We are back! Tsavo kids trip!

A family trip to Tsavo, 40 years later…

December 1975… Me, my brother, my dad and my mom on my first safari! I am 11 and super excited. While driving from Tsavo to Amboseli I can’t help but staying up the roof of our car, with my dad constantly telling me… “get down…”
We come to a river crossing and he needs to grabbing me down and giving me a well deserved slap!
Yeap! Memories still fresh…

Well 40 years and a couple of months later, I find myself on the same river crossing. Luckily my Land Rover has no roof and my boys are actually on my lap, taking turns in driving us…

I recall that moment, 40 years ago. And sweet memories… That African trip made such a big impact on me…
Is it serendipity that I ended up living exactly where I came for my first safari?…

Today we are blessed by a cloudless day. Blu sky, shining Kilimanjaro and wildlife, wildlife, wildlife…

All “engoja kidogo” (wait a bit) – proper name Acacia mellifera, yes I am refusing to call the acacia “Senegalia”, according to the latest botanical classification! – are blossoming.
It is impossible to describe the dry savanna turning green and white, in a marriage of colors of leaves and flowers. A show for the senses: you can’t believe your eyes, it seems confetti have fallen off the sky and landed on all the acacias; you can’t believe your nose, you think this fragrance can only be in a French boudoir!
Giraffes and buffaloes alike seems to particularly enjoy the show as well…
We drive among a tower of giraffes and a gang of buffaloes, all peacefully taking a rest under the flowering trees.

An elephant pass by, unassumingly. We are left with the desire to follow him on foot, but the lioness, aka my wife, disaproves…

We feel so lucky. We are raising our kids in the most beautiful paradise, and through the work of our Trust we have the chance to teach them why we feel committed to protect it.

The day goes by, with more beauty, animals and Nature to nurture our inner selves.

Time for Jacopo to take the wheel and drive us home…

The road from Tsavo takes us back in the Maasai Group Ranch we call home. We pass near the airstrip which we restore and I think about Sheldrick and Woodely, the legendary Tsavo wardens which first put it there…

A long day, with long drives, immersed in the Kenyan wilderness, like 40 years ago.
I wish my dad was here to hear this story…