10:34 PM Safari Club
What an amazing afternoon! We split into 2 groups for the afternoon "game drive." There were 5 of us and a guide from the Masai tribe that is in this area. We were in a land rover type vehicle with a top that raised up about 2 feet so that you could stand and look out. We saw so many wonderful things including zebra, giraffes, wildebeests, antelopes, elephants (including a baby), dik-diks (the smallest type of antelope), lions, an impala, and several unique birds. It was so amazing having a 360 degree view of all the animals and God's beautiful creation. We really have a wonderful and creative God who has blessed us so much! I had a blast this afternoon!
We came back to the safari club for about an hour. I went back to the hippo tent where I saw some hippos (a mom and a baby got out of the water and then ran and jumped back in) and monkeys across the river.
We boarded the jeeps again. The 5 of us will stay with our driver Robert all weekend. It was dark and he turned his lights off the road a bit to show us the hippos that come out at night to feed. Then we stopped at a location with a big bonfire. We all sat around the fire and one of the staff told us to take a moment of silence before he told us a story. As we all waited quietly, about 10 men dressed in their Masai Warrior outfits came running out suddenly. They then sang/chanted and danced for us. Part of the dancing was 1 or 2 of them coming out and jumping vertically 2-3 feet in the air repetitively in one spot. They then took the hands of the ladies (and Danny because there weren't enough females in the group) and danced us around the fire. They put necklaces on us that jingles as we danced. We were all laughing very hard because we couldn't understand what they were saying and it almost looked like some sort of a marriage ceremony!
After the dancers left, we were told stories of how to prevent/handle attacks from different wild animals. We then enjoyed a wonderful buffet including an eggplant salad, a cold noodle salad, leg of lamb, grilled pork and shrimp, zucchini soup and some very tasty desserts including a brownie like dessert with a macadamia nut crust. The stars tonight were the best and most I've ever seen.
We're back at the safari camp and I'm in my big comfy bed with mosquito nets. I can hear hippos splash and groan in the water nearby. There were hot water bottles in the beds down at our feet to get the sheets warm.
Here are a few tidbits I remember from today:
- Lions hunt 2 hours, eat 2 hours, and sleep the rest of the day (something that seems to have been picked up by house cats too!)
- Elephants are the reverse--sleep 2 and eat/graze the rest of the day.
- All zebras have different striping like fingerprints. This is something I'd heard before but seems much more stunning when there are so many!
- Baby elephants don't eat grass until they are 3 years old
- It was either a wildebeest or an antelope, but one of those babies can run as fast at their mommas when they are only 6 minutes old
- Lions don't usually go for elephants, however they will sometimes urinate on a baby elephant. Then when the mother smells the lion, she will kill her baby and then the lions come back for it.
- Dik-diks mate for life and when one dies the other will then starve.
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