Friday, March 25, 2011

Perty!

Sunrise....










... to Sunset!

Our Camp!

We had a beautiful stay at Sekenani Camp while on Safari! The service was amazing! The food was better! We highly recommend it!






The Big Five!

The "big 5" is a phrase often used in these parts. The phrase was actually coined by game hunters to refer to the five animals that were most difficult to hunt on foot as they are so ferocious when cornered or attacked. And we got to see all 5 of them!!!


The Cape Buffalo!


The Elephant!


Momma and baby!


The Rhino! We didn't know how much a treat it was to see this black Rhino, but they are apparently very hard to come by!


The Leopard!



And... the Lion which we got to see many of! It is not uncommon to do game drives all day for 3 days without seeing a lion... and we saw 29!!!




He was just yawning, although if you want to say that he was roaring, you are welcome to. I might say so as well... just for kicks! :O)

On Safari!

We had an AMAZING 2 day Safari! Our guide and driver were so shocked at how many animals we got to see!

A turtle walking along the road. :O)


Baboons!


Monkeys! Aapje!


Hyenas!


Warthogs (Pumba!!!)!


Cheetah! Gorgeous!


And my (Steven's) favorite... the Hippo! They are so fat!!! It is crazy!!! Yet, they can run super fast, swim super fast, and they kill more people every year than any other animal in Africa! Crazy! So, we admired from a distance.

Funny thing about this hippo is that I asked if we could go see a hippo and our guide said it would be too far away for that night and that we'd have to go the next day. So, I was a little sad, but I didn't cry or anything... because I'm a man. :O) Well, what do you know if 3 minutes later around the bend, we saw this hippo... away from water and alone just for us to take photos of!

Deer looking thingies!

There are so many different species of deer looking thingies here! We got to see quite a few!

This little guy is a springbok which is often called a gazelle by silly foreigners (like me). :O) It was fun to catch him in frame with a Wildabeast in the background.


This guy is REALLY little... he only stands about 18 inches tall and that's being generous. He's called a Dik-dik. Hims is just a little feller!


Now we're getting to the big(ger) boys. This Impala's antlers are probably 2 feet tall each! Small bodied, but beautiful!


This Topi is about the size of a mule deer and is apparently one of the favorite snacks of the cheetah... we almost saw a cheetah hunt one of the smaller Topis! If only!!!


Our guide said this is an Eland. They are really big... similar in size to a small elk.

On our way to Safari!!!

We, and when I say we, I mean I (Steven) saw many of these critters on our way to Masai Mara National Reserve for our Safari. The reason only I saw them was because Bekah was asleep the whole drive... as usual. :O)


As we got closer though, we felt more and more like we were in Africa... when we had to stop because a herd of Wildabeasts were crossing the road. Don't worry, I woke up Bekah for this.



Everything started to pick up quickly after that. Zebras and Rebekah's favorite... the Giraffe!





And all of that was before we even arrived at...


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Hakuna Matata! It means no worries!



Steven looked up online that there was a Masai Market on Tuesdays so, after checking in to our hotel, we went. We were greeted with handshakes and quickly had 5 tour guides to take us through the market. Their catch phrase of the day was "hakuna matata" for sure! :O)

Pictures were free, so we snapped this one with a few of our entourage.



We put many items in our "maybe" bag until we dwindled it down to the final picks and then bartered from the original quote of over $400 (pi-shaw!) down to a drastically lower price that was somewhat reasonable... we think. :O)

To speed up the bargaining process, I (Bekah) pretended to be sick. Riverside Children's Theater pays off!

Here is the crown jewel of the collection of items we purchased.


It's an animal party! :O)


Monday, March 21, 2011

Africa!!!



Thank you Kenya Airways plane for getting us here safely on our 10 hour flight from Thailand.


We barely got out of the airport when we saw all of these elephants! They were so nice and stood perfectly still for us to take this photo! :O)

Last Massage... in Thailand :O(

We had to sneak one last Thai massage in before leaving. We went to our favorite massage place... Massage Garden. Gold! A little on the expensive side, but the ambiance is worth it. 6 dollars for an hour!

We will miss them! :O(

Good bye Thailand...