by Shyam Gokarn

Created on: December 15, 2009

The best destinations for adventure travel.  

I was a travelling vagabond, a geek, so to say. My distant relative, Niki, for quite some time, has been complaining that she needs a good man to go on travelling rampage out in the wild and pamper her. So, this was my chance, I thought, to woo this foxy, charming and talented chick. This was in 1978, way back in Kenya, where we lived for many years.

We both had much desire to venture far outside into deep forests of the African countries. We were filled with the desire to set out with no plans, no fixed destination, just an imperative to wander, to explore. The results, of course, were beautiful. Therefore we met. 

Niki was 22 years then, graduated with English major from UK with history and psychology as her other subjects. She was a travelling freak and she looked to me as an exotic beauty mixed with a fierce intelligence, self-confident and assertive. She has been a lively figure to go along with, full of enthusiasm and courage.

She was struggling to set up a Cancer Hospital, going around to raise funds. She wasn’t inclined to ask for donations, as she thought it to be a sophisticated begging. Hence, she preferred her way of conducting several exhibitions, fun-fairs, competitions and the proceeds of the profits went to cancer hospital. This way, with her sheer determination, she could manage to role in a few thousand dollars after every few months.

Also, with a few innovative ideas, she managed to auction some items of tourists. She allowed all those bidders who actually participated in auction, regardless of whether or not they won the bid, were qualified to win one of the safari drives around the National Park in Kenya. So, many were eager to go for it.

Niki, while exhibiting her entrepreneurship with brilliance, had made a deal with her cousin, the owner of ‘Jambo Travel Agency’ of Nairobi to arrange the tours in different national parks.

Niki would decide the special deals every month largely focusing on itineraries that would take them to warmer places in Kenya,

National parks can be found in a large majority of African countries, the places of tourist attraction, being most numerous in Gabon, Kenya and Tanzania. The countries have designated these areas as game reserves, national reserves, forest reserves, marine reserves to maintain them as national property without any interference of private owner to make their way in.

Unlike on a bus journey, traveling by private vehicle,

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