Safari!

By Tina

So after the work of teaching, it was time for a bit of Rest and Relaxation. Some have you have seen the pictures posted on Facebook, but if you didn't take the Facebook class (just kidding, we didn't offer one) you haven't seen them, so here are a few of my favorite pictures.

We flew out and landed on the dirt runway about 5 minutes from the resort we were staying at.



Name of the Lodge--

Each of these little huts was a room.

We went on a short drive just after getting there, and another drive before supper. (Below is a picture of the other van taking a picture of a Thompson Gazelle)

Cape Horn Buffalo

Male Impala

Mother Zebra and Baby (we saw lots of babies)

We went on one night drive as storms were coming in--the clouds were so impressive!

Acacia Tree

A Topy ("Another Deer like creature")

Friday morning we went out on a super long drive (5 hours). We got to see elephants, hippos and lions up close.

...and a giraffe from a distance.

Both nights we got rain--which really was a blessing, the area is suffering from a severe drought. But this made driving around on the dirt roads tricky. We got stuck once on Friday and then had even more problems with our early morning Saturday drive. Both vans got stuck.

The guys had to get out and help push.

We were finally free and most thought we weren't even going to go out. But our drivers had other ideas and kept going. We got to see more lions and our first close up of a giraffe.

The lions had just finished eating and were rather sleepy.

We saw these two looking up but they had laid down by the time we got closer. Someone said "You should throw a rock at them" and our driver actually handed Ed a rock. He didn't throw it out the window, no, he opened up the door, got out and then threw it! (The driver told him to not do that again).

...but it did work, and we got the picture we wanted! :)

This guy walked right next to us, and had 4 members of his family hidden in the trees.

It was an amazing time. We all loved seeing more of God's creation up close. We enjoyed the bonding time of being in the vans together--there was lots of laughing during those times. By Saturday though, we were ready to be done and head home. We did all enjoy Saturday night at the Carnivore with our host families, and one more day with them on Sunday. But we were (almost) all happy to be heading home.