Family holiday to Tanzania and Kenya

In 1990 we formed a company in Kenya to enable us to employ Kenyan staff and to move much of our operations to Africa. We built a workshop in Nairobi and trained local staff to build and maintain our vehicles, and at the same time took on Kenyan and other African nationals to lead our tours. Over the years we have brought a number of these staff to UK for training. We have introduced health and medical cover to our Nairobi staff. By 2000 had succeeded in completely handing over the company to Kenyan staff.

We have always felt that Africans are better placed to show you Africa than we are! It has also been our policy to employ local guides where appropriate, and to purchase food in local markets (except in cases of shortages) so that money is well distributed in the regions we visit. Our policy for camp cooking is to use gas in conservation areas, and to buy woodfuel from plantations if we require firewood.

We have been involved in the Kilimanjaro Village Education Project for some years, and this year are aiming to raise £35,000 to build a computer centre so that locals can aspire to real jobs and not just portering.

On this trip you stay next to a settlement where a local tribesmen will talk to us about his tribe and their fascinating culture. In the evening there will be a dance by some of the younger warriors and the chance to learn more about their rituals.

We have become one of the first tour operators to have their UK offices 'climate balanced' with an independent audit carried out by C-Level (www.clevel.co.uk). We are taking steps to reduce waste and power in the office, and are compensating for the CO2 we do produce by planting trees in their Uganda forests.

We are already planting one tree per pax trip week for all vehicle based tours in Africa, are offering clients the chance to compensate for their flights by linking them to our calculator. This will indicate the carbon footprint of their flight and the cost of compensating through tree planting.