Africa

Africa has always held a little bit of mystery for me. Long before I ever went there, I grew up learning about its wildlife with my dad, watching shows like Wild Kingdom and imagining places that seemed impossibly far away.

In 2008, I finally went to Africa for the first time—with my dad. Since then, I've been back again and again, and no other part of the world has affected me quite the same way.

I've trekked for gorillas in Uganda, climbed through Morocco's Atlas Mountains, crawled inside pyramids in Egypt, gone on safari in Tanzania, Botswana, and South Africa, swum at the edge of Victoria Falls, and cage-dived with great white sharks in Shark Alley. I've flown in tiny planes over the bush, watched pilots play hangman to pass the time, and been charged by a bull elephant with my dad sitting beside me in the Land Rover.

And then there are the experiences I never could have planned.

In Uganda, a sudden storm nearly swamped our little boat on the Kazinga Channel, surrounded by waters inhabited by hippos and crocodiles. In Zanzibar, instead of spending our days lounging at a resort, we explored the island by scooter, wandered into places we probably didn't belong, climbed onto a giant flamingo in somebody else's swimming pool, and finally took up Syed—the fisherman who called up to our balcony every morning—on his offer to show us his Zanzibar.

Some of my trips to Africa have been luxurious. Others have involved questionable bathrooms, long hikes, muddy roads, tiny planes, and moments when I seriously wondered what I'd gotten myself into. Often, they've been a little of both.

There is a wildness to Africa that I haven't found anywhere else. A sense that nature is still very much in charge, that something unexpected could happen at any moment, and that there is always more beyond what you can see.

Sometimes I have a hard time believing these are my memories. I grew up watching African wildlife on television with my dad, and years later I was sitting beside him in a Land Rover as a bull elephant charged us. I've been extraordinarily fortunate to see and experience the things I have, and nowhere do I feel that more strongly than in Africa.

Africa stole a piece of my soul on that first trip. I think that's why I keep going back.