Whatever You Do, Don’t Run!
Peter Allison is not brave. Despite this, he has been stalked by lions, chased by elephants,and courted by rhino. At the age of 19 he tossed a coin between South America and Africa. Africa won. Within a few months his passion for wildlife was rewarded with work as a safari guide for lodges in Southern...
African Safari Books
New African Safari Books: Hot off the Press Last February while in the Masai Mara, I had the pleasure of spending an evening with Vicki and Adam Kennedy, the authors of the just released african safari books: Animals of the Masai Mara, and Birds of the Masai Mara. Many people, including myself, dream of living and...
A Desert Romance
I had heard three things about camels: 1. Riding one is like being on a mechanical bull; 2. They are mean spirited; and 3. They spit green vomit at people. So, when the camel lifted his furry upper lip and came towards my arm with his huge brown- stained teeth, my first response was to yell,...
Point, Shoot and Pray
“Sharing views, sharing images, sharing tips and techniques … photographic pros and amateurs alike … we can all learn from each other,” says wildlife photographer Chris Martin. Chris and I are bloggers on Africa Geographic – one of my favorite magazines. The magazine is known for amazing images accompanying their stories, and as you can...
Is Silence Extinct?
I don’t know about you, but I need daily doses of silence. The kind of quiet that wraps me in a protected cocoon, slows my breath and heartbeat, kneads my muscles into submission, and calms my autonomic nervous system. The kind of quiet I find in abundance on an African safari. Silence is as...
Safari Among the Animals
For ten days, traveling across the Samburu and Masai Mara regions of Kenya, our tribe of nine women melded into a herd of forty elephants while they played, ate, scratched and trumpeted; became one with a pride of 12 lion during a light rain shower; migrated with thousands of wildebeest and zebra on their instinctual...
Africa Blog / Africa Programs / Africa Travel / African Animals / Wildlife Conservation / wildlife Safari
A ‘Must Do’ Encounter with Chimpanzees
Nani waddles towards me with her arms stretched to the sky in a child’s ‘pick me up’ gesture. She climbs up as if I were a tree, securing her short muscular legs around my waist and her long arms around my neck. I stroke her coarse black fur, breathing in a musky baby smell. Twenty-one...
The Perfect Safari Hat
Packing for an African safari can be tricky. There is the all important issue about the weight restrictions on the little bush planes (30-35 lbs maximum depending on the country), and not knowing what you will need when you have never been on an Africa safari...
Natural Remedies for an African Safari
Forget Deet and Cipro. Try these Natural Alternatives. I’ve been using them for years and want to share them with you. Maybe you’re not about to go on an African safari, but Africa isn’t the only place in the world with mosquitoes and the potential for Montezuma’s revenge. So read on. My safari travel bag...
America in the African Bush
I had heard about the Greek American who had been to Africa once, fallen in love with it, and was building his dream lodge on a river in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Park. “Night lights will illuminate the entrance road, and golf carts will move people around so they don’t have to walk at all...
Africa will make a birder out of me yet!
If you read my story, Lilac Breasted Roller(also titled Giving Dad the Bird), you will know that I was always in competition with birds for my father’s attention. This gorgeous photo was taken by Lyle Wood during Henry Holdsworth’s photo safari last month in Tanzania. How many different colors are on this bird? At different...
Africa Long Rains
In East Africa there is no Fall, Winter, Summer or Spring. Just rain, or no rain. Right now, March – May is the ‘long rains’ season. Many roads are impassable and there is a higher risk for malaria so there are less tourists. I love imagining the wildlife having the parks to themselves without vehicles...
From the time of my first trip to Africa on assignment as a fashion model in 1984, to my recent role as Africa Adventures Specialist for the Jane Goodall Institute, I've traveled to or lived in eleven African countries. Deepening my life long passion to nature and animals happens easily in Africa, but Africa remains 
