Once again, we find ourselves way behind our blogging schedule... and our journaling scheduling for that matter. So, we spent sometime this afternoon journaling and figured we should hit the blog this evening! So, for simplisity's sake, I (Emily) am going to copy, again, from my journal and you can have the real treat of knowing what happens in my head!
6/26, 6:05
Wow, I am totally wiped! I finally got a full night's rest last night, and I am so glad that I did. We were up at 6:30, breakfast at 7:00, in the park by 7:30.
As for the park, I will give the highlights because the 150+ pictures tell the rest! First highlight: we saw a whole field of zebra. Max Jordan would have been in heaven! They were grazing, playing, hanging out, but as long as you could see, zebras papulated the area. With so many of them, I wonderred if there weren't more lions, being that they could be eating very well. We also saw more giraffe, up close and alone, also a whole parliment in the distance. 23 in total.
We also saw elephants! I thought of Clare. At first, we only saw one, an easily distinguishable male. He was at least 10 feet tall! He was blocking the path and wanted to prove his dominance, so he puffed out his giant ears and sared sraight at us. As he walked away, we followed him. He lead us straight to his family. We saw probably 10 elephants. It was fascinating! Some were eating, some were rubbing against a tree, other were just walking about. We also saw hippos in the Mara River. A crocodile was also waiting up the stream for the zebra and wildebeests to start their migration. It has about a week and a half left, then it can feast! The crocodile's name is Solomon and according the Massi Guard, John, he has been around for about 200 years! We had lunch near the river... but not too near the river! After lunch, we saw many more elephants, some cute baboons, more giraffe and zebra!
Then, we stumbled on the most amazing lions! At first, they were speak out, but we waited by a tree and all four of them came together, right near us. There was one within 3 yards of our van! It was completely unreal. I noticed that they were breathing very quickly and later learned that, because they cannot sweat through their fur, they breath their extra warmth out. It keeps them cool!
After the park, we went to the Massi village. Katie and I were paired with the cheif's son. His name is Alex. It was very Interesting! I will let Katie pick up there!!!!
I hope all is well! We will write more. I guess I should add that we are currently ending our second day in Mombasa, an historical coastal port. It has been relaxing and very differernt, but still amazing!
We would love to see 1 or 2 of those 150+ pictures if it's possible. Zuza wants to know how hot is it there and where do you get your drinking water from.
ReplyDeleteZuza! Great questions!
ReplyDeleteWe spent the past few days in Mombasa which is on the coast. Even though it is winter here, Mombasa still reached about 95 degrees during the day. Nairobi is much chillier. In fact, when we got to Nairobi this morning we even felt a bit chilly. In the morning it is about 65 or 70 degrees and the days warm up to be about 85.
We have only been drinking bottled water that we buy. I remember when you shared about your trip to Sudan, you said that everyone had water for other people. Kenya is not as dry as Sudan so, while drinking water is still very important, people do not have it everywhere for everyone. Also, because we are used to drinking pretty clean water, we have been advised to stick with bottled water.
As for the pictures, we have them picked out and ready to go. The internet where we are staying is not agreeing with our computers, so as soon as we get internet that is good enough, we will post the pitures straight away!
Thank you for your comments!