MY DREAM HOLIDAY had always been a safari. However, for a long time it was just that — a dream—but once my eldest son turned 21, the time somehow seemed right to take the plunge and book something. After all, how much longer would he be keen to team up with family members, as opposed to friends, and go abroad?
My daughter, Lydia, 14, and I had something of an advantage over the then 21-year-old Charlie, 18-year-old Tommy, and my husband, Justin. We are fairly experienced riders. Both the boys had ridden as children, while Justin told me that he had piloted ponies as a child until he was seven, at which point he fell off and gave up. As we were faced with a real mixed bag of riding abilities, and with so many safaris in Kenya and Botswana being fast, furious and for experienced riders, I called Natural High Safaris for advice and was told about the African Explorer.
With a date in the diary and a confirmation email in my inbox, Justin, Charlie and Tommy headed for a riding refresher course at the Warminster Saddle Club which had to be fairly intensive for my husband.
Time flew and soon we had
