I am sorry for taking so long in answering your email with regards to our trip to Africa. The real reason for the delay is to know what to put in the email … how can you actually describe the most fantastic trip of a lifetime in words! I would love to be able to say that “our trip of a lifetime” is the start of our trips to Africa but unfortunately I doubt that. That is why it is/was such a special trip the first time. Tillya, thank you for all your efforts in making our trip so special. I know Andrea and yourself spent many hours and emails putting the trip together. Thank you, thank you. With Scott and Andrea taking pictures I thought I would keep a journal of our travels. When arriving back home and starting to type it up it was great to relive our trip. Hopefully Ken will enjoy reading it as well when I do give it to him to read. I thought it would be a great keepsake for all of us but especially Scott and Andrea for years to come. It was hard to keep up with my journal but I did. My colleagues at work have seen some of the pictures and they are amazed how close we were to the animals and so many animals. We saw all the standard wildlife – elephants, zebras, giraffes, hippos, impalas. Our first glimpse of a lion was not a good one, it was too far away but eventually we got to see one close by. Even to the point that the lion was having it’s lunch, a zebra … we missed the actual kill but I am sure we got there just seconds after it. I would never have thought that I would be interested in seeing one animal devouring another one but we were mesmerized by it. The mother lion actually had two cubs with her and they were enjoying lunch as well. Scott got some fantastic pictures as this was happening and we are still mesmerized when we see them. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. The only one of the big five that we missed was, of course, the rhino. Seems a lot of people don’t see that one. We actually did see one but it was too far off in the distance to be able to count it. I guess we just have to come back to Africa for that reason … see the rhino! Our accommodations … where do I start with them. I thought we were going to be camping in Africa, little did I know different. The accommodations were out of this world. With each new one there was something special about it so it would be hard to say which one was our favourite. Although Ken does say that the treetop was his favourite. The outdoor showers were another highlight for Ken. I was totally amazed at the difference in each place we stayed at during our visit, and how we were treated like royalty upon our arrival. I just enjoyed it all and I have the pictures and booklets on them to remind me of our special time in Africa. I think my favourite part of the trip was Ngorongoro Crater. Just envision this large mass of land that erupted thousands of years ago and now houses so many animals. I think that is where we seen most of the wildlife, along with thousands of flamingos. Just breathtaking. Having just spent close to three weeks in Africa and visiting four countries (Tanzania, Zambabwe, Botswana and Zambia) I need to relive it all again through our journal and pictures. I am sure we will all do that every once in a while. The four of us did our trip over Christmas and New Year’s 2007-08 and we have heard that it is not the best time to go but time wise that was the best time for the four of us to be able to connect. What a special Christmas and New Year’s memories we all have now. Thank you again, Tillya for taking care of us. Hopefully our paths may cross again sometime in the future. Ken and Sharon Lillis, Kingston, ON Canada | 