Bushtracks Travelers Brochure

7/28/2019 Bushtracks Travelers Brochure

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AfricaIn Our Travelers Words


2/24Cvr: Tm Passalacqua and grandsn Luca, Masai Mara, Knya (pag 6).

Dear Traveler,

For over 20 years we have passionately presented the idea o travelingto Arica, and described our saaris in a thousand ways.We know, without a doubt, it is a priceless experience because we

were born and raised there. But Aricas magic is hard to convey,particularly to those who have never been.So we turned to some o our travelers to see how they eel about their

Arican experience, and why they decided to go.At the end o the day, our travelers say it best.Sincerely,

David and Carolyn ettFounders, Bushtracks Expeditions


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In Fbruary 2003, Cyntias

darst rind Kalpana Cawla

was killd in t tragic cras t

spac suttl Clumbia. S was

dvastatd. Jim suggstd ty

g smwr rally spcial t

prvid spac t griv. Tat was

t frst yar ty travld wit

Bustracks and ty dvlpd

antr lilng rlatinsiptis

tim wit t cntinnt Arica.

Ty av travld wit us vry

yar sinc, currntly nin tims.

Both Jim and I eel the same way

we deeply love Arica. During our

entire time there, we elt as i we werestanding where lie itsel began.

Cynthia uthillBiochemist, Author

Jim OrrRetired Sotware Consultant

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Bb and Sirly bkd tir frst saari a grup

trip up t Grat Rit Vally in a DC-3 atr talking

wit David Ttt abut Arica at a UC Brkly Alumni

travl rcptin in 1999. Tirtn saaris latr, ty say

ty intnd t kp ging n saaris rvr!

T Sandrsns av travld n svral Bustracks

cultural trips t Arica and India, including North

Arica and the Great Sahara and Casablanca to the

Cape. Wv takn tm t Timbuktu tr tims and

arrangd a sunris pt st t pyramids at

Mr, Sudan. Svral cuntris n ts trips can n

lngr b visitd, s wr glad t av bn a part

tir g wil w can travl stratgy.

Seeing a leopard in a tree, an

elephant matriarch leading her

herd, wild dogs eeding theirpups, or lions enjoying amily

time gives us a glimpse o what

the Garden o Eden was like.

Shirley SandersonRetired Lawyer urned Wildlie Photographer

Bob SandersonRetired High ech Executive urned Sherpa

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We have been incredibly lucky to witness lion research

being done in Zambia and Kenya. Most people don't

realize that the numbers o lions have dropped an

alarming 80% in the past 30 years in Arica. These

research projects are designed to help reverse that trend.

In 2011, we were staying at Shumba Camp in Kaue

National Park, Zambia, when we learned that Neil

Midlane, the principal researcher or the Kaue Lion

Project, would be collaring a lioness as part o his

investigation on Kaues lion population. Neil graciously

allowed us to watch the darting, collaring, and taking o

measurements on the subject lioness.

We were then thrilled to be able to help with the

darting by allowing veterinarian Harvey Kamboyi

o the Zambia Wildlie Authority shoot a dart at the

lioness rom the top row o our completely open saari

vehicle, which gave him a much better angle. Ater

protecting the lionesss eyes with a cloth wrap, the

radio collar was tted to her neck. The team checked

her teeth, measuring the canines, and blood was

drawn or testing. They then measured her height, body

length, and tail length. Finally, the team administered

an antidote to reverse the eects o the anesthetic. They

stayed with the lioness until she was ully able to walk

and deend hersel.

A lioness tests a herd o bufalo in DumaTau, Botswana. Shirley Sanderson



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As a very young girl, my passion or Arica was ignited

through autobiographical books and novels depicting

the history and wonders o Kenya; the Mara, Chyulu Hills,

and specically Mt. Kilimanjaro. I told my parents at the

time, that Someday, I will walk out o a tent, and see

Mt. Kilimanjaro!

The years did not diminish the desire to realize that

experience. That day nally came, 60 years later, when,

in June o 2012, my dream was ullled, and was shared

with my husband, children and grandchildren. The

morning that I stepped out o a tent in Campi Ya Kanzi

and saw Mt Kili rising majestically beore me was truly

an emotional moment.

Someday, I will walk out o a

tent, and see Mt. Kilimanjaro!

Sandi PassalacquaFounder, Head o School at Te Healdsburg School

om PassalacquaAttorney and Wine-Grape Grower

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However, this trip was a transormational experience or

all 12 o us. The three generations, 73 to 4 years o age,

greatly appreciated the custom-designed saari honed so

careully by David and Carolyn to address our particular

interests; culturally, environmentally, and educationally.

