Safari Dreaming January 2022
Vaccinated! It’s time to think about travel again. How we travel can make a difference.
I can’t imagine ever running out of stories, but I confess, I long to fill up my basket of travel tales with more adventures. There’s a voice that echoes in my head “safari, safari, safari.” I want to breathe in the air, the smells of the Kenyan landscape. I long to go to sleep listening to the rumble of elephants or the roar of lions outside my tent. (Safari Dreaming April 2021)
The safari industry ground to a halt in 2020 due to COVID. In 2018 tourism made up 8% of Kenya’s GDP. With travel restrictions in place, safari operators feared conservation gains of the past few years would evaporate. Visitors provide employment for local people and fund conservation efforts that protect wildlife from the threat of poachers.
Kenya’s conservancy system is a model for conservation on community-owned land. In return for a promise to strengthen protection of their land and wildlife, thanks to tourist dollars, people living in the conservancies receive services and benefits, like education and health care.
It’s a large-scale experiment in coexistence, based on the idea that people and wildlife can thrive together. Across 17,000 square miles, hundreds of thousands of people, millions of livestock, and populations of wildlife live side by side. Roughly two-thirds of Kenya’s wildlife live outside national parks and reserves, so conservancies have become a fundamental part of the national conservation ecosystem. (National Geographic–Coronavirus Coverage–June 10, 2021)
Thanks to the conservancy system poaching numbers are declining. However, there is a new threat to wildlife, encroachment by large scale agriculture. (A World Without Elephants-Stop the Madness) Want to help? Is a safari on your bucket list? Imagine joining me on an 11-day trip of a lifetime while also giving back to local people and wildlife. Win/win!
We’ll fly direct between of my favourite 5* safari lodges in three diverse landscapes: Samburu country in Northern Kenya, the Maasai Mara—territory of the world’s largest animal migration and the densest population of lions anywhere in Africa—and finally Amboseli, home to Kenya’s largest elephants. Each property comes with top level guides. In addition, my Maasai friend and wildlife guide, Joseph Mutemi, will accompany us throughout the trip to facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and education.
I’m excited! There’s been an elephant baby boom in Amboseli, the lions on the Maasai Mara are thriving, and fortunately not one rhino was poached in Kenya last year. It’s time to gather more stories and make more photos. Want to be part of the conservation solution on the ground in Kenya? Contact me, I have a couple of spaces left.
