Why This Could Be Your Year to Take a Safari
by Paul Brady for Travel+Leisure
Courtesy of Asilia
John and Kathy McIlvaine are not the sort of people who just stay home. They’ve chartered their own 39-foot catamaran in the Seychelles; they flew to Tanzania just days after the end of the first Gulf War. “It was an Abercrombie & Kent tour and they had 24 guests signed up. Kathy and I, plus two friends, were the only ones who showed up for the 14-day trip,” John recalls. “We felt like we had the whole of Tanzania to ourselves.”
It was an experience the couple, both retired executives living in Jacksonville, Florida, figured they’d never duplicate. That is, until this past fall, when once again they were among a tiny number of Americans to visit East Africa on a safari. “One of the reasons we wanted to make our trip—other than our cabin fever—is that we’re both big conservationists,” John says. “And one of the things we knew we could do to help is just go over there to spend some money.”
Another way their recent journey was reminiscent of that first safari 30 years ago? The quality of the wildlife sightings.