The extensions o care and attention to details by

Bushtracks were extraordinary, providing our amily o

7 adults and 5 children with very meaningul grounded

interactions that included pen-pals, visits to schools,

multiple exchanges with Maasai villagers, and close

encounters with orphaned elephants. The amazing game

viewing in the Mara and Chyulu Hills, with majestic

scenery is an adventure one has to personally encounter,

and cannot be adequately described by words.

We were all touched deeply by this rich Arican

adventure, and as we tipped our wings to Kilimanjaro in

adieu, there was the sense o loss; o leaving a part o

ourselves behind.

We are already discussing the return to Arica; urther

saaris, interactions, and explorations o this amazing

continent. There is no doubt that we will certainly

depend on the talents and caring hands o Bushtracks to

guide us!

Tom Passalacqua and grandson Luca Sandi at the Daphne Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage, Kenya



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Tere are no movies,

documentaries or

photos that can prepareone or the deeplypersonal experience

that is Arica.

I think my biggest takeaway rom our trip was

the absolute perection o nature in its rawest

state. The synergy between animal, environment

and landscape is simultaneously breathtaking

and exhilarating. And though I in no way elt

insignicant, Arica made me eel that the

human species was most likely Mother Natures

aterthought, to an already perect world!

Kimberly FlowersPublic Relations Consultant

Michael FlowersHomebuilder

Sean FlowersStudent

The Flowers Family at Ants Nest, Waterberg, South Arica

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9/24

ony HookerArtist

ILee HookerArtist

Both o us love the outdoors. Te serenity

o the wild. Te open expanses and the

untold beauty o the deserts, the bush,and the rivers. Just add animals and the

wonderul birds o the (Okavango) Delta to

paint a magnicent and lasting tableau in

your mind, your heart, and your memory.

We had been together in Kenya in 1964.

Here we were some 47 years later and it

was our 45th wedding anniversary. ILee

suggested we do something special and

revisit Arica to celebrate our marriage

and to enjoy something that had meant

so much to both o us over the years.

With Bushtracks doing the planning

including some custom options it was

soon to be. Shortly we were overlooking

the plains o Namibia drinking a toast

to our years together, our good luck,

and the beauty that unolded beore us

in such a spectacular way.

A toast in Sossusvlei, Namibia

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When we were originally planning our trip, we were

hesitant about bringing the kids, in part because they

were just 5 and 8 years old. Halway through the trip,we realized that we would have been devastated to have

been enjoying these experiences without our kids.

racy BianchiPsychotherapist/High School Counselor

ito BianchiVice-President, Deerfeld Realty

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Every morning bright and early, the sun peeking up over

the horizon and preparing or a morning game drive, our

alarm lacked the presence o a persisting buzz or radio music,

but instead, was a riendly and gracious soul tapping on

the canvas o our tent or knocking on our door. The rest o

the glorious day was all about taking in the extraordinary

experience o an everyday lie that is not our own.

Sydney BianchiStudent

Jacob BianchiStudent



12/24

Sven-Olof LindbladPresident & Founder, Lindblad Expeditions. Inc.

Tere really is no place like Arica and these photos

were taken by my budding photographer daughter.

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13/24

When we landed in Mala Mala, a private game reserve bordering South

Aricas vast Kruger National Park, I smiled more broadly than I can ever

remember. I was home in Arica, in the bush, ater a 20-year absence,

together with my two cubs, Isabella and Eric.

A ew minutes later we were in our camp and I could hear the sound so

amiliar rom decades past; elephants ripping oliage rom a tree right

there on the camps edge. I looked at Isabella and Eric and they, too,

were beaming. It was their rst time in Arica and that night I was gently

admonished or not taking them there sooner.

The days that ollowed were ull o adventure and un and more smiles

than you can possibly imagine.

Photos: Isabella Lindblad in Lower Zambezi National Park



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On our return ight, my sister

leaned over my seat and said,

Tis was the best trip o my lie.

Ellyna BerglundArtist

My sister and I have traveled the

world together since we were

kids. There are no continents we

havent touched. My rst time

in Arica with Bushtracks was

solie changing, I vowed to

return with my amily as soon as

possible. I wanted my daughter to

see it and eel it as I did.

