We Dined with Elephants!

FRIDAY, SEPT. 24, 2010

OMG, PERFECT DAY IN EVERY WAY!! I can't attach photos now, however. No wi-fi for IPad, and the computer at our Samburu Camp has about 1mg of storage left. We flew from Nairobi on Friday, Sept 24th to Samburu (Survivor did a series in Samburu). The flight was a 10-passenger plane that rocked and bounced the entire way--Bonine to the rescue!! We dropped off other plane passengers at different camps before reaching our camp by plane. We would land on a dirt "air strip," drop off passengers, and take off again. Our jeep was waiting for us on the air strip and drove us 25 miles on a major road--think of driving 25 miles on a road with rumble strips, two-foot bumps, and two-foot holes, with lots of rocks thrown in for good measure.

Larsen's Camp is BEAUTIFUL! We're living in a tent for two days, but it has wood floors, and real bathrooms!! It's right beside the river. We ate lunch lunch at the river, and suddenly four elephants appeared on the other side of the river. They came to get a drink!! It was AMAZING!! We have already been on three safaris, and we've seen LIONS (Simba is Swahili for lion--who knew?) We've also seen zebras, giraffes, crocs, "dikdiks" (which look like teeny tiny baby deer), and even rabbits and donkeys!! Who knew that donkeys and rabbits lived in the African "bush?" It's so cool to "find" the animals when you're driving around the bush. We even saw the remains (bones) of a zebra and baby elephant that had been killed and eaten by lions. We're living INSIDE THE MOVIE "The Lion King!" "Chui" (pronounced "chewy") means leopard in Swahili.

People here are required to take English through the 8th grade, and then most of them revert back to Swahili, but most everyone speaks English pretty well.