Safari

Our mission agency is having a retreat in Kenya this week and we decided to come a few days early to go on safari. 

When we flew into Nairobi we spent the night in a guesthouse and then yesterday morning we drove to a very small airport that is just for flying to safari and a few beaches. We took a very small plane on a 45 minute flight to the Masai Mara. We landed in a dry field where our guide was waiting with a jeep. 

As we were driving we spotted a mongoose, monkeys, impala(antelope), zebras, and the smallest type of deer, a dik-dik. 

We got to our resort called Entumoto, which means meeting place in Masai. They led us to our “tent”, which was more of a house including couches, beds, and bathrooms.

That afternoon we got to try shooting a Masai bow and we also went on a game drive, where we saw more antelope, African buffalo, Crowned Cranes, and a few other birds.

This morning we had breakfast at 7:30 and headed out at 7:45. As we were driving we saw 2 female lions eating a buck and a few miles away was a pride feasting on a zebra. There were about 5 cubs, a male teenager, and 3-4 full grown females.

After a little more driving we came across a tower(group) of giraffes crossing the road. We kept on driving through a field of dry grass looking for a leopard, which we did not find today but instead we found a very famous cheetah, Malaka, who’s from National Geographic and the movie Cats, with her cubs, who marched right in front of our car.

As we were watching, a parade of elephants walked right past us and the cheetahs, which was very exciting.

After this we stopped for lunch in the middle of an open plain, our guide packed a delicious picnic lunch. We drove a little more and then stopped at a pool filled with hippos and a Nile crocodile.

As we were driving back we stopped to watch more giraffes with babies eating.

 The other creatures we saw throughout the trip today were more zebras, warthogs with babies, hyenas, ostriches, baboons, gazelles, a Martial eagle, more mongoose,jackals,and dung beetles.

lion facts:

-females live to be 15 years old, males live to be 10

-males eat first, then cubs, then females

-when they catch prey, they eat the eyes first

-when they finish their meal they cover the blood so hyenas don't find it.

-the boys live with the pride until they are 2, then get kicked out to find their own territory 

Chick update

As we have learned, chicks are very hard work. After Hazel's death we watched the chicks very closely so they wouldn't get picked off by crows or hawks but they still managed to somehow disappear in other ways.

 While we were in Ethiopia Amber caught the first case of chickalaria ( chick malaria), as we call it, and was found lifeless the next morning. Boo wast taken away, while Anna was watching, by what she said was a hideous crow.

 Also, during our vaca the Cropseys got 3 little chicks, