Our Drive to Akagera!!
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I had told Roger and Ann that the trunks of the banana
trees are always cold no matter how hot the day
so when we saw this banana pit along the way we stopped to touch… and of course, take pictures! |
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Annie, you look so little next to that BIG TREE!
And yes… it was cold! |
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| Muzungu!! Muzungu!! |
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| Just along the way. |
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| The first time we came through this village there was NO electricity. The next time we came through there were light poles. The third time there were wires! |
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And now there are electric boxes to pay for your electricity and the wires are all attached!
Check on the dish! Progress is happening here! |
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| This Mama wondered why i was taking her picture….. but it was just too sweet to miss! This family must be so blessed to have 3 cows! One is usually considered good!! |
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| Happy, happy, happy… just so say hi! |
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This LARGE weaver had been busy making nests… These are big compared to most. The Mama weavers will surely
pick one of his houses for their family! |
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And here we are at the newly finished gate. You can see to the left the electric fencing that now encompasses the entire
park. The lions come next! But today…just us! |
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| This is the newly opened coffee house at the welcome center in the park. Here you register, pay for your days in the park, your car, boat trip or any other excursion you might make in the park. |
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| We had lunch here before we took off for the day….looking out over one of the plains. |
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| We swung by the other lodge that we wouldn't be staying at…. and when Roger sat down so did this little monkey! |
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| Sharing a Special Moment! |
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| Roger must have said "Hold it! I want to take your picture"… but instead he/she heard something else. ha! |
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| Showing you the pool and lake to the left. |
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| Now, Roger and Ann to the right!! |
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| Of course the baboons were around the lake.. but not too many today! Roger wasn't a fan so that was okay with him. |
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| Off to our trip around the island…. Sylvere had driven us out to he joined us! |
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| The King Fisher is almost always the first to greet you on the island. They are in control. |
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This large cactus is over a 100 years old.. maybe much older
but they set a striking silhouette on the horizon. |
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| This beauty was just sitting there as we drove by. It is an intermediate Egret ( in breeding plumage.. according to the bird book). The green on the eyes is striking! The feathers simply flow! A beautiful bird. |
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| These cormorants live on this island in the 100's. It is a breeding location for them. I didn't take many shots here since I've taken so many from previous visit! |
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| This is a sign that we will be having our first hippo sighting soon! |
Peek-a-Boo!!! Not just one but Mama and baby!!
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| Then all of a sudden the boat driver took off in full throttle so we knew he had spotted something. We drove past several little islands to come to what we thought was the end of the lake to only hear large slushing sounds behind the papyrus! |
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| He had spotted an elephant…. but we couldn't really see him from the boat. You can see a little piece of him to the left at the top of the picture. He drove us back and forth to see if we could get a better glimpse but it never happened… shucks! |
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Disappointed a bit…. but R and A taking it in stride…. ha!!
We continued on down even further south on the lake to truly come to its end. |
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| There we discovered long horn cows and other cattle on the other side of the park fence! |
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All the cowboys are dispersed among the cows.
How many can you find? At least 10! |
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| All the little cowboys were waving and yelling at us to say hi but the setting sun was bright in their eyes. |
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| Even at 5 pm as the sun is on its way down it still blazes. |
Our boat ride hadn't given us any crocodiles this trip and that was disappointing… and only a few hippos ..but there is always tomorrow.
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When we got to the Ruzizi lodge the fire was flaming and
waiting for all of us to join around the fire! But the servers
met me and started telling me this story about how a python
came and killed and ate the little crocodile. Well… i knew this little guy because i had taken his picture when we were here with Michelle and Adam and Isaac and Iris. |
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Here he is at about 3 feet long! Anyway, one of the servers
had captured his demise on video and you can
see it ***below if you are interested… (if it works) |
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What an introduction for Roger and Ann… Guess we
won't go near the edge of the deck! But now we are ready to settle in around the campfire before they call us to dinner. |
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Around the fire that night as we sat after the sun had gone down.
and talked to the other guests. Three of the guys were pastors, Gary --a friend from Kigali and 2 of his friends and the others were from Arkansas and Oklahoma… All of us were believers and we had great discussion about the faith, the church, etc. It was so fun to know we were all there together from America sitting in Africa talking around the camp fire about the Lord! |
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Sarah and her husband also joined us. They are the Park managers and Sarah and I had emailed several times
previously but had never met face to fact. They told us much about the Park that we didn't know!
It was great to have them with us! |
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I learned later that they man on the left at the table and one of the guys sitting talking around the fire was Jim Walton. Just a
regular guy discussing things of the faith with all of us ( He is the youngest son of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart.) He and his group of friends were in Africa looking at different schools to support. Far more to the story than that but we will leave it there! |
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| After a good night's sleep and listening to the hippos snorting during the night we got up to some great hot coffee and a delicious breakfast! Getting ready to take on a long day! |
So, the rest of the story is that when we got home a day later… Annie and I were out on the patio talking and Roger started yelling "Get in here, Get in here"… THIS IS WHERE WE HAD BREAKFAST YESTERDAY….for crying out loud"!!
INDEED… he was watching the following YouTube that was airing on CNN. The whole event caught on tape by the servers that I told you about earlier. Sort of takes away your appetite to know that we could have been that close to a python.
***Haven't tried this before but you can try to see this
by clicking on the link below.
Since then…. and upon going back to this same place with Heather and Colin on their visit. They caught the python in the rafters of the Welcome Center… (where everyone goes) and now
he is safely in a place where he can't be near people! WHEW!
RIP little crocodile! I'm so glad I had taken his picture!!!
love,
margie
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