beasts. The next morning he took us in his Land Rover to the crater floor and we saw lions, rhino, hippos, etc. and photographed them. I am enclosing two slides from that memorable day.

Please feel free to add them to your Web site and to send them on to Ndutu. I am sorry they are of such poor quality. They were 36-year old faded slides that I scanned into the computer. Unfortunately I have never been back but still hold out a hope that one day I will.

Best regards,

Robert Norris

While building the Lodge, George Dove brought in building materials from Laetoli Gorge and noticed that they included a large number of fosils. Some of these can be seen embedded in the wall of the dining room at Ndutu. George told Mary Leakey about these, and they persuaded her to shift her attention from Oldupai to Laetoli, leading eventually to the discovery of the footprints.

I was looking up pictures of wild life in East africa when I saw the Picture of Mr.George Dove, an remembered him, I was in the Serengeti national park in the early 70's and my father introduced us to him and his son Mike, My fathers name, Jacques Manuel, worked as the Reginal Engineer for the Arusha Region.

I would love to find out where if possible are the Dove family in Australia.

I am in Sydney.

Ndutu Lodge didn�t exist then of course but I remember George Dove, wife Mibs and son Michael very well from the early 1970's. George was hunting down at Makau and I used to do ornithological trips with Don Turner, where we�d be stationed at Ndutu for 2" weeks at a time while Don's groups rotated all around East Africa. The chairs round the fire were awful steel school classroom ones with no arm rests!

Lots of us guides developed an absolute passion for you during your serval research years!

Accommodation was in tents, with outside loos and showers behind them. I remember my shaving brush always went from white to red after a few days because of the water. The main bar area was there though. An American called Jerry Rilling helped to manage the camp" he was a polio victim and heaved himself around on crutches. He grew a handle bar moustache like George's. And there was Peter the Swiss who left for home and started a home-made chocolate business.

The early 1970's were particularly good for rhino, but we never saw many elephant. I remember elephant being discouraged at Seronera as they were ring barking favourite leopard trees. The road between Seronera and Ngorongoro went North of Naabi Hill, east across the plains past Shifting Sands, into Olduvai and up past where the present museum is. Serengeti was always closed in April/May" no one was allowed in.

I remember early Ndutu staff members so well: Thomas, Big John the chef and Little John the assistant chef, and of course dear old Marcelli.

The border with Kenya was closed in 1977 (reopened 17 Nov 1983).....

One effect of the enforced isolation in Tanzania has been to strengthen the ties of friendship and the bonds of mutual reliance between those of us who live on or near the Serengeti. George Dove had left three years before the border closed, and since his departure my closest neighbour has been Margaret Kullander, who has been a wonderful friend. She was born in Tanzania, though of British parents, and has spent most of her life in the country. When I first met her, Jim Gibb, her first husband, was still alive and they run a coffee plantation at Karatu, a village on the road from Ngorongoro to Arusha. After Jim's death, from a stroke, she married Per Kullander, a Norwegian who had been farm manager while Jim Gibb was alive. Gibb's Farm, as it is still called, has become a highly successful lodge and has a fine kitchen garden from which Margaret and Per have generously supplied my camps with superb fresh vegetables, so essential to our well being.

To appreciate Ndutu, you must understand its history.

The lodge was originally created by George Dove - his portrait hangs in the dining-room, where his flamboyant waxed moustache rivals some of the trophy horns mounted on the walls! George had given up professional hunting at an early stage and chose the Ndutu area as a regular campsite. It was wild and remote, giving easy access to the Serengeti Plains for his clients.

During the 1960's, as tourism steadily increased in Tanzania, George Dove saw the need for a more permanent base in the area, and he was welcomed by the then Conservator of Ngorongoro, Mr. S. ole Saibull, who allowed him to build on the Ndutu site.

1974, George Dove and his family left Ndutu for wilder frontiers (the Australian outback) and the lodge changed hands. Soon afterwards came a slump in Tanzania's tourism that lasted several years, accompanied by formidable shortages of fuel and imported goods. Against challenging odds, the staff tried to uphold Ndutu's standards, but as the buildings and equipment deteriorated without being replaced, inevitable decline set in.