Taking Pictures of Animals

For example:
As you see, this is a giraffe eating leaves from a tree. This is exactly what giraffes are supposed to do. And while in africa, the exact thing humans are to supposed do is go on a safari and take pictures of giraffes, as well as elephants, hippopotamuses, and other such creatures of great stature. So I did like all good mzongu white tourists and got myself driven out to the bush in a land rover. It was the best mini safari ever for someone like me who has no real wildlife agenda. Daniela simply asked Mr. Wa if we could combine a short local safari with a visit to the Baraka school, which is already basically in the bush. So we pitched in money for the diesel juice and headed out yesterday afternoon around 4PM. When we pulled up to the school, I asked if the 6 foot high electric fence was to keep the animals out or the students in. Daniela said both of course. Daniela was a bit sad to see the skeletal condition of the school, as she hadn't been back since it closed in 2003. For me it was all wild and new.

We bounced down the road for an hour, passed a couple of 90,000-acre, white owned ranches, and finally entered into the tall grasses and scrubby trees. The first scene encountered was the giraffes grazing alonside their shorter and stockier zebra companions. Then there was a small elephant hiding in the bushes. I snapped the shot below just as it was scurrying off.

Next we saw many gazelles and impalas. There were also baboons, countless dik-diks and several water buffalo hiding in the bushes. Our final and most anticipated destination was the hippo pond where indeed we saw hippos, swimming in the pond. They made funny noises and snorted to express their general displeasure at being photographed. I took a short video which I will try to upload at some later point. The safari was good, and now I can check off that aspect of the obliatory african tourist experience.

I feel blessed to have seen and interacted on a very superficial level with these majestic creatures roaming free in an equally majestic landscape. I also feel blessed that Mr Wa has very good brakes on the land rover because as we were zooming around a dark hairpin turn on the way out, an elephant twice the size of the one in the above picture appeared twenty feet in front of the truck. We all screamed instinctively and the truck skidded to a halt five feet behind the enormous rump of the great beast. This was by far the most exciting vehicular incident of my oddeysey thus far.