2 28 WE ARE OK….NO TSUNAMI PROBLEMS

That is no problems we know of.  We are on the other side of Africa right now.  The earthquake was on the west side of South America.  Right near where we were.  We are concerned about the people we met on Robinson Crusoe Island.  The tsunami wave hit them right after the earthquake.  They had no warning.  We met some neat people there.  Remember the man with the house made out of old bottles?  Look back at the  1 23 posting.

It is scary to think what would have happened to us on the ship if we were there now.  It is also very sad.  We get some CNN international news when the satellite is available. 

Let us all pray for the people affected.  Right now the wave has not hit Hawaii yet.  So we hope everyone can get to safety.

2 25 THE REST OF THE STUFF

This is the vehicles we traveled around the reserve in.  It holds 10 passengers and the driver.  The driver has to yell to be heard in the back.  He did a pretty good job of it.  He also kept in touch with other drivers.  They shared animal locations.  We were lucky to find most of the good ones first.  The other vehicles arrived as we were leaving.

Each outing had some sort of snack stop.  This one included wine and mixed drinks.  Not bad for roughing it.

A wildebeest.

The one tortoise we saw.

 

Don’t they have beautiful tails?  Just like horses.  But they are black wildebeests. No, they are not really black.  Why?  I do not know why since they are brown.

Not the only vervet monkey we saw, but the only one we got any reasonable pictures of.  They move really fast and are not comfortable with us, like the larger animals are.  This one was the guard monkey.  He sat in the tree looking for trouble.

 

This is a blesbok. You can tell by the blaze on his face;) 

Above are more black wildebeests.

We saw many many impalas.  They are lovely to see.  It is sad to know the reason we saw lots of them, is they are there to feed the lions.  The rangers do not feed the lions.  The lions have to catch the impalas, or whatever else they eat.

      The different types of boks where often seen together.  In this herd, zebras grazed along with the others.

 

Africa gave us a fond farewell with a beautiful sunset and the next day, a rainbow.

 

The weather we had on the safari trip was wonderful for the locals.  We had some rain everyday.  We were told that the area has had a severe draught until a couple of days prior to our arrival.  So we were not upset about the little rain we encountered.  Actually, until the last afternoon, the rain was mild and cooling.  The second afternoon, though, it rained hard enough for us to have to wear ponchos and we had to cut the last trip short.

All in all, it was great.

2 25 ZEBRAS

Not sure what to say about Zebras.  I do not know for sure, but one of the other travelers said he was told, if you shave a zebra, their skin is black.  If that is true, a zebra is actually black with black and tan stripes.  Who would have guessed.

 

2 25 GIRAFFES

We had seen giraffes in the distance yesterday.  They were too far away for us to get to then.  We also saw a giraffe on the way to the reserve.  But when we finally got to get close to them, it was amazing.  First we spotted one, but Graham knew there were more.  So we cut across the field (no roads or paths were necessary) right up to them.

 

I love looking at them.  Both the males and females have the horns on top.  On the males, though, the horns do not have hair.  They had hair, but they got rubbed off when they fought other males.

           

We couldn’t get a picture of any 2 of them with their necks twisted around.  I guess you only get that in a  Disney movie. ;)

2 25 ELEPHANTS

We got to see many elephants really close up.

The matriarch of these elephants thought we were too close to the babies.  So she let us know.

At about this point we were all yelling “Graham, don’t you think we should get out of her way?”

He kept saying, “No, it’s alright.  She’s OK.”

Right about here, he backed us up.  She followed a little, then she backed off.  I know, I was uncomfortable.

She let us follow after the herd as long as we didn’t get too close.  And after that encounter, we didn’t get too close.

Here 2 babies, yes the larger one is still a baby, are playing.  It was so cute.  I wish I could figure out how to post movies.  The only way I have found would take us 2 days and lots of air time, which is very expensive.  If anyone knows how to post directly, without going through a website, please let me know.  Thanks.

    

We followed them to the water hole.  Boy, did they have fun.

    

I told you they were babies.

2 24 RHINOS AND WARTHOGS AND SKULLS

 Here come the rhinos.  Mom and daughter.

Even rhino babies need to eat.  Notice that the baby has a horn.  (see above picture)  So she must be poking her mom.

 

We did see several skulls.  Here are some.

  

 

Warthogs….and warthogs ….and warthogs.

Here are some of the warthog pictures.  There are way too many warthogs to take pictures of and too many pictures to post.  I said no more warthog pictures and did eventually stop taking them. 
They are all over.  No wonder the lions eat them.

See the babies on the left.

Notice that this warthog is on his (or her) knees.  They do this to eat.  They even walk like this as they eat.  The babies, who don’t need to bend down like this, also eat on their knees.