Month: April 2003

Neil,

Paul Wetzel and I are back in the US and trying to get back into our daily
routines. Because we had such a good time on our safari and in Cape Town,
this will be hard to do.

I greatly appreciate your efforts to organize a safari to fit our
interests, your patience with all the last minute changes caused by Paul
Currier's medical problems, and your dedication to providing us with an
outstanding safari experience. Because I have been leading field trips
for students for over 30 years and have been on numerous other field trips
around the world, I know how much work goes into organizing a successful
safari. Doug and you did an amazing job of providing us with exceptional
transportation, housing, meals, and opportunities to see a wide variety of
wildlife. Your knowledge and understanding of animal behavior, food habits
and distribution made the safari extremely interesting and
informative. Similar fields trips, especially in South America and Asia,
have always been less than ideal because the people leading them had such a
limited knowledge of the ecology of the places that we were
visiting. Overall, I consider our safari to be the best field trip that I
have taken anywhere.

My favorite animals are still the giraffes and hippos. Although it was fun
seeing lions, hyenas, jackals, buffalo, rhinos, ostriches, etc., the
giraffes and hippos are such unique and unusual animals and so
characteristically African that I will never forget seeing them. It also
enjoyed the opportunity to get an overview of the vegetation types of South
Africa. Paul Wetzel, of course, is still thrilled by seeing termite mounds
and fever trees for the first time. In spite of all your efforts to find
them, I am actually glad that we didn't see leopards or cheetahs. This
provides me with a little needed rationale (excuse) for coming back. I
will definitely be recommending the Bearded Heron to anyone who wants to go
on a safari in South Africa.

Thanks again for putting together and running such an outstanding safari.

Arnold