(Kenya)

(Kenya)

(Akagera National Park, Rwanda)

(Akagera National Park, Rwanda)

Man. Tree. Leopard. Giraffe. Lion.

 A typical day in the Mara, our island's plains.  

(Maasai Mara, Kenya)

Hip Hippos

 One fine day in Akagera National Park, Rwanda. 

Elephant and tree

Play Time

Seems like a lot of our friends are having babies these days (congrats you guys!)...After much thought and consideration on the matter, we've decided we want to have a baby...elephant.  And a cheetah cub.   See you at play time.                       

                                                                                                             (Maasai Mara, Kenya)

Lion eyes

These two guys were pretty hungry.  As they slowly approached us on the road and eyed us up, we tried to not move and look as skinny and unappealing as possible.  Must have worked, since they continued on their way.  But when this guy looked at me, he seemed to look deep into me.
                                                                                                 (Samburu National Park, Kenya)

"Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle:
when the sun comes up, you had better be running."
                                                      -unknown

 

Happy Belated Earth Day

Then again, every day is earth day.  

Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths, lightning and hail, snow and clouds, stormy winds that do his bidding, you mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars, wild animals and all cattle, small creatures and flying birds. (Psalm 148:7-10)

Elephant Traffic Jam

 Here on the island we like to pride ourselves in rather empty, peaceful roads.  Most people walk or bike of course, and the few cars we have are classy antiques and rugged jeeps.  But every once in a while we have island traffic jams...      (all photos from Akagera National Park, Rwanda)

[EDITOR'S NOTE:  We're now back in the land of elephants, so please come visit us to experience these traffic jams yourself!]

Yep, this is going to be a long wait.    [30 minutes later]  Think we can slip by?  Yep, let's try driving really really slow.  Very very sneaky.  shhhhhh.....

OH NO!!!!   Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.  Yep, check.  (I think he had a stop sign but you never want to make assumptions about these things.)

 Ok, time to put the pedal to the metal.  Hang on!

 Phew, made it through.  Typical island driver ahead of us led the way.  That kid sure knew how to get through traffic.

 Aww, see, they're cute.  What's the big deal?

 WHOA.  Would not have wanted a collision with that little guy's papa.  Our jeep was approximately as high as this guy's eye.

 I can still feel the ground shaking.   

Ok, looks like traffic is slowly starting to clear.  Gotta love island rush hour.  And elephants.