Indescribable

(Written Saturday afternoon:)
Our safari experience so far has been incredible. I wish everyone had an opportunity to see God's amazing creation here. It's surreal; David and I continually look at each other and just shake our heads. I'm not sure how many times we've told the children, "What you are experiencing is an opportunity of a lifetime; something some people only dream of." And we have only been on 2 of the 4 game drives included in our stay.

There are so many posts I could do from the past 30 hours (the 4-hour road trip across the Rift Valley from Kijabe to Masai Mara; our hotel and Kenyan hospitality; the visit to a Masai Village), but I will start with the most amazing one and the one that many of the kids' friends have been waiting for: Safari Animals!

We've all seen the incredible pictures taken, but it is hard to imagine seeing those scenes personally (especially from a few yards away). 440 pictures - that's how many we've taken on our "big"camera during the 1st two game drives! Obviously I'll only be able to share a sampling.

You've heard of the Big Five (elephant, rhino, leopard, cape buffalo, lion) - so far we've seen 4 and John has been guaranteed that he'll see the 5th this afternoon. It is rare to see all 5 during a short safari stay because the leopard is very elusive, but we were fortunate to catch a view of one on the drive back to our "camp" last night (you'll understand why camp gets "these" after we do the hotel post later!)

Enough chit-chat, let's see some pictures!

SAFARI PICS - PART I

One of my favorite of the kids' quotes, "I can tell it's an African elephant because of the ears;
Ms. Tiffany taught us that."

Tembo is swahili for elephant

The Masai Mara is an extension of the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania

Cape Buffalo (nyati)



Wildebeest Migration
There are millions of these in the Masai Mara right now

You can't see it very well in the picture, but we watched this lioness crouch and start after a pair of Wildebeests.
She gave a very half-hearted attempt though and quickly gave up.





Here she is resting after her 30 yard dash



Not sure what yawn is in swahili



Simba!
It was amazing watching this beautiful creature walk across the plain (and right past our cruiser) Saturday morning.



David snapped this great shot

Lion cub hiding in the brush. We had to crop in on the computer to get a closer shot. They were very hard to see; we never would have noticed them if our guide had not showed us.



Our most requested animal picture by friends at home:
twiga



There will be many more things to share from our wonderful weekend and hopefully those posts will come sooner than later. We are safely back in Kijabe. Thank you for your prayers for safe travel.


Abby does want to let all of their friends know the kids "absolutely, positively miss all of them."