GUEST BLOGGER: Teresa Grove of INK, Inc. 

After months of planning and anticipation, we finally arrived in Nairobi for our very first African adventure.  My husband and I have been working with The Leakey Collection for over a year now, sharing their story of inspiration to the world thru our PR firm, INK, Inc.  and were now finally going to experience life in the Great Rift Valley ourselves.

The following morning, we flew to Kampala, Uganda where we spent the evening at a 5-Star Resort that was as much of an African experience as a resort facility “anywhere in the world.” We soon learned to “be careful what you wish for” as we embarked upon one of the longest and toughest 12 hour drives via land cruiser.  Our guide referred to it as the “African Massage.”   If this is what you get in Africa for a massage . . . thank you, I’ll gladly pass.

Somehow we safely arrived at the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for our hike to see the Mountain Gorillas the following morning.  After a short hike, a Silverback Gorilla and two of its young were directly in front of us.  The next hour we spent watching and photographing some of the last surviving “gentle giants” in the Uganda, Congo and Rwanda area.  (We could actually see the Congo from where we were.)

On the road again for an “African Massage” for another 12 hours!!  The only thing that made this bearable was spotting our first wild elephants and about a million baboons. Upon our return from Ngorongoro Crater, Philip and Katy Leakey were waiting to pick us up so we could head to the Ndutu Lodge on the Serengeti.  This trip just kept getting better! At Ndutu, the lodge and cottages were very rustic – complete with banana leaf roofs.  Guards patrolled the grounds to keep the wildlife at bay, and warning signs discouraged visitors from venturing too far from the area.  The first night, we could hear lion, wildebeest and bats (which sound like dripping water) as we tried to sleep.

The following morning under the 4-wheel driving skills of Philip, we found ourselves on top of their land cruiser in the middle of the wildebeest migration!  Everywhere you looked were wildebeest, zebra and gazelle.  The next couple of days, we continued to explore areas of the Serengeti and encountered giraffe, a very large and full male lion after killing a wildebeest, and hyenas and their cubs fighting over a limb of a wildebeest. We went fossil hunting on the very locations where Philip grew up while his famous parents discovered the skeletal remains of the first humans to walk the earth.

From Ndutu to Katy and Philip’s was another long and dusty 14-hour drive.  Probably the most memorable experience was arriving at the tented camp of Philip and Katy.  Nestled at the top of a 5000 ft. mountain, the view is spectacular!  After daily outings to visit a Boma where we were presented with gifts from the Maasai and meeting the women, men and children at The Leakey Collection workstations, we’d gather at the fire pit in the evenings overlooking Shompole Lodge, Mt. Kenya, Ngorongoro Crater and Mount Kilimanjaro as the sun set.

As we picnicked by their water source, we were told, “If either of us say “tree!” climb a tree as fast as you can!”  (Water buffalo, along with hippo, are capable of doing serious damage to humans).  Over gourmet meals, we were entertained by Katy and Philip with incredible stories of their lives and the trials and tribulations of living in Kenya.

In the early morning hours, zebra would graze just outside our tent.  We were only too happy not to have any encounters with poisonous snakes or a leopard.  However, we did think twice about going to the “long drop” (outhouse) in the wee hours of the morning.

Now as we are back to reality, Africa seems like a distant memory, but Katy, Philip, the Maasai, and the wildlife all hold a special place in our hearts.