Like I said yesterday–there are just soooo many different types of animals in Africa. Of course usually the baby animals are just cute. Here are more “baby pictures”. There are so many types of antelope in Africa (see here). The baby topi antelope below (second picture down) was just born a couple hours before we saw it. The baby warthogs can run like lightning. They were so funny–we really got a kick out of them.
Since Lynn has superior writing skills, he was assigned to write the blogs from our recent trip to Africa. However, when it comes to baby anything, I am queen of the house, so I decided that instead of waiting for him to write about all the baby animals we saw I would take a stab at it.
As we drove around the Masai Mara (a totally spectacular and surreal thing to do) there were so many types of animals it was hard to keep track of them all. Our driver and guide, Reuben, told us to tell him to stop if we saw something we wanted to take pictures of. I finally told him just to stop automatically if he saw ANY baby animals. I just love babies of all kinds! So here are a few pictures and I’ll post most tomorrow. We’ll start with the cheetahs. They don’t mind the cars at all so we were able to drive right up to them and park and watch them. This mother started out with 6 cubs and hyenas had recently killed 2 and I’m not sure what happened to the other one but she was down to 3. She was extremely patient especially since there is no dad to help watch and feed them.
Next up were the lion cubs. When we happened upon this lot the cubs were being playful with their mom. One decided to sneak up on dad and swat him. After a growl back from dad he decided to go back to tormenting his mom and sibling.
They sort of reminded me of a couple of “cubs” from Ammon, Idaho who like to wrestle with each other…..
All of our lives we’ve lived in a world that spares us from the brutality/reality of nature and the subsistence that all creatures have to find. I remember the first time I had to explain to Brian what “beef” was and where it came from. Well, about 10 minutes on one of the photo-safari’s that Sandy/I went on would have answered most questions about the food chain with a vivid show-and-tell right there in front of him.
We went to different parks: The Tsavo (stayed at Kilaguni-Serena lodge) and the Masai-Mara (stayed at the Intrepids Mara tents/village). A following blog will talk about these and the accomodations. But for now, I thought I’d share some of the pictures/stories of meals in the savannah.
Probably two of the more graphic encounters were with a pride of lions and a “sib” (sibling group) of cheetahs. And of course, the photographers had to eat!
“King of the Jungle” We think that this refers to the fact that Kings get to eat whatever they want. (”Eat like a King“) The male actually has a great life. The female kills the food, takes it to him, bears/raises/protects the cubs. As far as we could see, the male has only a couple of jobs. Tough life.
We encountered several prides. Our excellent guide knew where to find them, though sometimes we used the giraffe as radar towers to help point them out. The giraffes, with their amazing eyesight and vantage point seem to pay attention and all look at them in unison, pointing the way.
The slide show below shows the story of one of our encounters. After we got an idea of where to go by watching giraffes looking at something, we found a Pride of about 13 (all females and cubs) heading towards a kill. We arrived at the scene to discover that lunch’s menu consisted of fresh zebra. We probably missed the “take down” by only a couple of minutes and had seen the herd of zebra leaving the lunchroom on the way there. It looked like the younger cubs were given first priority. Of course no adult males were there, they were asleep somewhere waiting for take-out to be delivered.
News of the kill spreads fast. Scavengers like hyaenas and vultures show up right away. They keep their distance and only get chased if the lions get too annoyed. The other really interesting part of this meal was that the lions all wanted water after eating. Luckily there was a river very close. Unluckily, the only navigable path was being used as a suntanning beach for several 3000+ lb. crocodiles. Most of the lions retreated in despair. One tried to move a croc by slapping it with its paw. Did as much good as slapping a bull would do. Even King (or Queen) of jungle has some limitations.
We happened upon a well-known band of 3 cheetah brothers (called a “sib”) just after they had cooperated to kill a wildebeest. It looked impressive because the wildebeest was much larger than all three brothers combined, but we discovered that wildebeest are the brainless carnivore-fodder of the grassland. Cheetahs can take smaller prey alone, but very often work together to get larger animals. They only eat fresh meat, which means they have to kill twice a day. Mothers hide their cubs, go out and find something, and bring it back to them.
To get more good pictures, we skipped the gourmet breakfast and took along a box-lunch. Our Masai guide & driver, Rueben, found an excellent lookout bluff with a tremendous view and we had a great brunch.
