Another early morning safari ride. The highlight this morning was a couple of lionesses sunning themselves on a rock – very picturesque. I think Moriah and I have combined to take over 2,000 pictures on the safari rides alone! They have been an amazing experience – I made sure to spend time enjoying the beauty of our creative God, and not be too focussed on getting so many pictures (believe it or not!).

After filling ourselves up at the breakfast buffet, we finished packing and left for the five hour ride back to the ANU campus. We stopped to take a few pictures of zebra (they stayed out of the Mara because the grass was too high, making them easier targets for the lions).

Shortly after we arrived on campus we heard Josh’s Land Cruiser pull up, and then Gabe’s voice as he ran over to greet us. He gave Moriah and I hugs and then began to pester Peter and Bob. Josh shook my hand and gave me a hug. We all thanked him for setting up such an amazing experience for us on the safari, and the entire trip, for that matter.

We took some time to freshen up before one last dinner at the cafeteria and then we left for the airport and our long trip back home.

On to the last set of pictures from our safari…

The fire is stoked in this hot air balloon out on Safari in the early morning, with a full moon setting in the background

Sunrise on the Mara

Jackal in the grass

Lioness warming herself on a rock

A couple of lionesses warm themselves in the early morning sun

Lioness portrait

View of the safari lodge from the road

Hyena

Moriah with the Maasai warrior who greeted us at the safari lodge

Wildebeast just outside the game park.

Small herd of zebra outside the Maasai Mara

Hope you have enjoyed these!

–Mark

These Vervet Monkeys were all over the place at the safari lodge, much to the disdain of the management, I’m sure! But we had fun watching them and taking some pictures.

Enjoy!

The chase is on! (The lodge swimming pool is on the other side of the wall)

Hanging out

Carrying her little one

Heading off

In the acacia tree

Monkey Family

Young monkey up a tree

Pastor Tim shooting monkeys (with his camera, of course)

They let us get pretty close

Hiding under mom

What are you looking at!?!

Scratching an itch

Cute little monkey

Coming down from the Acacia tree

–Mark

After a short nap we headed back out for another afternoon game ride. The objective this ride was to see some live Water Buffalo and complete the Big 5 (Lions, Elephants, Water Buffalo, Leopard and Rhino).

There were a lot of Elephant out and about, and we found some by a watering hole with several giraffe, including a baby. We drove around so that we were between them and the sun and got some very good footage and photos.

Then we caught a line on some water buffalo, and headed out to find them. And find them we did (of course when I say “we” I really mean our driver, David). There were about half a dozen grazing near some bushes. It seems they always turn their backsides toward us. But we drove around and found a better angle for some photos and video.

That finished our big five, so we went looking for Cheetah. On the way we found a couple of male lions asleep near a tree. Probably the same one we saw eating the water buffalo last night.

A short time later we found two cheetah lying in the shade. One was bit more skittish than the other anad kept getting up and moving around, which made for some nice photo opportunities. Unfortunately there was another safari van right behind them when the best photo op came up. I may be able to do some creative editing to make it a better shot.

After that we wandered around the bush a bit and found some more elephants. I tried getting some more artistic shots of them this time, silhouetted along with a nearby tree.

And now, the pictures…

Note the baby elephant nursing in the background

Love this one Moriah took – you can see the red dirt in his trunk as well as on his ear and back. These little guys almost always flared their ears in an attempt to look bigger when we got too close…

Portrait of a Maasai Giraffe

Giraffe Family Portrait

Getting a drink

This Maasai spear was stuck in the ground at this watering hole…

Water Buffalo!

Topi

The elephants head to higher ground for the evening after a day of foraging

A couple of Cheetah lounging in the grass

This was the skittish one of the Cheetah pair

Cheetah – great shot by Moriah

My “great shot” – well it would have been great if not for the safari van in the background…

Looks like his hackles are up

Love the light on this one from Moriah as the sun begins to set.

This one too – nursing calf with mother elephant

Approaching sunset on the Mara (I think I already posted this one, but it was the best of my “artistic” tries, so you get to see it again)

Next up – monkeys!

–Mark

From my journal for the second safari day:

Up early for an early morning safari ride. Saw about 14 lionesses/cubs, several hartbeast and Topi, and finally a rhino! We had to go offroad to get a good picture, and then it disappeared into the bush. We saw some hyena cross the road in front of us to begin the trip.

Some elephant, ostrich and a giraffe rounded out the ride.

Enjoy some photos that we took below.

We left for our second safari ride just before sunrise

Hartbeast watching for predators

A van with members of our group, coincidentally, also watching for predators…

Male Ostrich

Ostrich close up

Ostrich pair

Lioness on the move

Lions always seem to attract the safari vans

Look closely to see the cub peeking out from under mom

And off they go…

I had one of these in high school – got about 9 mpg so I sold it. Mine was made by Chevy, though…

Two pairs of Grey Crowned Cranes

An elusive Black Rhino

Mokeys roaming the grounds of the lodge

–Mark

Here are some excerpts from my (Mark’s) journal about our first safari day.

Early breakfast this morning—at 6am—so we could leave early for the safari lodge. Our vans arrived a few minutes after 6:30 and we loaded up for a 5 and a half hour drive to the Maasai Mara. We made a couple rest/curio stops and saw a lot of Kenya as we drove. There were a lot of Maasai, and they became less and less westernized the closer we got to the Mara. We also saw a Giraffe and zeveral herds of zebra on our way down.

