Wow did we have an adventure on safari. We were gone 3 days and 2 nights and saw just about all the important animals. Elephants, Gnus, giraffes, zebra, Thompson gazelle, Grant gazelle, cheetah, lions, leopard, wart hogs, flamingo, storks, hyenas, baboons, monkeys, hippos and rhinos. The first night we saw a group of 5-6 female lions resting in the tall grass on the right side of the road. One picked up her head, sniffed the air and walked across in front of the car (they are not afraid of the cars but run away if you get out of the car, pretty smart) The other lions followed. Seems the first female had smelled a gazelle so the lions surrounded the gazelle and went in for the kill but the gazelle was too healthy and fast and got away. The male lions hide and only come out after a kill has been made kinda like you can get the guys off the couch long enough to fill a plate on Super Bowl Sunday, after you have been slaving over a hot stove all day. Interesting fact: Male lions are the leader of the pride and may have several females often if there are 2 leaders they are brothers. About every 3 years the leader of the pride changes and when a new male takes over he kills all the baby lions from the previous leader. This sounds cruel but it is natures way of making sure the strongest survive.
One day as we were stopped at a picnic table for lunch we saw some elephants close by plus there was a path that lead to a rock where there is a great look out. Mark went to get a picture of the elephant on the way up to the look out. Mark did not see that there was an elephant near the path (how could you miss those huge things? But he did) I drew his attention to the one near the path, Mark was walking in front of me and the elephant saw Mark and was VERY upset, flapped his ears and trumpeted and took a few warning steps towards him. Mark went on up the path, I went back down and hid behind a rock. (Brave person that I am.) Now the elephant is on the path just behind Mark and Mark can’t get back down to me without passing the elephant again. Finally the elephant moved off the path and Mark decided it was safe to come down but the elephant still felt threatened and charged Mark a second time, Mark ran past the elephant and for good measure the elephant charged him a third time just to make sure Mark was going away. This was no baby elephant either it was a bull elephant with a female and a baby. So that explained some of the bull elephant’s behavior. At the picnic area there was a small shop to buy pop and books and souvenirs they called the park rangers but the elephants had moved on before the rangers got there. Every one was safe and we continued on the safari. After the last day we went to a beach hotel on lake Victoria It was so nice to fall asleep with the sounds of waves. But unfortunately they did not have hot water and I also had to wake up to the sound of someone digging out side my bedroom. The whole trip was soooo nice I wish that everyone could have this experience. If you have ever thought of coming to Africa and going on safari I would hope that you would take the time and money to do it. Mark got some wonderful pictures which he will post some time soon. We have not had Internet for several days because someone cut and stole the Internet line in this for this area of town. It is supposed to be fixed on Monday so I hope to send this soon.
TIA Pam
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