The Berglund/Eberwein Family dancing with guide Thuto

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15/24

Having spent two years in the

Peace Corps in Ethiopia, Arica

has always been in my blood,but taking my daughter, Robin,and son, Jake, on private air

saaris were two o lies peak

experiences.

Rich CaseyBiotech Executive

On the last day o our stay at

Mambo Camp in the Okavango

Delta in 2001, my daughter Robin

and I were having breakast alone

on a deck overlooking a swampy

area. Robin mentioned how cool

it would be i a lion showed up

to see us o. Unbelievably, at

that very moment, a magnicent

lioness came ambling out o the

bush less than 50 yards away rom

us. Talk about a ather/ daughter

bonding experience.



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Susan EvansE Grant EvansI Security Executive E Lauren EvansMedical Student

Kameryn EvansStudent E Scott EvansStudent E Reed PieperStudent

our amily trip lvn t

Arica was, witut a dubt,

t trip a litim. Nt

nly was it un, ducatinal

bynd all xpctatins, but

it was a amily bnding tim

tat will last rvr. Jan and

oz (grandparnts) will rvr

b rmmbrd as Bb and

Bamb, Grandmtr and

Grandatr in Swaili. Arica

will b in ur arts rvr.

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17/24

Janice PieperE Christopher PieperOutdoor Experience Business Owner

Elana LombardEducator E Gwendolyn PieperStudent E Oz PieperConsultant

Arica was a lietime experience. It was an

adventure that spanned generations oering

the entire amily a wealth o impressionablememories. It is a must do on the bucket listand should be moved to #1.

The Pieper Pack on saari in Tanzania



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For my athers 70th birthday, I

wanted to give him something

special and memorable. Somethingnot ound on a store shel, orordered online, or something he

might already have.

Eric FreidenrichVice President, Airreks

With the help o the creative team at

Bushtracks, my idea o something special

went rom concept to reality a three

generation amily saari in Arica. My ather,

my son and I spent three memorable weeks in

South Arica, Botswana and Zambia exploring,

experiencing and savoring every moment

o our trip. The time we shared together,

and the sights, sounds and experiences we

encountered were truly memorable, and

something that we will all have with us or

the rest o our lives.

Teo FreidenrichStudent

John FreidenrichGrandather

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19/24

Jack RedingAttorney

Barbara RedingBest Friend

Jack and Barbara Reding (center right) with close riends at Mala Mala, Greater Kruger National Park, South Arica

Te magic o Arica

brought out the best in

all o us. My birthdayis one Ill never orget.

At Mala Mala, we encountered girae, zebra, rhino, elephant,

lion, Cape bualo, leopard, and antelope o all kinds in an

action packed three days. Visions o lions munching kudo legs,

graceul giraes poking heads out o the treetops, leopards

ghting over remains o impala, rhinos mud bathing, elephants

caring or their young, were REAL.

The Zambezi River aorded an entirely dierent experience,

heading up and down the river in search o crocodiles and tiger

sh, or stopping at old village sites to inspect unearthed pottery,

or taking opportunities to see not only large game, but the tiny

inhabitants o the park.



20/24

Our Bushtracks trip was done at the request o my

mom, Rachel Ann Seghesio. We traveled as a amily in

2008, and mom passed away unexpectedly in 2010. Iam so grateul that we took this trip as a amily. Shelives on with us all rom these memories.

The Seghesio Family at Victoria Falls, Zam

Will SeghesioStudent

Joey SeghesioStudent

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21/24

I have been blessed to have seen many places during my

lie, but nowhere has been as memorable as Arica. It is

still vivid and resh in my mind and a place that Cathy

and I long to go back to. A photographer knows the best

light o the day is beore sun up or just ater the sun sets

below the horizonimagine i the colors were that vivid

or the whole day. That is what Arica was to me. This

photo was taken o Cathy and I just ater a pod o hippos

passed in the lake in ront o us at sundowner time.

Pete SeghesioWine Grower/Te Journeyman Project

Cathy SeghesioProprietor/Te Journeyman Project



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The core experience or my

amily was to share a unique

adventure that opened all our

hearts and eyes, binding us to

the environment and how we

relate to the other o earths

glorious creatures.

A compelling lie afrming adventure

combining the astonishing with the

exhilarating in elegant ashion. A totalWOW!

Peter Guber and son Jackson atop an elephant in the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Peter GuberChairman, CEO Mandalay Entertainment Group

Jackson GuberStudent

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Los Angeles go back, feeing the quiet

desperation o tire marts and daytime TV,

drawn by some mythic remembrance o

strength and sunlight, o resh mornings

when we walked with the beasts, woven

graceully into their world.