The ride was pretty smooth—especially compared to all the bus rides we’d been taking the last two weeks. The last 45 minutes or so were on dirt roads and quite bumpy, however.

When we arrived they had towels for us to wash our faces, and glasses of pineapple juice to drink. We got our room assignments and went to our rooms—very nice! The area is beautiful, with amenities of a 4 star hotel in the states. And some things you won’t find in the states—like a lookout area for watching the 24 hippos that stay in the “pond” and monkeys that visit in the afternoon.

We had a late lunch—about 2pm—and then a 4pm safari ride. The ride was amazing. It was surreal to see so many elephants with their babies, and two adolescent male lions eating a water buffalo. Near the end of the ride we saw a leopard. This is a fairly rare sighting, evidently. That was 3.5 of the “big 5”—the water buffalo didn’t really count because it was being eaten…

Checked out the hippo observation deck after arriving back, and then dinner. After dinner a group of Maasai men dressed in traditional garb came through the dining room sing/chant/grunting, and then did some traditional dances, including the jumping. The higher you jump, the more girlfriends you get, and thus more wives (at 15 cows per).

Enjoy the pics (again, from both Moriah and me)!

Classic Elephant Pose

Baby elephant with more in the background

The young elephants always flapped their ears at us to make them look bigger

Munching on a water buffalo

Yummy!

Yes—that appears to be the stomach he’s chewing on

Pulling at the sinews

Weaver bird at his/her (?) nest

Quite possibly the lioness who took down the water buffalo

Meeting of the lion’s club—all those vans are surrounding the lions you saw in the above pics!

Elusive Leopard

Heading to the hippo pond

Photographing some hippos

Yawning hippo

More to come!

–Mark

Here are some teaser photos from our safari. These are all landscapes, but if you look closely you can see some animals in a few of them.

We took over 2,000 pictures in our two days on the Maasai Mara, so paring them down is taking some time. I hope to get some more posted over the next few days.

So, on to the pictures…

We took 4 drives into the park – one the afternoon we arrived, the morning and afternoon the next day, and then the morning we left. These are presented in chronological order over the two days we were on safari. Hope you enjoy them.

Crepuscular rays over the Mara

Classic Acacia tree

Moonrise over the hippo pond

African Sunrise

A lone tree (by Moriah)

The same tree (by Mark)

Approaching sunset on the Mara

Sunrise on the Mara

These were some of my favorites, and were taken by both of us, although I only noted that on the two images of the same tree that we took. Moriah is turning into quite the photographer! The only way I can tell which images she took is by looking at the file name, since our cameras use different naming conventions.

More to come…

–Mark

It feels so good to be home with my family. When Joshua (my two year old brother) saw me coming down the escilator to the bagage clam where they were waiting he said, “I lost you!” and burst into tears. I was so very glad to see him and the rest of my family that had come to meet us at the airport. It had been such a safe but long, long trip back.

It has also been good to see friends, lots of them telling me they have been reading my blog and that they have enjoyed hearing about the trip while it was happening. Well I thank you all for the encouragement and comments. It was good to hear from you evan in Africa.

I really want to post pictures but I am not able since all the pictures are on the laptop that is at work with my dad. I also have not been able to look through the 2,000 or more pictures that we took on the Safari.

Will try to post more ASAP
Moriah

We are finally back in Tucson. It was an amazing trip, and we will have more posts up with pictures from the safari and our last days in Kenya. But now we need to sleep!

Thanks again for all your prayers!

Mark and Moriah

I need to get packed for the safari – we leave early tomorrow – so I’ll just share this short anecdote that happened today, our last on the job site. We are supposed to have wi-fi at the lodge, but if not, this could be the last post for a few days.

I knew I’d be emotional at the end of the day, so I kept working. Throughout the day a few of the Kenyan workers came up to me and told me that they wished I/we were staying and that we didn’t have to leave but at the end of the day Francis finally pulled me away from the window and said something in Swahili. Then he said, “It feels bad in my heart that you are leaving.” I managed to tell him my heart felt the same way without breaking down. I am so thankful that he, and many others, are Christians and that we’ll be seeing them again in Heaven if not here on earth. Though I pray that we do see them here in Africa again.

I leave a part of my heart in Africa each time I leave. But that makes room for me to take a part of Africa – the people mostly – with me in my heart.

I know I’ve said it before, but it’s still true (He doesn’t change, after all): God is good!

–Mark

WOW has the time here gone by. But now I am feeling more and more home sick and I am trying not to think too much of home or I will not enjoy my last bits of time here. I am excited about the Safari. The place we are staying sounds really, like Really fancy. I am sure I will have fun it is just the six hour, yes SIX hour drive to the destination.

Well the last week and few days I have been sewing window drapes. Pinning mostly but also some sewing on the machines or by hand. It has been fun. I have enjoyed the time I have had with the other sewing ladies. I have learned a lot. I thank God sooo much for getting this uniqe team together, we now feel like family and we are in the same family of God.

Moriah with the sewing ladies, holding the drapes they have sewn

Well I think that is all for now I will try to post at least one more time before the Safari.

Thanks for the Prayers, Support and Encouragement.

God Bless,
Moriah