We did the BIG 5 on Safari

Friday, January 23 through the 25th we were on safari. Two nights, three days, three different safari locations. What a welcome break from our exhausting schedule! STEMM people before us have learned of the need for the break and, even so, one should not go to Africa and fail to view God's animal kingdom up close if at all possible.

We learned that people from all over the world come to Africa just for the safari experience, and at least one criteria for success is to get to see (hopefully up close, but not necessarily) the following five animals: elephant, water buffalo, lion, leopard and the black rhino. You can count us in the distinct group of safari participants that DID achieve the BIG 5! The elephant, water buffalo and even the lion are readily viewed most of the time. The two that are often missing from view are the black rhino and more scarcely, the leopard.

Our first day we visited the Tarangire National Park, where we very quickly saw zebras, and excitedly took a whole bunch of pictures. Little did we know that we were to see hundreds, if not thousands of zebras, and even had them blocking our vehicle and surrounding us so that we could almost touch them. Naturally, more and better pictures were the result!

Then, to our suprise we saw a couple giraffe walk across the road in front of us. Seeing them up close in their natural habitat beats a zoo any day. We saw more later but not in large quantities.

Water buffalo were fairly numerous but I don't remember ever getting very close to them.

Other animals, and this list is probably not complete, that we saw were the hyena, wildebeests, a small deer like animal called a "dik-dik", the ibis, hippos, many monkeys and baboons. On a couple occasions we were surrounded by monkeys and baboons and laughed at their antics up close. We also saw many very different and beautiful African birds, some small and some quite large.

We had two very unique experiences with lions. On one occasion we saw a female lion and a couple cubs feeding on a wildebeest that they had killed for food. That was interesting enough, but as we watched, along came a huge male lion, walking casually about 40 feet in front of us, and when directly in front of us, he decided to relieve himself. Our guide said in all his experience as a safari guide, he had never seen that before. The big lion then walked up to the others who were feeding and laid down to rest. It was obvious that he had had his fill earlier and now it was the female and the cubs turn to eat.

The other lion experience was when we saw a female lion stalking prey for a kill. It had seen three zebras, two adults and a young one, who had seperated from a large herd. The lion hunkered down motionless, and at intervals would slowly creep closer to the zebras. Then, in a great burst of speed, it ran toward the zebras, the zebras saw her and started running away. This took place in a very large meadow area, so we saw the entire chase. After chasing for several minutes, the lion gave up and simply stopped running. Knowing they were out of danger, the zebras quickly stopped as well, and to my surprise, immediately started grazing again as if nothing had happened. While that lion didn't succeed on that chase, one can pretty well bet that it would get its dinner before too long.

We also visited the Ngorongoro Conservation area, part of which is a huge sunken crater from a long ago active volcano. It is about 13 miles in diameter and about 4000 meters below the surrounding area. It is in this crater that exists a huge quantity of animals, and it was here that safari viewing was at it's best. The floor of the crater is a huge open meadow with a lake and water holes. It was here that we saw the lion chase the zebras.

While in the crater we saw a black rhino far away, became aware that he was slowly heading our way, so we waited. Sure enough, he eventually got quite close and crossed the road we were on immediately in front of us. All that's left of the big 5 is the leopard.

On out third day we visited the Lake Manyara National Park and it was here that we were surrounded by elephants, from a big bull to a bunch of little ones, all cooling off in a small stream. We counted 27 elephants in this herd.

I frankly cannot remember which of the last two areas we were in where we saw the leopard. Our eagle eye guide spotted him, laying on a branch of a not too nearby tree. I guess they hunt at night and it is not unusual to find them resting during the day in a tree. As hard as I looked, all I could see was a silouette and would never have quessed it was a leopard. However, looking through the binoculars, I could see the beautiful animal, and those with zoom lenses got some good pictures. Score one for the big 5!

I hope others of our group will post their experiences on safari, because there was a lot going on that I have not related.

While we welcomed the break in our busy schedule for a safari, we were also ready to get back in the missionary groove as we had a bridge to build. Missionaries are always building bridges, between different cultures, different beliefs, but we had a REAL bridge to build. Tomorrow I will post a blog about the bridge we built from my perspective.

In God's Love, Doug Wiley