My family and I have just come back from a safari in Namibia. After years living next door to Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti we didn't expect to be overwhelmed by the wildlife, and the quantity of wildlife could not compare with those moist East African lava-rich soils. ...
While game driving in Etosha national park, we saw a giraffe doing some rather strange neck movements, as if it were trying to reach higher into the sky. We also noticed something white that it seemed to have in its mouth, and which made it appear that it was smoking ...
When talking to people about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, one of the first questions I am asked is if they are fit enough. In actual fact how you are able to acclimatise is a far more important factor, and unless you have been to high altitudes often, it is not possible ...
Why do people climb Africa's highest mountain, the summit of which is at 19,340 feet / 5,895 metres asl (above mean sea level) and has half the available oxygen as any point at sea level? Firstly it is a journey on foot. This is significant, and is one of the ...
Regular readers of our blog might find that the sightings mentioned in my article "Slim, Sleek, Slender and Spotted Sprinter" of March 2008 are either very rare or exaggerated. Well the cheetah sightings with Mathieson family that we enjoyed in December 2008 / January 2009 amounted to over 19 different ...
I was with Peter and Carol Mathieson and their four kids Katie, Daniel, Michael and Jack, from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania in the USA, and who were on safari with their family - grandma (given the honorary nickname of "bibi" - Swahili for grandma), cousins, uncles and aunts (some who live in ...
We had had an amazing safari, and it was increasingly hard to measure time while we were in the bush. So much had happened, and we had seen so many things. Two weeks ago, when we were in Rwanda tracking gorillas, seemed ages ago. Dave Christensen and I were a ...
The hike began on a misty morning passing through eucalyptus stands and rich loamy fields planted with blooming pyrethrum (a chrysanthemum flower, useful as insecticide) and potatoes. We passed smiling barefoot children and ladies dressed in colourful dresses and khangas. By some chance I was tracking with all the girls ...
The Wilderness Africa team was honoured to have Dave's family visit us from Zimbabwe last week. Dave's wife Carol and their two children Jordy and Mitch explored Arusha for their first few days here. Carol mentioned how busy Arusha seemed, and how much traffic there is! A few days later ...
I look back on my most recent safari with a lively group of Canadians, who could be excused for confusing "caribou" with "karibu" (Swahili for "welcome"), and loved being out in the open Plains, in tents, in Land-Cruisers - all of it! I reflect on the memories that come to ...