The acilities were outstanding, the

connections were fawless, and the

personal attention to detail was

unprecedented. One returns rom Arica

with indelible images

eighty-ve

elephants bathing in the river in the late

aternoon light, a stones throw rom our

launch; a pride o lions at the edge o a

lake, devouring their kill in the sunset; a

girae poised in a meadow on the end o

a rainbow; or the earth-sinking thunder

o Victoria Falls, plunging at three million

gallons a second, as though some cosmic

abyss had opened to swallow all the waters

o the world. The experience o Arica

rom the regal lion, the rare rhinoceros,and the cantankerous cape bualo, to the

ill-tempered hippo, the elusive leopard, or

the fight o a thousand famingoes is

essential to any sojourn on this planet.

Yet there is more than the animals to the

lure o Arica. In the crisp chill o predawn,

as our open vehicle crawled over rutted

roads towards the rst glow o a day, a

timeless aura lay over the land, stretching

away to a horizon dotted with umbrellatrees bare limbed under brush-stroke

oliage, leaning and reaching in the dawn

light. I imagined the same resh morning

our million years beore, when the Olduvai

man stood in all his pristine vitality on the

shore o his ancient lake; and the hills rose

behind him, rolling dark and hulking, like a

herd o great beasts. Arica! The word alone

recalls some primal Source, some pulsating

center deep in the racial memory, the

mystery o origins, the Mother o man. Likethe sea itsel, this vast ocean o land, with

its dark jungles and majestic mountains,

is the primordial Home, the mythic Eden

rom which men spread over the planet like

terrestrial astronauts, surviving ever more

harsh and articial environments.

We are drawn back. Europeans go

back; Americans go back; people rom

We return to Arica to reencounter theour million years o history that a mere

our millennia could never eace. Like the

hero in Heart o Darkness, we are drawn

to the Dark Continent o our inner selves

the dark orest o the soul where the

modern ego encamps in a tiny clearing.

And we project our hal-remembered

wholeness onto that sun-drenched land

o major chords and primary colors, o

smiling primitives and beautiully painted

creatures. We are the Shadow People,allen rom grace, cast rom the inner Eden

to a wilderness o externals.

We return to the Dark Continent and

lie awake in our tents, projecting our

monsters into the Arican night startled

rom sleep by the sloshing o elephants

along the lake shore, or the hollow brays

o hippos, afoat somewhere down the

dark river. But these are the bogies o

bad movies, the misplaced specters o a

surreal civilization. The innocent creatures

themselves, who once roamed the

continent at will, now wander the Serengeti

like artiacts o evolution, the last remnants

o an unragmented world.

One eels that this is the last reuge o

innocence, that the last lions may soon lie

in that sunset by the waters edge. Along

the banks o the Chobe River, the elephants

gather in the dusk; their great dark shapes

endure as monuments o the vast ocean

o lie that once covered this continent.

And the girae whose head soared abovethe rainbow into the gray mist, watching

us with long-lashed liquid eyes, spoke the

sad hope o all surviving species. Only the

ringing o insects under the red sky seems

eternal, like some residual trace o the lost

tribal rhythms the melodious chants o

Zulu and Maasai that once rose up like

voices rom the earth, echoing o the ar

hills in the heat o the day, to ade over

the long grass, leaving the land in desolate

silence.

Not only are innumerable species, including

our own, threatened with ecological

extinction, but many are also at immediate

risk rom hunters and poachers. There is

a certain irony, thereore, in saying that

we are ortunate to be living at this time;

or our childrens children may never

see a rhino, a gorilla, or countless other

endangered creatures. And it is doubly

ortuitous to have an organization likeBushtracks with the expertise to ease us

through what can oten seem a political

and economic wilderness. Our nal thanks,

then to David and Carolyn Tett or putting

together the perect trip.

Rita & Wyn WachhorstGraphic Designer/Teacher & Author

WE WOuLD LIKE TO cOMMEND cAROLyN AND DAVID TETT

FOR ARRANGING ThE MOST FAScINATING TRIP OF OuR LIVES.

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PAIDBUShTRACKS

Bustracks expditins

824 haldsburg Avnu

haldsburg, CA 95448

Pn: 1-800-995-8689

Fax: 707-433-0258email: [email protected]

MeMBeR oF The

Lpard takn by Bustracks tra

Sirly Sand

AfricaIn Our Travelers Words

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