SAFARI (noun).

Origins: 1885–90; < Swahili < Arabic safar “journey".

A. a journey or expedition, for hunting, exploration, or investigation, especially in eastern Africa.

B. the hunters, guides, vehicles, equipment, etc., forming such an expedition.

C. any long or adventurous journey or expedition.

 

In October 2025, CID members Eric Taylor and Laura Forsyth set off on a month-long safari of a lifetime in East Africa. Laura insists that Eric got completely carried away with the itinerary, while Eric maintains he relinquished some of his more adventurous plans.

 

With expert guidance from Francisca Jah of the African and Oriental Travel Company, their trip blended ocean and lake diving with wildlife safaris and visits to some of the country’s most historic and culturally significant places. They dove in the Indian Ocean around Zanzibar and Mafia Island, then headed inland to snorkel and dive in Lake Tanganyika—one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes and home to an incredible variety of endemic cichlid species.

 

Along the way, they visited four of Tanzania’s national parks, went hunting with the Hadzabe people (one of the last remaining hunter gatherer tribes), traveled to Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika—the endpoint of the slave trading route in East Africa and the site where journalist and explorer Stanley famously met Dr. Livingstone. They went chimpanzee trekking from primatologist Jane Goodall’s camp at Gombe Stream, where she conducted her groundbreaking chimpanzee research, and wandered the crowded roads of Dar es Salaam and Stone Town.

 

Presenter Bios:

Devoted recreational divers, Eric was first certified at UC Davis in the 1970s and has 1000s of (unlogged) dives; Laura, initially trained in 1986, recertified in 2015 and has logged about 250 dives so far.

 

Semi-retired, Eric and Laura are determined to pack in as much adventure travel as they can for as long as they can. For many years, they dove mostly on Grand Turk Island in the Turks and Caicos, where they have a cottage. Recently, they decided to rent out the cottage in order to dive some of the rest of the (warm water) world.

 

At home, Laura maintains a small psychology practice, and Eric consults part time in real estate development. A life-long aquarist, Eric once kept a tank devoted solely to Tanganyikan cichlids, so seeing these fish in their natural habitat was a dream come true.