The Festival of Wildlife 2005 will be held in the Galapagos, 2-10 April. Click here for more information.

The first Festival of Wildlife was held in April 2004 at the beautiful Governors' Camp in Kenya's Masai Mara, home of the BBC's Big Cat Diary. It was such an immense success that it has now become an annual event!

We were joined by a wonderful selection of experts including:

Jonathan Scott	Big Cat Diary presenter, BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1987 & author
David Shepherd OBE	Wildlife Artist & Conservationist
Angela Scott	BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2002 & author
Mark Carwardine	Zoologist, author, BBC Radio 4 presenter & photographer
Professor John Parkinson	Astronomer
Jonathan Truss	Wildlife Artist
Lyn Hughes	Editor of Wanderlust Magazine
Derek Solomon	Naturalist Guide

There were talks, presentations, masterclasses, and workshops from our renowned wildlife experts during the course of the event.

The Festival got off to a flying start with an inspiring lecture by Jonathan and Angela Scott, the true specialists in the field of photography and filming in this awe-inspiring region of Africa. Their subsequent slide shows on the Masai Mara, Antarctica and on the fabulous Big Cat Diary were extremely popular.

What an honour and a pleasure it was to watch David Shepherd OBE painting an original in oil and to listen to his tales of life as an artist and conservationist! A further great thrill was to listen to David talk of his love of 'jumbos', made all the more poignant by a family of elephants crossing the river to the lawns in front of camp.

Well done to Wildlife Artist Jonathan Truss, who beat David Shepherd to the post with a beautiful interpretation of the family of elephants visiting camp. His wonderful sense of humour and enormous enthusiasm brought much delight to the Festival, and his 'Bush Art Classes' were the talk of the town.

For those with digital cameras, Nina Bailey and Ian McNeill were on hand to give advice to ensure that everyone came home with plenty of prize-winning images. Together with Angie Scott, their talk about digital photography was useful, informative and most interesting.

Professor John Parkinson could not have been more enthusiastic about his given subject. After dinner talks about the solar system were fascinating and left us craving a greater understanding of the vast African skies above.

Derek Solomon's safaris were certainly something special! After "plugging in" we were able to pick up all sorts of bird calls, and Derek, one of Africa's experts, identified the calls and explained what was going on. Perhaps the most fascinating thing of all was Derek playing the sounds of lions roaring and watching the different reactions that the males made compared to the females; how suddenly a lazing group of lions sprung into action to defend their territory against the imaginary intruders. If nothing else it was great for photography, to watch the behaviour of the males as they joined one another and rubbed cheeks to reinforce their bond.

Last, but by no means least, Lyn Hughes, the Editor of Wanderlust Magazine was great fun and everyone thoroughly enjoyed her company on the various drives and events. Look out for her article about the Festival to be published in Wanderlust magazine later in the year.

The balloon safari was a particular highlight for many, gliding silently over the lush grasslands under the guidance of Michel, our French pilot who expertly popped open the champagne over a fabulous cooked breakfast served on a low table set amongst the long grasses of the Mara.

The 'rescue safari' provided much amusement as two of our game drives were unable to return to camp due to a flash flood at the Talek River. Having gone in pursuit of the female cheetah that stars in Big Cat Diary, the intrepid group crossed the river minutes before the rains in the north brought a torrent of water down the sand river making a return journey impossible until the water subsided hours, if not days, later! The Swahili phrase 'Hakuna Matata' translates as 'No problem' and in typical African style a light aircraft flying into the Mara from Mombasa was diverted and kindly picked up David Shepherd and our guests and flew them back to the Governor's airstrip in time for lunch!

Extensions: A few clients took the opportunity to extend the Festival of Wildlife experience with one of the three extensions on offer; the national parks of Samburu, the Aberdares and Lake Nakuru as part of the "Kenyan Highlights" option, Amboseli NP and Tsavo West NP on the "Southern Kenya Safari" or Kigali and Parc National des Volcans in Rwanda on the "Gorilla safari".

Wildlife: Despite being out of peak migration season, the plains and marshes surrounding Governor's Camp teemed with game including lion, elephant, cheetah, buffalo, topi, giraffe, jackal, Grants gazelle, Thompson's gazelle, hyena, hippos hartebeest, bat-eared foxes, warthogs, crocodile, not to mention the numerous species of birds. For many the icing on the cake of course was seeing a leopard (one person saw two)!

Reunion: After such a wonderful trip together in the Mara, David Shepherd and his wife, Avril very kindly offered to host a reunion at their home. Saturday 31st July was a beautiful summer's day - everyone enjoyed a lovely lunch under the shelter of the trees in the garden, an opportunity to catch up with their new-found friends and to swap photographs and share their memories, followed by a wonderful tour of David's private collection.

Charity: Aside from the laughter, and wonderful wildlife sightings, its very important to remember that we were also trying to raise money for charity. We are absolutely delighted to report that we raised a staggering £15,500 for charity through the donations made from each booking, the auction and the raffle. Thank you for helping us to raise these much needed funds. For every passenger that attended the Festival, we were able to send out books to the schools we support in Nairobi and the Masai area. Thank you also to those of you that kindly took out pens, pencils and other items of stationary to donate to the children in Masai villages - these little gifts are always hugely appreciated and make a big difference.

As well as all of this, clients were able to see where the BBC's Big Cat Diary is filmed and enjoy walking safaris, bush breakfasts, ballooning safaris, live music and of course, fabulous game-viewing.

May we offer a big thank you to all those who contributed to and attended the 1st Annual Festival of Wildlife, making it such a huge success. We have received so many wonderful thank you emails, letters and phone calls - it has been fantastic to hear about the Festival of Wildlife from each of your different perspectives. With so many different activities on offer and game drives happening at any one time, I don't think any two people shared the same experience!

Click here to read more about this event on the Wanderlust site.

Click here if you would like to read some of the letter sent in by those whom attended.

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