Safari!

The weekend before last, Shona and I went to Ruaha National Park--we spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning driving around, seeing tons of animals.  If anyone had asked me last month if I would go on a safari while I was here, I think I would have said, "Oh, probably not."  The thought just didn't occur to me.  (Maybe if friends come to visit...!)  But now that I'm here, it's amazingly easy.  The park is only three hours away.  So it was the perfect weekend break.

Naturally, I took plenty of pictures.  I finally had to stop not long before we left because my camera's (recently charged) battery ran out!  Here are some favorites.  The gifaffes weren't shy at all; they'd stand right by the road looking back at us.

I like the impalas.  They're beautiful, graceful, and their ears are cute. :)

One hippo obligingly walked around out of the water so we get good pictures.

We went with a driver from the camp who knows the park well.  He knew where to look to find all the different animals.  The only time I was nervous was when he drove us right up to this group of lions.  I had been standing up through the top of the Land Rover, but I sank farther down the closer we came.  The lions had just eaten their kill, so I guess he knew they wouldn't be interested in us!

On the other hand, I was surprised by how much distance he kept between us and the elephants.  I discovered why when we passed the group.  Our driver gradually eased us down the road, and as we passed, the big bull elephant thought better of letting us go by.  He trumpeted and started coming for us!  Thankfully, too late.

This guy came to scavenge our apple cores.

It's a beautiful park.  I am fascinated by these huge baobob trees.

All in all, it was a wonderful getaway.  We got to stay at a really nice place inside the park... the kind that gives you more than one fork at your place setting, even at breakfast.  We returned to camp refreshed and ready for more language study.