Our first destination was Fill in reserve, next we stopped for two days at Sasaab which was a small open air hotel. Our final stay was Meru National Park, we skipped the Masai Mara due to strife in Nairobi.

Echoes ring down the halls of the Serena Hotel, the three girls high-pitched voices on a ninety-degree decibel. The following morning we boarded a Cessna Caravan (the suburban of the skies) and arrived none the worse for the wear at a remote airstrip. At one point, a giraffe gracefully out-skirted us on the dirt runway making for an interesting landing. Bill Winters says that, landing on the dirt strip is one of the difficulties of running a safari operation because of the plethora of seemingly unaware four-legged creatures. Two Toyota Land-cruisers (custom modified chasse’s) await our landing, not only to make sure the runway is clear, but also to ferry us to our tented campsite.

Passing the time with no television, no cell phone, no radio, just my husband and I with our two college-age sons and fourteen-year old daughter . . . and their two lively teenage girl cousins and their father. Eight total, 5 teenagers and 3 adult’s; the odds are not with us. This Christmas finds us in Kenya with the Bill Winters Safari group.