Home from Africa

The sunsets in Africa are absolutely amazing. This photo shows an acacia tree in the foreground. There are clouds near the horizon. It looks like mountains instead of clouds. There are some places north of the Serengeti where you can see for miles and miles. Nothing like the Las Vegas valley where we are surrounded by mountains.

The hippopotamus is an amazing animal. They are actually quite fast. They are able to run to protect themselves from their predators. Hippos stay in the water during the day. Their skin is very sensitive to the sun. At night, they come out of the water to graze. We saw hippos in the smallest water holes. We couldn't believe they were able to get in and out of some of them.

The cheetah is a beautiful animal. It is sleek and powerful. This cheetah was stalking prey. She saw a Thomson gazelle with two babies. We followed and watched for nearly an hour as she slowly approached the gazelles. As the cheetah made her move, she chased one of the babies over a small ridge and we lost sight of them. However, the cheetah brought her catch right back to within about 20 feet of the truck. She was so close, we could hear her panting. We also heard her break the gazelle's neck before beginning her breakfast.

We saw this leopard in a tree. Vincent, our guide, told us that she would be coming down from the tree to go back to her babies. Just then, she started her way down. We followed her for about 45 minutes. Just when we were ready to give up, she emerged from some trees with her two babies. Vincent had parked in the perfect place. In order to get to the next stand of trees, they had to cross the road near our vehicle. The mom went in front of the truck, about 6 feet from me. The babies crossed behind the truck, about 5 feet away from us. It was amazing. We didn't even mind that we were nearly an hour late for breakfast. We had to eat fast to make it to our next game drive.