Brunch was great, temperature perfect, we were calm and relaxed and enjoyed our food. BUT on the way down, just below the crest we saw that a couple of male lions were napping in the brush. If we’d known, we probably would have done drive-thru. Just reminded us: everything that eats can be eaten.
I’ll first start by apologizing to both of our readers for posting so slowly. The delay in posting has little to do with our enthusiasm for the trip and much to do with jet-lag, and catch-up.
Sandy/I returned from Kenya a few days ago. We went to go visit Elder/Sister Luke, serving on a “Public Affairs” Mission in Nairobi. While there we took the opportunity to see some of the Church, the Country, and the People of Kenya. The trip was different than either of us expected and quite memorable. Because it was so different and interesting, we’ll post several entries over the next day or two.
It would have been nice to have been able to post that the trip over/back was uneventful. Sadly, it was full of events we’d like to not remember. Our layover in France (CDG) was only 20 minutes. We barely made the flight (no thanks to Air France or any of the French equivalent of TSA agents), but our luggage did not. In fact we didn’t see our belonging for 4 days and had to go back to the airport 3 times. Similarly on the way home, we had a horrible experience at the CDG airport and our luggage was once again lost for days. The newest tips in our “travel pointers” are:
Never use Air France
Never go thru CDG
Always get a file locator # on lost luggage BEFORE leaving an airport (don’t believe the airline representatives)
Always pack your carry-on as if it’s the only luggage you’ll have for the next 4 days.
Hand-carry digital film home with you.
In the next few posts we’ll show some of the dramatic scenery and wildlife of Kenya. Truly amazing. However, this first set of pictures is a simple collection of some of the differences of life of the people in Kenya. We saw so many things which can’t be found in the U.S. We always felt welcomed, at home, and safe while in Kenya. Much of the time we felt humbled and grateful for all that we have been given. Life is certainly different than what we know at home.
For the bored reader, all of the pictures are available on the photo web page here.
We actually have an excuse for being sparse in posting — at the end of next week, we will have racked up 6 trips to UT in 5 weeks:
3 BYU board meetings (ACET, Alumni, PLC)
1 Wedding (Paige/Nathan)
1 Sealing (Paul/Renee)
1 Korean Missionary Reunion
This past weekend was trip # 5 of 6 and was for my initial meetings with BYU’s Alumni Board. About 3 months ago, the Dean of the College of Engineering called and asked if I’d be the representative for the college. I agreed, but really had no idea of what this was all about or that it was a 4-year assignment! The board make-up is quite the accomplished group (see here). Not sure what I’ll be able to contribute, but we’ll see. We needed more reasons to drive to UT.
Interspersed between the meetings was tons of food, and fascinating speakers. We got to hear the head of the Church’s “hosting committee,” Elder Ben Banks, and meet many of the honored Alumni of the year.
Neither Sandy nor I could remember ever attending any of the Homecoming festivities as students — probably because we were too poor to afford tickets, didn’t care because we were already on-campus, or thought they were for old people. All of those excuses are now gone — we were visiting, we could afford tickets now, and we are actually old. The “Spectacular” was great on Friday evening. Hard to beat the “BYU Men’s Chorus.” Saturday morning we got to be on the Alumni float:
It really wasn’t much of a parade, just around campus. But we did get to march behind the “Miss Santaquin” float and, more importantly throw out “Y” taffy!
Sandy ran along the edges, being the champion of little children who were less competitive and Grandmas. “Old Women like candy too” as her Mom told her, Sandy made sure Grandma’s along the route were well supplied.
While we normally wouldn’t comment on the drive home, which has long-ago become quite routine, this one warranted a picture because of the record-setting weather. We left early, right after the parade, hoping to “stay ahead of the weather.”
Looks like we just made it, because the ISP closed the road between Snowville and Burley right after we made it through. Sandy snapped a couple of pictures along the way. We had never seen a freeway totally stopped, being used as a parking lot, both lanes full for more than 10 miles. Glad we weren’t heading that way! It stayed closed for almost 24 hours.
We have been reminded several times that our blog is woefully out of date. We have had a lot of activity this summer, and done reasonably well on the picture-documentation of it, but have had little prose. Sorry.
