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From tropical Africa to windswept Iceland, a Bentley couple’s world tour continues

Last summer when retirement was looming for Leith Damiani, she and her husband Jim started looking for an adventure. After examining several options, the Bentley couple decided upon a one-month around-the-world tour by private jet offered through a company called Travel Guild. The tour included stops in Alaska, Beijing, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, India, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, São Tomé, Senegal, Morocco, and Iceland.
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Through rain

Part two of a two-part story

Last summer when retirement was looming for Leith Damiani, she and her husband Jim started looking for an adventure. After examining several options, the Bentley couple decided upon a one-month around-the-world tour by private jet offered through a company called Travel Guild. The tour included stops in Alaska, Beijing, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, India, United Arab Emirates, Kenya, São Tomé, Senegal, Morocco, and Iceland.

At the halfway point of the trip, Jim and Leith could hardly fathom the amount they had seen in such a short time and as they looked ahead to the coming weeks, they realized that the best was still to come.

A three-day stop in Masai Mara, Kenya proved to be the absolute highlight of the journey for both Jim and Leith. The airstrip where the plane landed was right in the heart of the Masai Mara National Reserve in south-western Kenya and the pair saw elephants, zebras, and other wildlife on the short drive to the rustic Keekorok Lodge, the oldest game lodge in Masai Mara and their accommodation in Kenya.

“The Masai Mara National Reserve is teeming with wildlife and the Lodge itself is built in an area of permanent springs, so you can see a great deal of wildlife without even leaving your accommodation,” explained Leith. “There is a hippo pond out back and zebras and other wildlife are plentiful in the area surrounding the lodge. It was great to see these animals in the wild.”

Masai Mara is named for the Maasai people who are traditional inhabitants of the area and “Mara” means “spotted” in the Maasai language — a description of the spotty landscape marked by circles of trees, brush, savannah and clouds.

On their second day in Kenya, the couple rose before dawn to experience a hot air balloon ride over the savannah. “As the balloon takes off you have a beautiful view of the sunrise and as you quietly float over the animals they don’t even know you are there,” explained Jim.

“Everything is so quiet until the burner comes on and then the animals just glance at you. You are in the balloon for about an hour and then you land on the open plain and they treat you to a champagne breakfast.”

A safari drive following the balloon ride allowed them to view even more wildlife.

“Masai Mara is home to all of the Big Five and quite famous as a key spot for the annual wildebeest migration, which sees millions of wildebeest migrating to the Mara from the Serengeti plains to the south from July — October,” said Leith. “We were on the lookout for the Big Five animals, but we only managed to find four, missing out on the rhino during our visit, but the most unique thing we observed was a pair of male lions swimming across a crocodile-infested river. Our guide, who had never seen lions cross the river in his 10 years of guiding, seemed to be expecting a blood bath, but fortunately they made it across safely.”

The next stop was an overnight rest and refueling stop in São Tomé, Africa. As Africa’s second smallest nation, the country consists of a pair of islands in equatorial West Africa that are eponymously known as São Tomé and Principe. “This less-frequented destination was a good spot to relax and chill out for an evening,” said Leith. “The resort had a nice infinity pool.”

After a short rest, the capital city of Senegal was the next stop on the itinerary. Dakar is known for its colourful markets, nice beaches, hip music scene and its great dining — with an unmistakable French influence. “One of the tours we went on was a trip to Goree Island,” said Jim. “This island was used during the slave trade to keep and sell slaves to the traders. We toured one of the buildings used for this purpose and at the back of the building was a doorway that they called ‘The door of no return’ — the place where slaves were sent out to the slave trader’s ship after being sold, never to return.”

The next four-night stop in Marrakech provided an opportunity to experience the snake charmers, magic potions and hidden palaces that have made Morocco’s Jewel of the South legendary. They enjoyed seeing the sites of the city that has been a resting place for desert caravans since the 11th century. “It really is something to experience the market, but the highlight of the stop was a 4X4 journey into the Atlas Mountains,” said Leith. “We enjoyed an excellent lunch at Villa du Lac, a guest house that overlooks Lalla Takerkoust Lake. The villa is surrounded by olive groves and eucalyptus and we loved it there.”

The final stop of the trip was the capital city of Iceland, an urban locale bordered by an eerie subarctic moonscape surrounded by volcanoes and ice. “We enjoyed our visit in Reykjavik, despite the fact that the weather was incredibly windy and rainy,” said Leith. “We were fascinated by the people and their unique culture and traditions. One of the interesting stops was a visit to the Svartsengin geothermal area that is known as the Blue Lagoon. We both agree that Iceland deserves a re-visit during a different time of year when the weather is better.”

“We have been asked many times if it was worth it and whether we would do it again,” Leith said. “It’s a little overwhelming to visit so many countries in a single trip and when we first returned we weren’t sure if we would want to do it again. But as we have looked at our 1400-plus pictures and our passports with the visas and the entry and exit stamps and remembered the amazing things we saw and did, we have realized it was definitely worth it. This is the same reaction others seem to have had who are now on their third and fourth trips with Travel Guild. We can’t help but wonder where the next trip is going…”

If You Go:

-Top advice for an around-the-world trip: “When travelling in a large group and making as many stops as we did, it is important to keep an open mind,” said Leith. “Even when you travel by private jet there will be small hiccups along the way. You are still subject to the same rules and regulations as other commercial airlines, but the flight crew and staff at Travel Guild work really hard to ensure the delays are minimal.”

For more information on Travel Guild, visit www.privatejetadventures.com or call 1-800-268-4284. A one-month tour as described includes flights, accommodations, local tours, visas and most meals and the cost will vary depending upon the tour being offered. (For budgeting purposes, their web site offered a world tour for two for $32,000.)

Debbie Olsen is a Lacombe-based freelance writer. If you have a travel story you would like to share or know someone with an interesting travel story that we might interview, please email: DOGO@telusplanet.net or write to: Debbie Olsen, c/o Red Deer Advocate, 2950 Bremner Ave., Red Deer, Alta., T4R 1M9.