Africa Part One

My trip to Africa was once in a lifetime experience. Here the pictures and what went on half way around the world:

It took us two days to get there and two days to get back. My first flight left at 0600 on Sunday and we arrived in Johannesburg at 1500. 15 hours to cross the Atlantic ocean. I watched so many movies--among my favorites were Prince Caspian and Ironman. Sleeping on a plane close to impossible. By the time I got on the last plane to come home I was done being on planes. We traveled over 30,000 miles and spend approx 50 hours in airports. I got really good at showing off my passport and hauling LOTS of luggage around.

Seeing Mark for the first time in two years was the highlight of my trip. Brother and Sister Davis--the couple missionary in the area met us at the Maputo airport and took us to the Mission Home. When I saw Mark walk out the door I bolted up the pathway and gave him a hug. They had three missionaries going home total. Mark's current companion was a resident Mozambican who is actually one of the first missionaries headed into Angola in a few weeks. Excuse my appearance I had been traveling for a while. The last picture on the bottom is the apartment where the missionaries stayed, right next to church. EVERY building had a guard and barbed wire around the fence.

One of the best parts of the trip was the three day safari trip at Kruger National Park. In our little put-put of a red car we drove through the park and started on the first drive. Coming up over the hill was a pride of lions. I'm so proud of my pictures that turned out. The lions were so lazy they would get up walk a few feet and the plop right back down. I loved being so close to these animals.

Here are some other critters I saw during those three days



I love cheetahs, they are so beautiful and graceful. Apparently, there are only 150 cheetahs in the entire park, which is HUGE! I liked how the cubs kept playing hide and go seek with us.

One of coolest things I saw was a pride of lions eat a fresh kill of giraffe. Hyenas and vultures were even circling the kill. The lions kept chasing them off and growling. It was like a scene right out of The Lion King

Coming around a corner we saw an entire herd of elephants come up over the hill. You could always hear whenever the elephants were coming because of the constant crunching of trees. This herd got co close we had to move the car so they could cross the street. They were fun to photograph.

On our last morning drive we went to the river and found a TON of hippos in the water. Crocodiles kept crawling out of the water to lay on the rocks to get warm. A herd of water buffalo passed us as they headed to the water. The animals weren't helpful in posing for pictures.

Gotta love the Zebras, they really are yippy little things.

This is the place we stayed out in the middle of no where. They served us gorme meals every time and provided hot towels after each drive. They were obsessed with coffee and tea though. Another first for me was showering out in the open. The shower above opened up to the wilderness, I watched a rhino and impala walk past as the breeze hit me. Yeah it was a different experience.