Sandy/I decided to leave the day after Labor Day (less crowds) and go on a road trip. Road trips are great. XMRadio is as important as gasoline. As time goes on, you pretty much see everything within an ever-widening “driveable” radius from you home. This trip was to pick up a couple of places that neither of us had been to — Sun River, and Crater Lake, OR. Our itinerary was pretty simple:
Sun River (resort area 15 miles south of Bend)
Crater Lake (2 hours SW)
Coos Bay
Cannon Beach (2 nights)
Along the way we saw the wide diversity of environment thru OR — high desert sagebrush, to lush old redwood forests. It was great. Until the trip home thru Portland, there wasn’t really a highway involved. We saw almost all of the OR coastline, waterfalls, lighthouses, massive tree farms and onion fields, even whales along the way. Eating is one of our key activities and we did it well: crab sandwiches, Cindy’s breakfast hash, selections from two different “Mo’s,” and the ever-popular Tillamook Cheese varieties.
It was terrifically relaxing, even with the long drives. We are likely to change our travel agendas to include “massages” from now on. I think our definition of “roughing it” has now been changed to include: “trips with no massage therapists available.”
Wonderful trip. 1500 miles! The full picture set is available at the pix site here.
I think we officially have a new family policy—all grandbabies will have their 1st birthday at the cabin! Kim, Cole and Alexis came to town for a quick visit just after the 4th. We were able to take a quick trip to the cabin and happened to be there for Alexis’ first birthday. We opened presents, ate birthday cupcakes and went to Gold Fork Hot Springs. She had a great time (at least it seemed like she did) and she’s doing new things everyday. She likes to growl, or roar, like a lion. She drinks out of a cup really well. She imitates sounds the adults make. She’s very cute and very easy going. Here are some pictures for those of you who missed out on the fun.
I need to put several blog entries in, but I’ll consolidate and make one big one. (I will do a Girl’s Camp entry when I get the pictures though. That’s one you won’t want to miss!)
Nick, Steph, Brennan and Brayden came to visit last week. The twins and Doug were having birthdays and Nick had to travel, so they came and he flew out of Boise. Before he left we took a couple of days to go to the cabin (thank you Bob and Barbara!) and had a great time. Shauna and Steve came up one day to join us and the weather was perfect. Not too hot and not too cold! There were virtually no boats on the water so the peace and quiet was amazing! The boys actually enjoyed playing in the water even though it wasn’t bath temperature.
We also went to Goldfork Hot Springs for the first time. It was GREAT!! They have nice developed pools with varying degrees of warmth. The drive wasn’t far from the cabin at all and WELL worth it. It was beautiful. I don’t think I’ll pass up an opportunity to go again! And surprise—we have pictures of that event!
Back at home we had a birthday party for Brennan and Brayden. They actually got cake which Brennan loved but Brayden didn’t really care for. It seems that Brayden got Steph’s lack of sweet tooth. They both loved opening their presents. They got play cell phones so they can call Grandma anytime they want, a little band including drums so they can drive their parents crazy, and some books and stuff. In some ways it’s hard to imagine these little guys are one and in other ways it seems like they’ve been part of the family forever!
Doug’s birthday came next. He worked hard all day on his birthday and we didn’t make him strip to eat his cake (pie). But we love him just as much and are proud of all he is doing.
Before Nick and Steph left we took a few family pictures. It was amazing to me how that birthday turned them from babies to little boys. What a cute family!
I’m really not old enough for this, but my youngest has graduated from High School! OK, maybe I am old enough, but I’m not sure where the time went. On June 3, 2008 Doug graduated from Centennial High School. He won’t even be 18 until later this month! He’s planning on going to BSU in the fall, to study horticulture. He loves doing landscaping and he’s been a natural at it since he could walk.
Graduation went well and when it was over we came outside to pouring rain. About the time that Lynn got back to us with the car (he sacrificed himself so we could stay mostly dry) the rain slowed down and a gorgeous double rainbow came out. Maybe that signals the new beginning for Doug!
So, after my big birthday last year, I sort of wanted to just forget about my birthday this year, and probably for the rest of my life! My family won’t ever let me do that though, and everyone was very good to me again this year.
I had to post a couple of pictures to show the bouquets I got. The flowers were from my very sweet husband and the calorie laden one was from my very thoughtful children! I also had lots of other gifts and cards from friends that I totally love and appreciate. THANKS ONE AND ALL! Now, next year let’s forget all about it!!
