Safari

Like English, the KiSwahili language of eastern Africa has grown rich through adopting words from other languages, so safari, meaning journey, comes originally from Arabic. The British stole it from the Swahili, at first using it in a narrower sense to describe a journey, on foot or by vehicle, involving hunting. By the time we were using the word it was broader again, so any land journey could be termed a safari.

As children we went on many safaris, particularly to game parks like Tsavo East - above, with an elephant distantly visible in the centre of the picture - and loved them.

My mother also loved a safari - her most daring one was from Lake Victoria down the Nile to Cairo in 1961 - but my father avoided their discomfort, though he did come on this safari, of a few hours into Nairobi National Park on one of the occasions when the family was seeing me off to school in England. 

There was one exception. When he first moved to Dar-es-Salaam his company insisted he did a tour - a safari - of Tanganyika to acquaint himself with the country and to visit all the company's offices. This he did in a Ford Mercury which was driven by an employee who was so short he could hardly see over the steering wheel. As a result, my father drove. He didn't enjoy his safari at all, and did not repeat it.

Mrs MW and I did three big safaris, in 2010, 2011, and 2012, in Tanzania. Not all the roads were as bad as this one, between Tanga and Saadani, though many were dirt roads, and the journeys were often hot, long and tiring, but they were well worth it as they gave us a much better 'feel' for the country than moving around it as many tourists did, by light aircraft. We. weren't allowed to self-drive in Tanzania but were in....

....Namibia - though perhaps we shouldn't call that journey a 'safari' as it was outside eastern Africa.