Africa: Day 13

October 2nd was my last day of safari, this was the last day before the epic journey home.  We spent the entire day waiting by the water, hoping that we would see a crossing of wildebeests and zebra.

Our day began with some baby giraffes, this was the smallest giraffe we saw.

Our guide said that it was no older then a few months.  Again, no mother present. Hahahah.

Here is a little family of elephants, these baby elephants are sooooo cute.  It was one of the few times during the trip where I was like, can't we just take him home with us?  

I love how you can see the inside of the little trunk here.  These little elephants don't really know what to do with their trunks so they just swing them around and play with them like they're toys.  

This picture reminds me of jungle book, like he is singing, "Elephants on parade."  

The alligators were everywhere during the crossing, they would watch and wait...hoping to catch something to eat.  I was really fascinated when I learned that the alligators have to eat so infrequently that during the time of the great migration, they continue to kill the wildebeest and zebra for the fun of it.  They kill, just to kill, they can't even eat the carcass. Now the vultures were definitely eating though.

Here are the wildebeest and zebra taking a little drink and thinking about crossing.  They would walk up to the water, then walk away.  Then they would come back, then they would walk to another crossing area.  We would drive there, then the pack would go back to where they were originally.

It was a frustrating day, you would be positive that the animals were just about to cross...and then they just wouldn't...no real reason...maybe just due to a strong breeze.

Here is one of their famous mass exodus.  It was still an amazing day.  I typically find by the end of my trips that I start taking less and less pictures.  This last day was no exception, I took half as many pictures this day, as I did the last day.  

I had an amazing trip, one example would be this day.  We were out in the Massai Mara eating lunch and enjoying a little bit of wine thinking....wow...does life get any better?

October 3rd-4th were travel days.  We left our camp at about 9am on October 3rd, and then arrived home at 9pm on October the 4th.  Including the seven hours we gained by traveling back to the states we traveled about 29 hours.  Wow.  I am happy to be home, and amazed every time I look back at these pictures and remember what I got to see.  Life is good.

Love Always,

Meg

Africa: Day 12

Today we went on a hot air balloon ride.  I was really excited to go on a hot air balloon ride, not once did I think about how I would return to the ground.  Not once.

We began out ascent, and saw an amazing sunrise, and were sooo excited to see the vast countryside.

The ride lasted for 40 minutes.  Then Gunther, our Austrian hot air balloon pilot, told us to assume the landing position, which was a seated position.  A second before we landed Gunther said, "there will be a slight bump, not too bad."  Then it felt as if we were in a car accident, we collided with the earth, and then we bumped into multiple termite mounds before we slid to a stop.  It was a jarring experience.  Amazing, but jarring.

Hugging zebras!!!!

About twenty minutes form our camp, the driver stopped and said..."I see a cat." We spent the next hour staring at a leopard, who was stalking it's prey.  It was the most amazing experience.  People go to Africa and don't even see a leopard, I saw four different leopards, and one was stalking prey.

This was the most amazing trip I have ever been on.  Amazing!!!

Love Always,

Meg

Africa: Day 11

When we were driving to the Samburu camp, we drove through a little town that was crowded with people.  It was too dark to get any pictures, but as we left today I was able to get some pictures.  It was still pretty low light, but at least I was able to document some of the character.

It seemed like every building on this block was a bar, but I was in hysterics when I saw this hotel and butcher shop.  Unfortunately we did not stop and see what the accommodations were like.  :  )

The final place that we visited was the Massai Mara.  This is another tribe of the Massai, they were doing their laundry each day as we drove out to do game drives.

I love this tree, I think the trees that we saw were some of the most beautiful trees ever.

This is a young Zebra, you can tell by it's light brown fur.  I love how these young Zebras look like little fuz balls.

Today was the first day that we saw an active male lion.  He was awake and walking around.

This lion walked right past our van.  It was one of a a hand full of moments where I was really afraid.

I was also lucky enough to catch the lion mid yawn, no he was not roaring, it was a sight to see.

Finally, here is the African moon.

Love Always,

Meg