When did you first visit Kenya?

I went to Kenya in 1984 on a photographic safari with my 13 year-old son, Jake. I had traveled a great deal before then, but that was my first trip to Africa. I was actually going to book us on a much less "rugged" safari, staying only in lodges, but I decided that a camping safari in tents would be more of an adventure for him. We actually camped on Champagne Ridge in Shaba on that trip.

What was it about the country that converted you into an Africa-phile?

I just fell in love with Africa. Granted my life in the USA was at a particularly low point, but there was something about the vastness of the land, the way the rains smells as it moves toward you, the feeling of having all your sense on full alert all the time that just knocked me out. I decided, after a mere two weeks there, that it was completely sensible for me to ditch my entire life in NYC and move to Africa!

I went back about three times in the next year on different safaris to Tanzania as well as Kenya. I tried horseback safaris, camel treks, and more camping safaris, testing the waters. Then, in 1987, I moved over there lock, stock, and all my very American habits. It was originally meant to be for "just one year," but one thing invariably led to another and I stayed for six.

I couldn't count the safaris I have been on. When you live there, 'going on safari' is just what you do for fun or on any weekend. You certainly aren't going to the movies or the Mall. (There were none!) I went on safari with all my visitors from the States and with my son whenever he was there. I have been all over Kenya, many times, and have seen a great deal of the rest of Africa as well: Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zimbabwe, several times, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, and Rwanda. Those last three were tracking the lowland Gorillas. I took one incredible safari up into the NFD (the northern most part of Kenya) for a month with a good friend of mine. (The Quest for Fire video was shot there.) I was as physically miserable as I have ever been. The heat was incredible and the land was so barren it was hard to believe our eyes. But the things and the people that we saw were just amazing. All very primitive. You can not go there anymore, all the "shifta," the bandits, have made it far too dangerous. I'm glad I did it when I did and equally as glad I lived through it!

I was thrilled that they were going to shoot S3 in Africa. Granted, I will watch just about anything shot in Kenya, it's like watching home videos, but Samburu/Shaba are very familiar to me. I knew this would make S3 just that much more interesting and knowing the area would make it easier to spot any strange creatures that might suddenly appear: pigs, alligators, tigers, lemurs, that sort of thing!

I think, in many ways, that Shaba was about the only choice they had. It's a very tough environment, and remote enough to put it at least somewhat out of the way of the press, etc. And yet it is small enough to be able to exert some control. The other game parks are far too overrun with tourists; there would be no secrets from anyone about anything. And you could never cordon off an area as they are doing in Shaba. Shaba is not that highly trafficked, either. Samburu, right next door, has better lodges and campsites, more water, and is scenically much prettier. They could not have gone any further north; it's just too dangerous. Kenya is a huge country and it would be impossible to "fence in " or control the perimeters of any piece of land even with hundreds of guards. A National Reserve is the only place you have even a fighting chance at the barest semblance of security. And "security" is priority #1 for anyone in Kenya whether they are at home or out on safari.

The dangers are definitely real. No one should ever get too casual about this. There are dangerous elements everywhere, be that the weather, the animals, or the shifta.

Tourists who are driven around in their Range Rovers all day, taking close- up photos of those cute, sleepy lions, are very quickly lulled into a false sense of security. It's all too easy to fall into this "I am in Disneyland" mentality. But all you have to do us open that car door and that 'sleepy lion' will be at your throat in a flash. Animals, especially in the Reserves, are used to vehicles. They do not see them as a threat. But being on foot, which our 16 friends will be, is very different altogether. It is an extremely risky business. All too often, people who have been raised there, who know the animals, and understand their behavior, make one false move and then they are history.

I do not know how they are going to keep the animals away from the two tribes' camps. The cats will probably leave the area if their hunting is interfered with. A successful hunt is basic to their survival, after all. But many others will wander in. And you certainly cannot keep out the snakes and the bugs and the lesser beings. Unless they have a human chain, literally, all around the perimeter, the animals are going to show up. And even with such a human chain as a barrier, the animals would win that challenge!

The danger from the 2 -footed variety of animal is never taken lightly in Kenya. The good news is that the sheer number of people, 300 in crew in all those tents and camera people etc all over the place, will create its own kind of security. The bad news is that the smell of money, once again, will be in the air. There will be many "things," cameras, clothes, shoes, any kind of camping gear, cash, watches, anything that isn't nailed down, that will be most tempting. The Americans will never be as cautious and distrustful as they need to be, (we are not raised to look over our shoulders and doubt everyone, every minute, just as matter of course) and a great many things are going to 'go missing.' There will be alot of people hanging around the perimeters of those camps with sticky fingers. That kind of money just creates problems. Attacks on camp sites, couples camping, families etc. without all those temptations, do happen. (And people do get hurt!) This is a distinct possibility.

