Tanganyika Film & Safari Outfitters

I started my safari company, Tanganyika Film & Safari Outfitters, in 1991 to offer visitors the chance to experience the best of East Africa in the traditional style. I'd like to share with you the sort of hands on experiences I had while conducting my own research --exploring the parks and walking - which is very different from the typical formal lodge and car-oriented trips commonly offered.

I have lived in Tanzania since early 1976, when I arrived at the age of 19 to spend three years working on fossil excavations with archaeologist Mary Leakey. I stayed for 8 years, working at the plio-pleistocene sites of Laetoli and Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti/Ngorongoro area. I found myself surveying hundreds of square miles of country on foot every year, looking for Paleolithic sites, conducting my own research, and eventually running Mary's entire camp. My Swahili is fluent and I also speak some Maasai.

At the end of 1983, I left the Leakey camp at Olduvai Gorge to undertake my own research in Tanzania, studying living groups of hunter-gatherers - again my life was to be constantly in the bush - walking, stalking game, and camping with tribes-people. This extensive fieldwork allowed me the opportunity to teach a course in Experimental Archaeology at Harvard in 1986.

I later decided to make Tanzania my home and returned to make a living that allowed me to stay in touch with my friends in the bush. The next few years I worked with a variety of safari companies as a safari guide.