My trip to Tanzania and Kenya has been magical. I have been fortunate to travel with good friends – Dianne and Carroll – and to make new friends too. We were all fortunate to travel with Renner Safaris and Paul Renner.

I have a few thoughts and photos to share with you before I say goodbye.

Our guides throughout this trip have been extraordinary. The Kenya guides are pictured in the header to this post. Guides must undergo training and certification that seems to make them walking encyclopedias on wildlife. I think they must take off road driving lessons too as they fearlessly take us over the most difficult terrain and through streams I would have said were impassable.

Martin, my Kenya guide, is one of only two African gold level guides. The rest are English. Martin had the ability to see birds when I certainly couldn’t. Thank goodness for his laser which took my eye from the ground next to the truck to whatever I was supposed to see, like the little guy below who looks pretty obvious now that I’ve processed his photo but blended in well with his muddy environment.

A delightful sight we encountered every day were the Thomson gazelles continually wagging their tails. I felt they were waving at me. (Martin is discussing on the radio a sighting of an animal with another guide.)

One day we watched two or three female lions with six cubs. They were trying to move the cubs into some bush from a more open area. It was indeed an exercise in herding cats. The females managed to get four of the cubs stowed away and we feared for a few moments they would forget the other two. Then, in a move all parents will recognize, one of the females returned and brought the other two to safety. I love the cub’s little legs carrying him through the grass.

We visited the Giraffe Centre in Nairobi where we fed giraffes. The Centre distributes food pellets to visitors and the giraffes are more than happy to come and chow down on them. In the photo to the left, Dean and Linda from our group are placing a pellet on a giraffe’s tongue. We also attended an interesting presentation on the work the Centre is doing to rescue endangered giraffes.

Did I mention that one of the giraffes likes to kiss visitors? I gotta say it was a bit bristlely and a little damp and so scary as this huge head approached my face that I couldn’t look, but when else was I ever going to be able to kiss a giraffe?

On our final afternoon on the Maasi Mara, the Bush Camp folks where we were staying held a good-bye reception for us out in the field. We had complimentary drinks and lovely snacks and an opportunity to thank our gracious hosts.

Here’s to Africa and here’s to good travel companions. Imekuwa nzuri.