Melissa
Jo Kooijman
Melissa's love affair with Africa began while studying Social Anthropology at university. One of her professors announced that if anyone was interested, he had learned of a program where students would camp, study and live in the African bush for 3 months (for credit!). Ready for an adventure, Melissa signed up!
While travelling in Kenya and Uganda she gained first-hand knowledge of the local cultures by interviewing Samburu and Masai warriors. She also learned an enormous amount about the wildlife, and while in Mombasa she participated in an archeological excavation and successfully completed her diving certificate. There were many highlights from that trip but a favourite one is visiting a local village where the children had not seen white people before. The children would come up to Melissa and rub her skin thinking the white would rub off.
While camping at the Kibale Rainforest in Uganda, Melissa experienced a monsoon (the wind was so intense it blew her tent away, but she found it!) and a minor earthquake in the same day. That night, while sleeping in a tent with a broken zipper, Melissa had frogs jumping in and out of her tent all night. Her second trip was a one-month overland camping safari starting in Johannesburg and finishing in Nairobi. Highlights of that trip were white-water rafting down the Zambezi River and a 3-day canoe safari with hippos and crocodiles looking on. While staying in the Masai Mara, Melissa went through a marriage ceremony where she and a Masai warrior wore lion headdresses and did a marriage dance around a fire. Upon returning from that trip she decided to change her career, and as Chris had also done, Melissa re-trained in travel. In November of 1998 she started with Wild Africa Safaris and since then has returned to Africa to do sight inspections on various properties - from budget to luxury.
One of Melissa's visits was 2 1/2 weeks in Kenya and Tanzania with highlights including seeing 32 lions in one day in the Serengeti, a giraffe in Tarangire National Park who had just given birth, and 4 Masai boys dressed all in black with white faces who were hunting lion to kill so they could become warriors. Melissa's driver spoke Swalaii to the boys so she could communicate with them. Melissa's fourth trip was to Zambia, Botswana and the Seychelles where she stayed at Kwando Safari camps. Kwara camp was where she saw her first leopard close up
-- a little too close as it rubbed up against the back wheel.
Highlights from this trip included doing a gorge swing in Zambia and a helicopter ride over Victoria Falls. Melissa has been to a great number of beaches -- Mexico, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mombasa, and Zanzibar, just to name a few -- but not one of them compares to the beaches of the Seychelles. While exploring La Digue by bike, Melissa stopped for a swim and snorkel and swam right into a sea turtle.
Melissa's most recent trip was an extensive trip to Egypt. There were many highlights from that trip and they included seeing the pyramids, visiting St Simeon Monastery by camel, doing a Nile cruise, seeing the Philae Temple and Abu Simble, and doing a Desert excursion. The Desert was Melissa's favorite part of her trip and camping in the White Desert was the highlight from all her trips to Africa. Climbing a sand dune and then rolling all the way down, followed by the driver driving full blast straight down a dune, was an adrenalin rush. On the last day of Melissa's trip she spent it on a camel roaming through the desert, and that night was spent dancing for hours with the locals and making up songs -- it was a trip to remember!
People will tell you that once you've been to Africa it gets into your blood and you just want more and more. Melissa couldn't agree more.
She feels extremely fortunate to be doing work that she loves and feels very passionate about.
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