This twelve year odyssey is a collection of my personal experiences and reflections: volunteer work at the Kenya Museum Society, memorable safaris and travels in eleven African countries. I came face to face with trumpeting elephants, was stalked by a pride of lions and a huge baboon hopped into a car beside me. I traveled from the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic and to the Mediterranean by truck, canoe, raft, camels, mules and sometimes on foot. Each journey enfolded me into the culture and life of the people. My years in Africa encapsulated my dreams of wildlife, fossils, and ancient civilizations where humankind began and took their first steps to inhabit the earth.