Chyulu Part II: LOTS of Animals at Kilaguni

On Saturday, while LeRon drove the hour to Makutano and did the several hours of financial training, I stayed at the Lodge and read and napped and watched the animals.  When we were here at Tsavo West Park last December with all the Senior Couples, we saw very few animals.  But this time, in June, we saw hundreds.  I could sit on my balcony and watch 50 zebras and several giraffes as they came to the water hole to drink.  For hours, I soaked in the beauty of the animals and of the vegetation and the lovely red soil.  I never knew before coming on this mission to Africa how interesting it is to see animals in their natural habitat.  There is beauty all over the world and in every country; and LeRon and I have been to 40 countries.  There is not one country we've visited that we haven't loved the landscape and found the people interesting.  God's beautiful world is indeed beautiful.

Mt. Kilimanjaro is hard to see in this picture.  It is across the border in Tanzania and is often shrouded in cloud and mist.  Still, it is exciting to see it from Kilaguni Lodge.  It is the tallest mountain in Africa.

And as you know from past posts, I absolutely love zebras.  I find their stripes fascinating and beautiful.  You'll get tired of seeing them before this post is finished!

More than 10 groups of zebras came down to drink at the water hole.

Interesting to know that the stripes on each zebra are unique.  Hard to believe there are that many patterns.

I love the guinea fowl too.  They are everywhere in this part of Africa.

Along with the zebras, several giraffes came to the water hole for a sip of water.  They are such graceful, elegant creatures.

Two of my favorite animals -- giraffes and zebras.

Interesting to watch as the giraffe stepped apart his gangly legs to reach down for a drink.  

Birds are interesting too.  This is an Egyptian Goose.  Not very lovely, but interesting.

And here we go with more zebra pictures.

I can't get enough of watching zebras.  Their faces actually look a lot like donkeys only cuter.

These zebras look awfully fat.  Love the stripes on the back of the one on the right.

LeRon teases me that I have thousands of zebra pictures and I probably do.

I decide not to take anymore zebra pictures and then I can't help myself . . .

I counted about 50 zebras this morning.

The giraffes took quick drinks and then left the area.  They are always on the watch for predators.

An African Cape Buffalo

Love, love, love the stripes!

In the Nairobi Park and the Hell's Gate Park, we saw lots of buffalo, but here in Tsavo we only saw two.

The brown on these zebras may be reflections of the soil or they may have rolled in the soil.  Lots of zebras have hints of brown naturally.

The green splotches are plants that turned into splotches when I zoomed in.

Many zebras have brown tones.  This little guy was definitely brown and white.  Some people say that they are born this way and then their brown stripes turn black.  I don't know if that is true or not.

Good-bye giraffes.  They are feeding on the acacia trees.

You can see the needles on this acacia tree.  Wouldn't want to run into a tree like that in the dark.  The bird is an African Mourning Dove.

Love the acacia trees and the red soil.

I think this is a Black-headed Heron.

We were so surprised to see our friend from Nairobi, Stella, at Kilaguni.

And I thought I was short.  Stella is a lovely girl.  Beautiful smooth skin!

Stella was at Kilaguni with a family friend who is now an Area Seventy for our church, Elder Miranda.  It was really great to visit with him.  He was called to be an Area Seventy in April of this year.  He has a lovely wife and two sons and he is a great photographer.  Showed me lots of his pictures and gave me hints which I have since forgotten, given my senior brain.

This waterbuck stood and looked in my direction for a very long time.  So regal.

Gazelles and elands grazing near the Lodge.

And now a giraffe has joined the gazelles and elands.

LeRon is back from training in Makutano and we are about to go for a drive in the park.

Love this tree!!

Chyulu Part I: Baobabs are Real

A few weeks ago, we drove on "the highway of death" down to the Chyulu area so that LeRon could do financial training with the Chyulu District clerks and branch presidents.  We stayed at the lovely Kilaguni Lodge in Tsavo West National Park.  While LeRon went to the chapel in Makutano to do the training, I stayed at the Lodge and read and napped and watched the animals.  It was a great relaxing day and I really needed it.

On the way there and back, I snapped a lot of photos of baobab trees.  When we went to Tsavo in December, the baobabs were in full leaf as it was "summer" time.  Now it is "winter", or the dry season, and the leaves are gone so you can really see the shapes of the baobabs.  So glad I got to see the baobabs!  I've tried to pare down the photos but it's hard because I like so many of them.  You can just click really fast through them, I guess.

