Letters from Gilgil 3

This is the third volume of a series that reconstructs airmail letters back home from abroad tracking a two year journey of living, working and breathing-in of a new country, its immense variety, its culture, its language, its people and above all, their wonderful good humour and kindness.

The safari to Amboseli at the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro concludes with a brush with the largest paws imaginable in Africa that belong to the king of the beasts. It also relishes the self-indulgent bathing habits of its largest mammal and the joy they bring at every viewing.

It then looks at life on the Equator and moves from the adrenaline rush that is the Safari Rally to the exhilaration of climbing Mount Kenya in a very special year.

From there it moves more sedately on to the longest safari you're likely to make to the north of the country, where landmark archaeological discoveries have been made in the past but where today, one of those unique cultures experienced four decades ago is at serious risk of becoming part of history.

This is not just an account of past events.

It summarises the shorter and longer term impacts that occurred on returning from Kenya, but also describes the impacts brought home to this writer that modern day research reveals with all technology can provide. This book concludes by pitting progress against necessity and questions whether preservation of people and cultures should be made a higher priority in a rapidly developing and forward-looking country, such as Kenya.