Vivienne De Watteville (1900–1957)

Vivienne De Watteville describes her second journey to Kenya, her first being a collecting expedition with her father for the Bern museum that ended with her father's death. In this journey, Vivienne is determined to ignore the accepted manner of nature study in the 1920's, that is, shooting everything one can in order to obtain specimens to study. She travels with a few hired helpers and a camera, staying first in the arid lowlands and then for six months on the slopes of Mt. Kenya. Her descriptions are vivid and her personal manner charming. She's clearly brave but not macho or self obsessed. Still reads like great travel writing 90 years later when many much later travel books have become dated. A personal favorite I have read several times, it always makes me want to go out exploring.… (more)