As you gaze toward the horizon these sculptural beauties always stole the show. Their umbrella shape enhanced every sunrise and sunset adding great dimension to the view.

Acacia at sunset in the Serengeti!

Not only are they breathtaking but they are also part of the circle of life for some of our favorite animals.

The acacia is ambrosia for the giraffe. I loved how their heads would suddenly pop out of the top of the tree munching a mouthful of leaves. They are the dainty tree pruners.

The elephant also loves to consume great amounts of these trees. Their approach is to break off a major branch or maybe the whole tree. It is easy to tell where their travels have taken them by the destruction in their wake.

This elephant pulled the entire branch off the tree and ate it!

My all time favorite is the leopard who calls the acacia home. He will catch dinner (anything up to twice his weight) and then drag it up into the tree about 20 feet.  There he can eat at leisure since no vultures can penetrate the canopy and the hyenas can’t reach it.

As we departed the Serengeti, our guides showed us the grandfather of all acacia. It was so large that four cars could drive under it. The name: Devil Tree.

Devil Tree!

The good news was we are American and there are Embassies and Consulates all over the world and we had two work days before we were leaving. The bad news is to replace the valuable piece of paper is super complicated.

Siham, the manager of our riad, figured out that the first step was to report the loss to the police and get an official stamped report.  This sounds easy but turned into a huge adventure involving two police stations, the post office, three photo shops, and a random shop to buy a stamp.  How to get around?

Siham and I venturing out to the great unknown

Siham and I get decked out in our warm clothing ( mine being the crazy bilious green jacket that I bought at JCPenny and causes comments even in the US).  We hop on her Peugot motorbike.  Anyone who goes to Marrakech should have this experience.  The streets are approximately 9 feet wide and are shared by pedestrians, donkey drawn carts, motorbikes, kids playing soccer  and shop keepers trying to get tourists to buy their wears.  Chaos at best.  We weave in and out all over the city. I thought this would be terrifying but it actually was fun. A word of advice:  always have a copy of your passport with you, and your driver’s license when traveling. After four hours we had our report in hand.

We now have to go to Casablanca to the consulate.  Siham suggests that she take Tucker and me by train but then realized that she had a final exam for her web design class so we hired a driver and off we went. The countryside reminded me of Montana. The Atlas Mountains in the distance and wide open space with nothing growing and few people. Three hours later we arrive at the Consulate.

The building was architecturally hideous with two rows of garbage dumpsters planted with Palm trees in front of the entrance.  Security guards were everywhere and no Americans were to be seen.  At the third check point we had to have everything scanned and they kept our cell phones, cameras, cords, lipstick and my Starbucks Via Coffee (a very dangerous product). We finally get into the inner sanctum where a US Marine standing guard ( this was the only American we came into contact with) and start the process.  One and a half hours later we have the new passport – good for one year.

The only other complication was that I had to get out of Morocco.  They are very careful who leaves the country so exiting with a passport that you didn’t enter with created a new set of standing in line with lots of papers. Thank goodness we had allowed over 3 hours at security and check-in.