If you make it past the trees, you will see pictures of the dusty, red road to Makutano that is pretty interesting.  I tried to snap pictures of people too.  Almost all the pictures were taken out the car window as we zoomed by. 

I'm sure you're wondering what this is all about. . . . We were in a line-up of vehicles that went on for miles and miles.  We knew we would be there for an hour, so, being the Kenyan driver that LeRon has become, he followed a bus on a detour which took us for miles on the wrong side of the road and then down onto a very dusty road.  Kind of scary at times.  The photo shows what we were driving through.  Could barely see the bus ahead of us and hoped no one would plough into the back of us.

On the left is the line-up of vehicles on the highway and on the right is the road we were following.

Finally at the end of the dirt road, there were more vehicles trying to merge on to the highway, and, wonder of wonders, there were police directing the traffic to allow us to merge.  So glad we followed the bus even though I kept saying to LeRon, "This is a bad idea."  It turned out to be a very good idea.  And after all, we were in a Ford truck so we could go anywhere!

Love to see the cropland along the way.

Love the red soil.  Lots of little market stands along the way but we didn't stop.

I was excited to see my first baobab tree (on left) without leaves.  The ones on the right are younger, smaller baobab trees.  Only the baobabs had lost their leaves as far as I could tell.

Many different religions have set up their ministries in Africa.

Baobabs lose their leaves in the dry season to allow the huge trunks to suck up water.  The water swells the trunks.

LeRon thinks the trees belong in a "Lord of the Rings" type of environment.

Lots of baobab trees.

I remember learning about baobab trees when I was a little girl.  Probably in school.  Although we didn't learn much about Africa, we did learn some.

I wonder what my Dad would think of these trees.  He used to quote the poem, Trees, by Joyce Kilmer, who, by the way, is a man.  "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree."  The poet, and my father agreed, that nature is more beautiful than anything man-made, such as a poem.  My dad loved trees and planted trees around our homestead.  (In Alberta, trees don't grow naturally; they have to be planted and watered and nurtured and even then they often die prematurely).

Such interesting shapes.

Love this baobab tree.

In the afternoon, when the sun goes behind a cloud, it seems almost like dusk.

A baobab tree silhouetted against the lovely clouds.

Election posters are even on trees.  I wonder who, if any, will take down the posters after the election.

This baobab looks like it belongs in Halloween, if you know what I mean.

Now we're on a very sandy road off the main highway and heading to Makutano.

I promise that I have only included about a quarter of the pictures I took of trees!

Click on this picture and you'll see vines growing into the trunk of the tree.

I talked with some people who didn't even notice the baobab trees even though they live around them.  I guess we are blind to the beauty around us.

Lovely silhouette.  The trunk has absorbed an awful lot of water.

This tree was so huge we couldn't take a picture of the whole thing.

Some baobab trees have some hollow spots inside but this one didn't.

We're on our way to the Makutano chapel.  LeRon wanted to find it Friday afternoon so that he wouldn't be late for the Saturday morning training.  If we had not had GPS, we would never have found the church.

Dusty, dusty road.  It would probably be impassable in the rainy season.

Lots of motorbike taxis, called boda-bodas.  The reason they are called boda-bodas is because they act as cheap taxis to take people from "border to border."  And Kenyans, being England English, don't pronounce their "r's".

A tractor! 

We were so surprised to find a lovely "normal" chapel (rather than a rented house) in this small village.  It is actually a District Center (similar to a Stake Center) and was very large.  Interesting that our churches look basically the same worldwide.  President Hinckley, a former church president, said that building churches the same has been done on purpose so they are easily identifiable.

Lots of cute school children on their way home from school on this Friday afternoon.  All school children wear uniforms.

Found this so interesting.  The grey cow is leading the brown ones as they pull their load.  When we drove up beside them, the grey one herded the others off to the side of the road until we were past and then herded them back into the middle of the road.  I'm sure there was a person there somewhere but I didn't see him.

Kenyan children are just like children anywhere in the world.  They go to school.  They play.  But unlike other children, they work really hard in their small garden plots to help provide food for their families.

Women walk long distances here.  That's probably why it's rare to find anyone overweight.

It's about 5:30 p.m. and getting to be dusk as the sun goes down about 6:30.  Love this lighting and the red soil and the baobab tree.

We saw this tree on the way to Makutano and I couldn't resist taking another picture on the way back.

Home time for these school children.

Like my Dad said, "There's nothing as lovely as a tree" even without its leaves.

Wish we could grow baobabs in Alberta but I don't think they would survive our winters!