Tanzania - Pre-Trip
June 2003
In June and July of 2003, my sister Betty and I spent 5 weeks traveling in Tanzania. (Well, actually, it was 4½ weeks in Tanzania and 4 days in England.) We were looking for an adventure, and we definitely found it in one named Eddie Frank, an experienced Africa guide and founder of Tusker Trail, a company that conducts safaris in Africa. Eddie was putting together a one-of-a-kind expedition to explore parts of Tanzania way off the beaten path; places where most travelers don’t venture, and even places where no foreigner has ever been. This was the exact kind of experience Betty and I were looking for. Because of the lack of an itinerary and the hardship of this type of travel, Eddie interviewed each person interested in joining the expedition, and then hand-picked 10 folks. How Betty and I made it as part of this group is a mystery, but we were never-the-less very excited to be chosen. The other members of our expedition were:
-- Eddie, our expedition leader, a white African currently living in the U.S., who has led several expeditions through Africa in the past;
-- Derrold, a scientist and computer guru who was second in command and keeper of the computerized GPS maps;
--Gail, Derrold’s wife and our resident nurse (should we need one);
-- John, our outstanding camp cook from Kenya;
-- Christy, thirty-something and the youngest member of our group who joined the expedition after having just spent the previous week climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro;
-- Matt, a litigation attorney from New York and quite the lush;
-- Debbie, who had participated on a previous expedition with Eddie and was hoping to get something going with him on this one; and
-- Susan, a bizarre-looking blond massage therapist from California who looked as if she had overdone it just a bit with the plastic surgery.
June 21 finally arrived when Betty and I boarded our plane from the U.S.; traveled to London, where we met our sister, Susan, who came over from Germany and spent the next 12 hours traveling the English countryside, and visiting and lunching with Richard Adams of“Watership Down” fame (he is a good friend of Susan’s) and his wife at their home in Whitchurch; then reboarded our plane; and at last touched down in Tanzania on June 22 to start our expedition.
-- Eddie, our expedition leader, a white African currently living in the U.S., who has led several expeditions through Africa in the past;
-- Derrold, a scientist and computer guru who was second in command and keeper of the computerized GPS maps;
--Gail, Derrold’s wife and our resident nurse (should we need one);
-- John, our outstanding camp cook from Kenya;
-- Christy, thirty-something and the youngest member of our group who joined the expedition after having just spent the previous week climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro;
-- Matt, a litigation attorney from New York and quite the lush;
-- Debbie, who had participated on a previous expedition with Eddie and was hoping to get something going with him on this one; and
-- Susan, a bizarre-looking blond massage therapist from California who looked as if she had overdone it just a bit with the plastic surgery.
June 21 finally arrived when Betty and I boarded our plane from the U.S.; traveled to London, where we met our sister, Susan, who came over from Germany and spent the next 12 hours traveling the English countryside, and visiting and lunching with Richard Adams of“Watership Down” fame (he is a good friend of Susan’s) and his wife at their home in Whitchurch; then reboarded our plane; and at last touched down in Tanzania on June 22 to start our expedition.