Off to Animal Land at Akagera!!

OH, AKAGERA!!   I never tire of you!! 

 The new entrance gate is done! 

The black storks just inside the gate! 

Then the baby baboon!

And mommy and daddy! 

Daddy checking for bugs

And he finds a keeper! 

 Wait… who is that in the purple shirt?
That is Laura and she has been working at Urukundo
Children's Home.  We whisked her away
for the weekend and here we are… On the boat trip to the island!

Sylvere seeing hippos in the water for the first time!
He was  bit scared…

 See the light water lines… and the bubbles down
near the coast line?
Those are the hippos walking right under the water.

Or above the water.

      A Blue-Breasted Kingfisher!

Eating a snake…..

Full tummy! 

And how are you today?

Magnificent!

 A Cormorant Family! 

 A Large African Open Billed Stork!

These guys were warbling in their throats! 

A duet!!

The Papyrus and the sky!
(Moses in the Bulrushes?)

A new bird…   A Squacco Herron!

The old Cactus!

Beautiful Egret in the trees! 

On the way back from the island!

A pied Kingfisher!

Back on shore!! A great boat ride!

One of us is tired here!  Cute….so to bed we went….

But then there was morning!

Just kept getting better and better! 

i know… too many pictures of the same thing. 

Carrie catches the sun up higher! 

Caught Chris with her morning glow! 

Ah.. breakfast at Ruzizi Tented Lodge!

Off on our game drive!

Typical drive all day!  

Until these guys showed up right next to the road!

They were all walking in a row like elephants playing red rover!

And then they started moving a little closer and we took off! 

From this point on all the pictures are in reverse of the way the day played out.
They copied wrong so i just 

left them that way.. If you use your imagination ----just think of it all backwards! 

There's nothing to say…. is there?  Too cool!

Huge herds are in the northern most area of the park!  
Topis and zebra here.

Now, this is a story.  The zebra often rest their little heads on each other… no story there… but these did it in
a most geometric manner.  After getting home and seeing that big spot that seemingly ruins the ivory and ebony… I couldn't figure out what it was.  Sunshine?… A spot on my camera?  The
zebra's breath because it was too cold out?
Well-- it wasn't on this trip but on a couple of trips to Akagera
later when i actually saw this same zebra again!
That spot is actually the way she is made--maybe a birthmark?
If you know the answer to this question, let me know!
There are 100's of zebra's in this area and it was just
unbelievable that we saw this one again. 

The giraffe never fail to please!

 Great picture, Chris! 

  Chris and Carrie and Laura on the plains with the giraffe.

 They like looking as much as we do.

All of them!

Eyelashes to spare!

Sylvere, our driver on his first trip to Akagera! 

Startin' the move!

Ok-- Remember?  We are in reverse.

We watched Chris walk toward the giraffe all crouched over…  She did it a long time and then we asked her what she
was doing! 

"I'm approaching the animals in a non-threatening way", she replied --so i won't scare them away!
 The rest of us lost it and then joined her in her "walk"!

It worked!

And this little guy walked out from behind the tree…. looked at us and just walked on.  Good call, Chris!

Great Girls and Great Giraffe!

Just out of the car and looking over the plain at the animals.
All this before "the walk" started!!!

It was a beautiful day! 

Quite the "ant hill".   Really a termite mound!

Just loved this serene scene!

The young…. 

And the old!  Looks like he's sticking out his tongue!!

These old guys hang together by the lake.

WHAT??

The Long and Winding Road!!

 The day couldn't have been better!

We even got to see the long horn cows…  

The Ankole-Watusi  just outside the park on the way home! 

It had been a great day!  

Laura had not been feeling well most of the day

and that made us all sad… but she survived the 

trip and in amazing spirits for not feeling well. 

Well, until the next Akagera trip… 

love,

margie