Kichwa Tembo in the Mara

Over the weekend we had the chance to fly a group of missionary supporters down to the Masai Mara which is a game park here in Kenya. Probably one of the best game parks in Kenya from what we hear. Angie, Micah, and I left Nairobi on Saturday morning and flew up to Lodwar which is a town toward the north of Kenya and picked up 7 people who were there for a week spending time with a missionary that their church supports. Then we flew down to the game park for the

m to finish off their Kenya or Africa experience.

We were picked up at the airport by Sophie who ended up being our park guide for the next two days. You can see her in the land cruiser along with a few others stopped where we were watching a rhino. You can also see the tent where we stayed. It has three beds in it and a bathroom in the back with a flush toilet. Can you imagine. And to top it off they put hot water bottles in your bed sheets later in the evening to keep you warm at night. The altitude is up around 5,200 feet so it gets a little cool at night.

What we saw over the next couple of days was amazing. Here is a lizard that was peeking up over a cement bunker on a bridge. Lots of color and pretty cool.

We saw these two giraffe fighting each other. They would push on each other with their bodies and then whip their necks together so hard you could hear them smack. Then they decided to stop and pose for us for a while. It was pretty funny to watch.


Micah was able to catch this cheetah facing off with some cape buffalo. Angie and I weren't there, but he said that for a while it looked like the cheetah was ready to pounce on them.

We came up to this elephant and were admiring it's size and how close we could get to it. Then just a little after I took this picture it decided we were a little too close and made some disturbing noises and started charging us waving it's ears all around. Sophie, our guide, gunned the vehicle and we took off with the elephant running behind us at least for a little bit. The guys in the back got pretty excited about that.

We had to get some birds into this blog just for Dan and Joyce. (the birders of the family) These are crowned cranes which is actually the national bird of Uganda. They are really cool looking birds!

We got a kick out of these Topi. They sleep with their noses on the ground to keep a certain kind of fly from climbing up their nose while they are sleeping. I guess if the fly climbs up their nose it drives them crazy and they run around going nuts with the fly up in their sinuses.

Then of course there were lots of Lions. When we first got there we came upon this pride of 4 females and 5 cubs who had just brought down a cape buffalo that morning. They were busy starting to eat it when we got there. The females who had brought the buffalo down were still almost too tired from bringing it down to start eating. We were atble to watch them eating on the buffalo for the next couple of days. The next day the buffalo's were chasing the lion's around which was interesting to watch as well. Apparently the buffalo's can trample the cubs so the females would hide the cubs in the grass while one of them would keep the buffalo's at bay. Then that afternoon we found them close by laying in the grass sleeping on each other.

Beyond the pictures you see here we also saw hyena's, bushbucks, monkeys, baboons, vultures, lots of other birds, crocks, hippo's, jackals, and so many other animals. It was a nice break from the city of Nairobi for a couple of days.