Pictures from Safari

Picture #1:  We had just returned from dinner after a day in the car traveling around the park and looking at animals when these two warthogs walked up.  We watched them from our porch for over an hour before they left to find other food.  They are great at mowing the lawn.  They walk on their front legs bent on their knee so they can almost crawl and eat grass and a decent pace.  We were all amazed they were this comfortable with us after seeing them on safari and having them run off as soon as we pulled up in the car.

Picture #2: This is a close-up of the warthog at our doorstep.  Literally the kids were just feet away from them.  Joshua ran after one to pet him and Uncle PK went out and grabbed him a foot away from the hog!  Thank God for Uncles!

Picture #3: This is a herd of elephants that we saw on the shore of Lake George in the evening getting cool.  We saw many elephants on safari and literally you would b driving on a game trail and an elephant would step out and start eating tree leaves!  This herd was rather large and just getting water in the afternoon heat before heading back out to the Savannah.  I have video of a couple of the teenage elephants having a pushing match with their tusks to prove who is boss.  How are we different from elephants again?

Picture #4:  This is a herd of Cape Buffalo getting cooled off in the water.  They are extremely dangerous animals who will charge you if you get close.  We were approximately 100 feet from this herd on a boat, so you can see the "stink eye" you can see we are getting from the lead men in the herd that put themselves at the head of danger from the crocodile for the sake of the herd.  Don't you love chivalry?

Picture #5:  The nile croc, need I say more.  This is the world's largest croc!  They grow to almost twenty feet long and can easily take down one of the Cape Buffalo or most any other animal that gets close to the shore of the Nile.  This one is close to the source of the Nile and is much smaller than it's relatives that grow larger down stream.  At the head of the Nile they eat mostly fish and grow bigger and stronger as they go down stream.  This croc is approximately 12 feet and is cooling himself by keeping his mouth open.  It is awesome to see only a few feet away.  It is better than a defibrillator!

Picture #6:  The hippo!  This animal is responsible for more human deaths in Africa than any other animal!  It is an amazing creature!  Every night the hippo leaves the water to go eat grass, and will travel 45 kilometers and then return to the water in the late morning/early evening to cool off from the heat.  If you are unfortunate enough to get in between the water and a hippo, or a baby hippo and a mother hippo, you are in trouble!  They can run faster than people can and the strength of their jaws is enough to snap a person in two!  They are incredibly humbly beasts, and a reminder that our God has a sense of humor!  How can an animal that funny looking, that fat and that weird, be so fast, agile and aggressive?  What an animal!

Picture #7:  This is obviously a picture of our five kids.  It is taken in one of the last sets of elephant tusks that were legally allowed to be taken from an elephant.  It is sad that the elephant was killed for these tusks, but terrific that people, though as sinful as we may be, can look past profits to see that is better to keep the elephant alive and save a future one from being killed for the sake of his tusks!  They make more money on tourism to see the live elephant, than from the hunters who come to kill them, or the black-market value for ivory from the tusk.  Praise God!!!

Picture #8:  This is a picture of the patriarch Baboon from a herd of the that we stumbled upon.  He was in the road blocking his extended family from danger as his lineage ate leaves in the tree and went on with life.  Incredibly intelligent animals and extremely fierce, you simply look into their eyes and know there is something more going on inside them.  I have plenty of video of their behavior which is intimidating and incredible at the same time if that makes sense.  I promise more when we get home, thank you for all your prayers and thoughts.

R & H + 5