Shaba is, technically, in the NFD, the Northern Frontier District. The NFD, officially renamed the North Eastern District after Independence, but still called the NFD, is the largest segment of the country. It is the uppermost part, bordered by Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda. It is untamed, unexplored, and for all intents and purposes, uninhabited. Other than the few nomadic tribesmen who spend their lives tending their camels, not many people live in the NFD. Although an extremely hostile environment, it is also wildly beautiful, with the quality of a surreal moonscape. The vegetation, adapted through the ages to exist with minimal water, has taken on strange and magical shapes. And the colors, always filtered through the intense heat and ever- present dust, have a shimmering, almost mystical quality. Everything feels muted. Everything except the heat. It is not remarkable for the thermometer to read one hundred and thirty degrees Fahrenheit.

Isiolo is where the NDF begins. It is a small town with a gated barrier that ispatrolled by armed guards. You are required to register your vehicle at that barrier when you enter the NFD and, again, when you leave it. The tarmac (Kenya style) road that comes up from Nanyuki and Nairobi (about 5 hours away by car,) turns into a deeply rutted dirt track as soon as you pass through the barriers. If it's dry, which is most of the time, driving on it will rattle the fillings out of your teeth and your kidneys into premature failure. During the rains, it just washes out. That road goes on from Isiolo to Wamba and, eventually, on to Lake Turkana and Ethiopia.

To get to Shaba you just drive about an hour and then take a right at the Buffalo Springs sign. Samburu is on the left, Shaba on the right. You can't miss it, there isn't anything else up there. There is nothing in between Isiolo and Wamba but land: vast stretches of dry, sun-baked, dusty, land. What we used to call, with all due affection, MMBA: "Miles and miles of bloody Africa."

There probably was an attack on the Survivor crew on that Isiolo road. It's both common and easy enough. I also think it very well may have been set up to make a point, rather than to rob the people in the truck. (I mean, really, what would a day worker from Isiolo have that anyone would want?) It could have been to either frighten MB and company, trying to impress on him the need to hire more local people as security personnel. Or it might have had something to do with the Isiolo Council's early decisions on S3, if they had angered someone. Which isn't all that hard to do. When that kind of money starts floating around, as it was, and is, over there now, it stirs people up. (I know that I keep saying this, but it's important to understand. The gap between the nomadic tribes people of Kenya, people who live in dung huts looking after their camels in the NFD and the kind of mega wealth CBS is spending is almost unfathomable.)

I would hazard a guess that the newspaper story was squashed because it served no ones purposes. And CBS and the Kenyan papers were happy to comply. Bad press is not what either the government of Kenya nor MB wants right now. A few phone calls to the right people and it was gone. This is not the USA. The press over there is highly controlled and if the powers that be want a story dropped, it will be dropped.

I don’t know what my friends think about all this, I haven’t heard from them lately. They are always out on safari! But I do know that many people living there had never heard of Survivor 1 or 2 before. Ross hadn't! If it isn't on TV in Kenya, which no one watches anyway, and it isn't in the papers (and that was not until very recently) no one would know about it. Kenya is a very isolated and insular place. Not that much information about the outside world filters in. You can live there for years and totally avoid just about anything that does not directly affect your daily life. A kind of reverse snobbism is also in effect. They, not unlike some other European countries, look down on many of the "fads" that we get so crazy about in the US. Like people going all buggy over some TV show!

Life there is far more basic. You worry about the rains failing and losing your whole herd of cattle, and you worry about the power being cut off, with no warning, for days, and you worry about what the government will do next, not that you have much of a say in it. You do not worry about who is going to get voted off next!

I am sure, by now, that many people have heard about S3 coming, although it still sounds, in the Nairobi press, like they are making a movie. The people directly affected by the filming, people in the adjacent areas, will get this news on the bush telegraph, But other news will only reach people who read, and out of those, only the ones who read newspapers. And that is a tiny percentage of the population.

Provided that nothing catastrophic occurs, I think this will have a positive effect, which is down in the past few years. After the bombing of the American Embassy, the press on Kenya has not been favorable. But the sheer number of people who watch Survivor Africa will put it back on the tourism map. Hopefully it will be seen in a good light.

But then again, this show is not about making Kenya look like paradise. The show that is aired will undoubtedly be slanted more towards portraying all the hardships the contestants are living through, rather than focusing on how nice it is to go on safari in Kenya. MB's job is to make good TV, not to sell Kenya to the traveling public. But I hope it helps. I love Kenya and it is very beautiful and more people should go and see it.

I have heard that MB and Co. do a pretty good job of putting everything back where they found it. As long at they don't cut down alot of trees and no people are displaced, it should be OK. The animals will come back as soon as it is safe for them to do so. Africa has been there for eons before Survivor 3 and it will be there long afterwards. A season when the rains completely fail would wreak more havoc on the eco-systems than this show, there for only 4 months, ever could.

You bet I do. I can't wait! I am just hoping to catch some shenanigans!! I would also love to hear someone say "Oh, I saw that on a web page before I left the States" as they make a fire the way Lambat did. That would really delight me. But it will be great fun going "Nyah nyah, that's wrong. There are no Wildebeests in Shaba."