
John, how wonderful to hear about your life and love Africa.
Marvelous! When John called the rhino, I almost fell off my chair!
When John spoke and the pictures came up, we were transported
to another world
thank you.
We went on an African safari with the Stevens right here in New York!

Warmth in this wonderful land!
Wow! We cannot even begin telling you about our amazing trip to the States without first commenting on the fantastic warmth and hospitality that we experienced, not only from our wonderful hosts, but also from all the Americans with whom we came into contact. We were bowled over by their interest in our lives, our business and in us - and, most especially, in what John had to say. Which was plenty! From Washington to New York, he shared his incredible passion for Africa and her wildlife, beauty and people, alongside his hopes and dreams for Zimbabwe, our beloved home country.

Our very very special thanks to our wonderful hosts:
Roger and Vicki Sant
The Fitzgerald family and Kathy Schulz
Bud and Nancy Foster and Molly Keller
Ellen and Joe Torrence
Karen and Kent Cochran
Paul and Mary Anderson
All the Keller Family
Brian and Cindy Davis
Jim and Nancy Armitage
Gail and Mike Yanney
John Morgan
Jos and Gail Weterings
Joan and Richard Forman
John and Victoria Levy Westhead Lynne Wheat and Thomas Peterffy
- and again Roger and Vicki in NYC

Great Reconnections, Wonderful Reactions
A highlight of our trip and there were many was reconnecting with old safari friends from the wilds of Africa in the wilds of the USA! For Nicci, this was the first time to meet many previously email names and now real live, lovely people! We all enjoyed reminiscing, musing over memories of shared African journeys Remember standing on top of that anthill with John? Remember when we saw the wild dogs in their den? and so on!
It was wonderful to meet new people, too; through Washington DC, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Nashville, Chicago, Winston Salem, Omaha, Louisville, Miami and New York, we must have met more than 350 new faces. At each location, our hosts had gone to incredible lengths, not only to make us very welcome, but you provided delicious food and drinks, wonderful snacks and canapés, and had created beautiful, sometimes African-inspired, settings for Johns talks. Who would have believed one of our venues was the mammal section of Chicagos Field Museum - with the man-eaters of Tsavo watching over the proceedings.

Johns talks received such interest; we were very touched by the response. Everyone appreciated the effort wed gone to, and they enjoyed the many different photographs in our presentation as much as Johns talks! (The hardest part before we set off on our trip was selecting the photographs
Johns vast library left us spoilt for choice, but we hope we managed to convey the best of what East and Southern Africa has to offer!)
Urban Jungle

Other unforgettable highlights of our trip include Vladimirs Crab Salad in Washington; lunch with our special friends, Russell and Aileen Train in Washington DC; being dwarfed by 3000 year old redwoods in Muir Woods, California; being shown holotypes of the African Pitta (John still hasnt found one in the African bush) and a new species of monkey, the Kipunji, in Chicagos Field Museum; an urban safari in Chicago where John had a chat to the leopard in the Lincoln Park Zoo; kicking our heels to country and western music at Nashvilles famous Bluebird Cafe and the next night at the Grand Ole Opry; handling snakes and aardvarks behind the scenes at the Henry Dorley Zoo in Omaha; Borsheims, the most magnificent jewelers; a traditional and very beautiful American Thanksgiving dinner; the Mackenzie music recital in Lake Forest; wing shooting in Kentucky; Miami Beach in Jos convertible; the 5th Avenue Apple Store open at midnight; seeing the Lion King and Times Square; New York dressed for Christmas and looking beautiful; owning a fabulous Beatrice von Tresckow piece of couture

We are home now, basking in the sunshine and warmth of Zimbabwe and are looking forward greatly to our daughter, Sarahs wedding to her love, Milo Harrup in late December. The whole family will be together and we know it will be a joyous, happy time.
We hope that, wherever this holiday season finds you, you are also warm and safe, surrounded by people you love and in high spirits! Until next year,
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Best wishes from John and Nicci


Ex Africa - Semper aliquid nova.
Out of Africa - Always something new.
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