My major life transitions are marked by travel to new places. Following high school graduation my family took a grand tour of Europe with special visits to homelands in Scotland, England and Norway. When my youngest child went to college, I expanded my research to careers in Asia and traveled widely from India to China. When I retired, I was ready for a new phase of life and a new trip.
I selected the Road Scholar two week safari to the national parks of Kenya and Tanganyika because they emphasized learning suitable for older travelers. I had declined a trip to Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer in 2012 due to family responsibilities. This trip got me to Kenya and it fit my early interests and undergraduate degree in Zoology, It also let me explore an entirely new part of the world.
The trip started and ended in a comfortable Nairobi hotel. The group of eleven tourists, two drivers and an expert guide traveled into the savannah in two open-topped jeeps. The guide supervised all guide education and certification in Kenya and his star pupil drove one of the jeeps. They offered insightful, interesting explanations of everything we saw, We visited prides of lions, massive elephants, elusive leopard, and rare rhino basking in the shadow of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Later, we saw giraffes, zebra, ostrich and wildebeest running across the Great Rift Valley, Animals I never imagined like kori bustards, crested cranes and secretary birds fled wildfires in the grasslands. Fish eagles constructed nests on the banks of Lake Victoria. In the evenings, we dined and slept in comfortable wooden floored tents or fancy game lodges overlooking the bush.
I learned more about the biology of the wildlife and human culture of Kenya than I can express. Please look at my photo album of the 2015 Africa for a better understanding of this wonderful experience.
