Can't wait until next summer....Ethiopia, Kenya and Zanzibar....

I made my first journey to East Africa in 1998 and I have returned every year....except this year.  I decided to stay home and work on my book and market my photography.  It seemed like a good decision.  Well here we are in July and I am blogging and reading my journals from my 12 earlier trips and of course lamenting that fact that I am in Southern California and not in Africa.
   What do I miss most about East Africa:
1.  The stars at night.  The Milky Way is so bright you can almost touch the stars.
2.  The night sounds as you lay awake contemplating what you witnessed earlier and dreaming of what you will see tomorrow.  The bush babies screech like human children and will often drop down and scamper across your tent or room.  The hyenas mournfully call out to each other.  The birds are riotous.  Hippos come out of the rivers and munch the Terra firma nearby.  Occasionally you will hear the lions roar in the distance and quite often the elephants will decide to relandscape the forest and you can hear them literally ripping small trees out of the ground.
3.  The adventure of driving in our four wheel drive vehicles and searching for big cats.  Cheetahs on top of termite mounds, lions lying hidden in the croton bushes and leopards sleeping up in the strangler fig trees.  The excitement and anticipation never ends.
4.  The food at the lodges, it is like being on a cruise in an open air zoo.  Oh, and I miss my Tuskers beer.
5.  The people - this is perhaps the most profound African experience:  The East Africans, many whom live on a family income of less than $150 dollars per year, live their lives in a state of hopeful anticipation.  Sometimes hope is all they have, and often their hope is false hope.  But their simple joy is infectious and their willingness to help is inspirational.  Every time I travel to Africa I am emotionally jolted and I come home more willing to live each day in a more grateful and meaningful way.
6.  The African landscape in the late afternoon, especially in August when there are daily brief rain squalls which quickly drench the land and depart with the next breeze.
These meteorological events produce a magical light turns the landscape a brilliant gold and the stunning color simply stops you in your tracks as you watch the clouds depart.  Interestingly, lions hate thunder.  They cower and run for cover, but after the rains all the cubs will come out to romp and even the big males with their magnificent blacks manes will play with the youngsters putting on a show that leaves photographers breathless.

So I will return for a month next summer.  I am leading a trip and there are spots available.  We will arrive in Ethiopia on July 20 and travel to the Omo Valley.  Then we will fly to Nairobi and journey to the four major national parks and game reserves of Kenya - Samburu for the leopards, Lake Nakuru for the flamingos and rhinos, the Masai Mara for the "great migration and the lions and cheetahs and finally Amboseli for the elephants and Mt. Kilimanjaro.  The trip will end on the magical island of Zanibar for the people, their unique culture and the beaches.  You can do the whole trip or you can leave out Ethiopia or Zanzibar depending upon your time restraints and your budget.

I lead trips not for profit but for the future.  I hope that everyone that comes with me will instantly become a committed African environmentalist who will help me spread the word about the need to intervene in Africa to save this last remaining Garden of Eden.

If you are interested email me at alaskakd@roadrunner.com




Young male "strutting his stuff" ....