How the Walleighs Found Purpose & Adventure

Rick & Wendy overlooking Lewa Downs' savannah

Boomers Rick and Wendy Walleighs’ book details their inspiring move to Swaziland and then Nairobi, Kenya for a total of 18 months. These are documented on this website and in their book titled From Silicon Valley to Swaziland: How One Couple Found Purpose & Adventure in an Encore Career. It is available on Amazon, all online book retailers, and some Bay Area bookstores. Go to Media Coverage to see all the media featuring the Walleigh’ adventures.

ALL ROYALTIES ARE DONATED TO TECHNOSERVE, the international development organization for which the Walleighs worked, to continue its “Business Solutions to Poverty” in Africa and Latin America, so please buy this book for friends and family!

Meanwhile, enjoy the photos and descriptions of our many travels to nearly 60 countries on six continents.

Uganda: Typical Animals and Birds

Between working on TechnoServe Uganda projects, Rick and Wendy visited two national parks--Murchison Falls and Queen Elizabeth National Parks--and the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and Wild Chimp Forest. Landscapes of both parks, the Ngamba Chimp Sanctuary, and trekking...

U.S. Snow Country–Winter 2013

National Elk Refuge in Jackson, WY. In January 2013, Rick and Wendy flew to Jackson, WY to spend a week with their son Adrian and his girlfriend Kallie. While there, Wendy and Kallie visited the National Elk Refuge via sleigh. It is truly amazing how: large the elk...

Namibia: Hunting & Trapping with !San Bushmen

Over the course of their 4 days at Nhoma Camp, Wendy, Rick and Carolyn accompanied the !San hunters as they tracked Steenbok (small antelope), rabbits and African Porcupine. In a clear division of labor, !San women gathered nuts and berries in parallel with men going...

Botswana: Birds Galore

Maybe the U.S. has as many different varieties of birds as Africa does but the ones typically in urban, suburban and even typical rural areas don’t seem nearly as colorful and diverse as the birds in Africa. Botswana alone has over 600 species. Below is just some of...

Rural Kenya Starts on Edges of Cities

Though the Walleighs spent lots of time working and living in Nairobi in 2007, during their many visits to Kenya, starting in 1997 and into 2012, they passed through many rural areas of the country. It fascinated them how rural zones merge with the edges of most...

Namibia: Etosha National Park & Desert Elephants in Doro !Nawas Conservancy

Etosha is Namibia's Largest National Park. From the Tsumkwe airstrip Rick, Wendy and Carolyn flew to the eastern entrance of Etosha National Park where they were met by Rosta who would be their guide and driver for the remainder of their trip. Because it was the...

2007 Walleigh Travel Journal: Living & Working in Nairobi + Traveling Eastern Africa

Dec. 3, 2007 - Still in Emotional & Physical Transit through December 5th Though we landed in California late on Nov. 18th and spent the night at 1050 Fremont, we left again 36 hours later on Nov. 20th morning. We had been warned of culture shock when re-entering...

Kenya Successes: Canan Garden “Upscales” Its Honey Products

A pharmacist and his wife successfully ran Neema Pharmacy and Chemists in Embu, a large central Kenyan city surrounded by farms. The wife had grown up in a nearby farming village and saw how difficult some of her neighbors’ lives were, particularly grandparents...

Kenya’s Blue-Tongued Giraffes, Adopted Elephants and Tsavo Park’s Man-Eating Lions

Langata Giraffe Sanctuary: Even without U.S. visitors coming to Nairobi, Wendy and Rick wanted to visit the famous Langata Giraffe Sanctuary on the outskirts of Nairobi near the town of Karen (named after Karen Blixen of Out of Africa Fame). It was founded in the...

Stormy Swaziland

Throughout our six months in Swaziland, many storms passed through. Strong gale force winds hit central Swaziland on the night of August 2, 2006. The damage was many fallen trees and power and water outages for several days in many places nearby. A tree fell...

Victoria on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

by Wendy | Nov 20, 2017 | Canada

Our four days in Victoria, the capital of Vancouver Island AND British Columbia (BC) gave us a feel for the history—human, geological, and cultural—of the southwestern-most province of Canada. Upon our arrival into Victoria, we checked into the historic Empress Hotel....

Backpacking in Sierra

by Wendy | Nov 20, 2017 | United States

After a two-night trip in the Santa Cruz Mountains earlier this summer, in August, Rick and two friends went backpacking into the Sierras’ Desolation Wilderness for a few days. The lakes were still partially frozen and the trail was still covered quite a bit in snow....

Hiking with Friends to Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp, Yosemite

by Wendy | Nov 2, 2014 | United States

After many years of attempts by Rick’s backpacking buddy and his wife to persuade her to backpack, Wendy finally agreed to a compromise: hiking to one of Yosemite’s High Sierra camps where breakfast and dinner were included in the price and box lunches were available....

Across NY through Hudson Valley–Breathtaking Colors Everywhere

by Wendy | Jan 15, 2014 | United States

The Walleighs’ 2013 road trip was with good friends with whom they had traveled in New Zealand. In late September after traversing Quebec Province (go to Quebec or Montreal, etc. for details on the Canada portion of this trip), they crossed the border into New York...

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“If you are nearing the end of your business career and wondering what’s next, you’ll find Rick and Wendy’s experience both illuminating and inspiring.”

Debra Dunn

Consulting Associate Professor & Former Senior Vice President, Stanford University, Hewlett Packard

“Rick and Wendy Walleigh are my down-to-earth heroes. At the end of Phase 1 of very successful careers–still healthy enough to spend their retirement days skiing, golfing, lunching, traveling in style–they chose instead to take their energy and considerable skills and apply them in some of the poorest communities in the world.

Bruce McNamer

President & CEO of The Community Foundation for the Nation's Capital Region (Washington DC) & former CEO of TechnoServe

“For those seeking an encore to their professional lives, Rick Walleigh’s account of the adventure he and his wife, Wendy, began is as energizing as it is useful. This remarkable book summarizes the factors they considered before volunteering in Africa to foster economic growth through small business development. More importantly, it records their experience with cultural change, new applications for honed skills, the nature of contemporary economic development work in the face of poverty, and the sights, smells, surprises and encounters found in living and working overseas. This is not a “how-to” book for those of us wanting renewal; it is an “I did this and so can you” story that is unique, thought-provoking and encouraging.”

Ron Boring

Former Executive Vice President, Vodafone-Japan