After the Elephants and On the Way Home!

We finally calmed down a bit from our elephant visit... but no 

sooner had we calmed down.. we rounded the corner

of the reserve to find these big guys out chewing the cud!  

  Chris was very excited because she had wanted to get pictures of these big Buffalo

for her Dad.... And so she got her pictures!  They just starred at us. 

There were tons of them here and across the plain.

But we were closest to these guys and their bird friends.
We learned from our guide that the birds eat the tics off of the buffalo.

And they don't look the least bit ticked, do they? 

This guy had just gotten down and dirty.. He was a muddy mess but he didn't take his eyes off of us.

Sorry about the funny color of these pics.  When I'm shooting through the
tinted windows in the car they just don't look right. 

This  handsome lone Topi was with the Buffalo.  
He too, was motionless.  But then off to the left we saw  
 what Rachel was waiting for...

THE GIRAFFE!

She's gettin' a grin on.

We get closer and closer

Rachel wasn't motionless though!

Another motionless guy.... watching us.

 Too much excitement! What is going on here?

This was an old guy.  His marking were very dark.

Except around his greying face! 

Ok... the giraffe is amazing but LOOK at those Clouds behind him.  

Perfect Profile

We were driving in circles around him and as we start
to leave... He is leaning in to see what we are up to.

     As we continue driving... we came upon these giraffe

all sitting down.   Quite cute in the tall grasses.
Is it giraffe or giraffes?

By this time... we are walking around outside the car.
Apparently all were too tired to care because they didn't even
get up to greet us. 

But Rachel did get fairly close to this guy 

out in the wild. Who do you think was more excited?

He faced the camera every time i shot.
And so did Rachel. ha!

Checking to see if she really got the shot.

While she was checking and Chris and Ada and Denise were all walking
around i went and got this picture.  Guess the giraffes might have some tics, too.
Or they have just found an escalator!

 Here we all are walking around with the animals out on the plain. 

Denise was making sure we were all ok!

 Our faithful car that we are really giving a beating to here. 

By this time they were all walking away but here are the girls!

Couple more last shots 

 He's still thinking about what we are all doing out there with them.

                                       Then we spotted the baby that had been born

since June.

This is nearing the end of our 7 1/2 hours in the car
since this morning.  We are all getting tired...
but not of the animals.  Ada snapped this for us.

Ada had to be the most tired since he was doing all the driving

but he posed with Denise, our guide.  Her husband works 

in the rain forest as a ranger and they are lucky when they get

to see each other once a month.  She is a dear girl. 

And just before we leave the baby stands up.

He starts to come closer but we had to hit the road.

And the zebras made quite a few more appearances as we were leaving the
park... What a vast playground they have.

 As we are leaving the park and driving on the road toward home... these
weeds were just glistening pink in the evening sun.  

This little doll was just out on the road by herself.

Making her way home.

She did stop to look at the "Muzungus"... but then

took off running as fast as her little boots would take her.

She wasn't sure of us!

So, this was too cool.   All the school kids.. ( there must have been
 a 100 altogether) were walking home from school and
everyone of them had to "slap hands" with us as we drove by!
I was in the front and Chris in the back... Chris was trying to talk
to all of them, too.   Rachel has some fun pictures from this.. the
end of our trip as we are leaving the park.. and nearing the village
and the road home. 

Lots of maize drying along the road, too.

Looking over the land as far as you can see... This would be the landscape of the Northeastern area of Rwanda...looking toward Uganda.

Football (soccer) is everywhere here and these guys had found a flat field to
turn into the perfect place to play. So we head home officially now.

That was our last picture before we turned onto the main road.
The next day we spent shopping and packing and letting the girls get any
items they hadn't gotten already to take home.
Tomorrow they leave for London where they will be reunited with
their husbands!
It was so great to have them here.
The energy level of the house jumped tremendously
and I loved it!  

 Last pictures... getting into the car to head to the airport...
  

Innocent loves having all the company we have, too and
we all missed them so much when they flew off to
jolly old England!

Thanks for coming Chris and Rachel... I'm sure
we will never forget all the fun we had ---especially when
the elephant charged... and the baboons attacked!!

Glad you made it home safely!

love and hugs!
margie