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There are not too many visitors from abroad on safari in Kenya at this particular time. Many have been scared away by warnings - or maybe it's only a vague nervousness - that air travel could be dangerous, or safety could not be guaranteed!! It's an old story for us. A bomb goes off 2,000 miles away in Cape Town, for instance, and our imminent visitors cancel their flights to Nairobi!

Meanwhile we wait, we who live here, enjoying one tranquil, sunny and otherwise 'perfect' day after another in incomparable Kenya. We're sure of course, that sooner rather than later, irrepressible human wanderlust and spirit of adventure will revive tourism here as everywhere else in Africa.

As you perhaps, start re-planning a deferred safari, one piece of essential travel information we'd offer is... NOT to forget to bring along a good guidebook. There are plenty on the market, but for we resident cognoscenti, one stands out far beyond the others:

The Safari Companion
by Richard D. Estes

Dr. Estes, an Associate of Mammalogy at Harvard University and current eminence at the World Conservation Union (IUCN), has spent many years studying African wildlife. He visits us frequently at the Mount Kenya Game Ranch - (pictured at left in March with Don Hunt at the Animal Orphanage.)

His book, The Safari Companion* is indispensable for the more discerning safari travelers - specially designed for those interested in finding out more about the lives and complex interactions of the magnificent animals they see.

After Safari (or even instead of) you will often reach for this most interesting book. I am seldom without it!

*Published by Chelsea Green Publishing Company, also available in Kenya.