My First Trip to "Africa"
Margie Springer
Having never “Blogged” before, I am not quite sure where I should begin. Naturally the most logical place would be the beginning. Quite often people will ask me
“How many times have you been to Africa”. My response to most is “more than I can count”.
My first trip to “Africa” (the continent 3 times the size of the US, but usually referred to as just “Africa”)was to the East African country, Kenya. I was the fortunate daughter of parents who loved to travel. They had been to Kenya with some good friends and on that trip decided to one day bring along the kids. That day arrived, June 1975. Kenya in 1975 was much “wilder” than today, and for a 14 year old extremely adventurous.
Our entire trip consisted of pitched canvas tents, a single loo located 50 feet behind our tent with a drop and a toilet seat. We were told to be careful of scorpians hiding under the seat as well as in our shows. So each morning we shook our shoes and lifted up the toilet seat to make sure nothing was there. We washed our faces and teeth by water heated on the fire brought to our tents.
Our food was prepared by well trained cooks and we even had a Coca Cola machine full of drinks in our mess tent. We lived in pure luxury waited on hand and foot.
Our adventure took us to Nairobi w here we stayed at the Stanley hotel and drank soft drinks under the the famous Thorn tree. Next stop Tsavo National Park to see the large Tusker elephants. We next visited The Abedare Mountains in hopes of seeing the elusive bongo where we stayed at “The Ark” where they would sound the alarm at all of hours of the night if there was a sighting. We finished our Safari in the Masai Mara camping along the banks of the Mara river. I recall riding in open top Range Rovers bumping along to view what I have come to call, The Garden of Eden. Animals of all sorts everywhere. Most of them scared of vehicles and certainly of mankind. I was hooked from day 1.
