Akagera National Park in Rwanda!

Had a fabulous trip to Akagera National Park on Wednesday and I've been trying to figure out a way to send you a slide show. Thought i had it with "smile box".. but the download just couldn't handle that many pictures.... So until i get the rest of them loaded for you to see... here's a few of this spectacular place.  The Lord has given us so much!   He is the greatest gift giver ever!  The animals, birds and landscapes ALL speak of his greatness!

How can you see these magnificent things and not marvel at who God is? 

This cow with the long horns is the "Rwandan Cow".

 This was our TOP MODEL.  I have so many beautiful
pictures of this guy!  We saw 2 herds of giraffe!

This was a rare day... in 3 different Hippo pools --they were all out of the water.
Our driver goes 2-3 times a month and he said he had never seen then out of the water.
We saw 2 babies, too! Mama was looking us over!  We had lunch here and no....
there are no fences, no wires, just the water! 

"Yes!  Do you need something?"

Had 6 pictures turn blue.... don't know why.. but yes, this is a crocodile...

This is a zoom... we were not this close.  We saw 2 in the water.

There must have been a herd of 75 -100 of these Water Buffalo...  Very serious fellows!

Check out these two baby zebra.  They all just watched us!

We, the driver Jean (John) and Laurance...Michel's daughter from DC... (We met the day of the trip)...drove for 2 1/2 hours to get to Akagera National Park.  From the north end of the park.... we drove 6 hours to see all the animals and we only covered less than 1/3 of the park. It is huge!  The roads were horrible and we felt like the Land Rover would tip over a couple of times... due to alternate routes to get through the mud.  

Jean and Laurance 

Just an idea of the roads. It had rained the night before.


 Ok... now for a glimpse at some of the beautiful birds.  The Eagle.. the Stork and the black headed weaver.  This bird might look familiar to you.  He is the one that is stripping our palm leaves in our yard.  They start from scratch and build a nest in less than 30 min. The males build 10-15 of these and then the females pick which one they like best.   

The Eagle.. They call the King Fisher Man... He looks just like a bald eagle.

He takes off!!!  Note... crocodile in lower right corner... (little brown straight bumpy line)
His mouth is shut now!  This was on the way back to the park station.

Another Eagle and her nest!

 The Stork... he was right next to the car.  No zoom here! Saw lots of their nests.

The Black Headed Weaver starting to build the nest with his palm strips.

The result!  He is finished!
Pretty amazing.... A house built on a "palm" string!

 An aside... before we reached the park...A huge market was being held.. and people were steaming in from the roads, the hills, the farms... It looked like a Billy Graham crusade.

Here comes everyone to Market!

You can only see about half of the market.

Girls, did you EVER ride side saddle on a bike?

 And then there were different views....the landscapes.....

 This was our first giraffe sighting... but not the same place we saw the others.

Open territory..  water buffalo off in the distance!

From this hill you can see the 2 lakes in the north end of the park and
Tanzania off in the distant hills.
This is the area the elephants are usually found in.

These are Swamp Hyacinth... where the hippos and crocs live.

My favorite trees!!!  These are Acacia!  

This whole area looked just like the desolate part of Lion King--

I love this picture.... This was so peaceful and restful.... 

This is all for today!   I just took Bruce over to a friend's house to catch a ride to the airport.  He is leaving for the States... home to meet his newest grand baby, Katherine
and to see the rest of his fantastic grandkids and kids!  Then he will be off to Omaha for
Easter with his mom and family--- more on that later.  I'm excited for him... but sure wish
i could be there, too.

Tomorrow I will finish the stories about our Road Trip!  All of the above was wonderful
but my favorite part of the day I haven't mentioned yet... More pictures and stories tomorrow.
I wish you ALL could have been with me to see this place!  Bruce had visited here earlier this year and was very excited that we were able to see so many animals and have such
a great experience.  I just feel so blessed to have had this experience.  It was totally
like being on a safari.. The only thing we didn't see were the elephants!
Hope you've had fun on the safari with me... I only have 135 more pictures of this day.
Don't worry.... that's a few too many to post!  Until tomorrow!
love,
margie