Safari Animals

Well, I've certainly learned a lot of things on this trip. One thing I did not know about myself is that I have an uncanny ability to spot wildlife as we were trucking it down the road. I was known to mutter "acha" (stop) and then back up (I don't know reverse in Swahili). We saw so many animals including, but not limited to: elephants (and a baby), hippos, antelopes, flamingos, giraffes (we also saw giraffes from afar that were not spotted, but all dark brown or black), dik diks (a type of antelope), monkeys, and many birds as well. And poo - we learned about how to tell the difference between different types of poo. I also learned something about elephants that just hadn't struck me before. I saw many elephants with only one tusk and I immediately thought their tusk had been poached. I was quickly corrected by our driver. In order to poach a tusk, a poacher must first kill the elephant. He's (the elephant) not exactly going to stand still and let someone saw off his great tusk. So...any living elephants who are missing tusks lost them either fighting trying to knock down a tree. Makes sense now of course...thought I'd share that for anyone else living under the same misconception. If you look closely at the picture of the mama and baby elephant you can see that it has a somewhat gaping gash where it's right tusk once resided.