An Earthwatch Love Story
Earthwatch expeditions are a great way to meet like-minded companions. Want proof? Just check out this story from married couple Ken and Margaret Mallory who first met on an expedition in 1974!
Ken and Margaret Mallory on their Earthwatch Expedition, 1974
It’s obvious that Ken and Margaret Mallory have great chemistry. The couple, now married 33 years, owe their meeting to Earthwatch expedition Pokot: Kenya in 1974, where they joined anthropologist Dr. Jean Brown to research one of Kenya’s indigenous tribes, the Pokot.
As coincidence would have it, Ken and Margaret were both living in Cambridge, MA in 1974 and were on the hunt for adventure and new experiences. They each found their way to Earthwatch. Through a mutual friend, Ken heard about a woman from Cambridge who had also signed up for the same expedition! He and Margaret met up before the expedition eager to discuss their adventure and decided to leave a week early to travel through Africa together. After landing in Nairobi, Ken and Margaret took an overnight train to Mombasa.
“I’ll never forget…you go to sleep in the dark on this strange train and then you wake up in the morning with the sunlight coming in and this red, red earth all around you,” said Ken.
When they joined the Earthwatch expedition group, they spent the next three weeks getting to know each other while collecting data about the language and the cultural traditions of the Pokot tribe.
“I felt pretty good about Ken,” Margaret said, “and I kept thinking, ‘man, this can’t be true!’ because he’s just too easy to be with and too much fun.”
By the time Ken and Margaret returned to America, not only had they made some lifelong friends amongst the other volunteers, but they had also found a real partner in each other. They moved in together right away, and in 1979 they married.
Ken and Margaret’s story, though special, is not uncommon within the Earthwatch community.
“More than half of the people on our trip were single people looking for companions,” said Margaret, “…it’s had a really lasting influence on us.”
Now decades later, what started as a mutual lust for adventure has turned into a lifelong love story.
“We’re still traveling and still wanting to go to bizarre and exotic places – we still have a romantic view of exploring the world,” Margaret said.
Inspired? Take a look at our Expedition pages and begin planning your own wanderlust today!
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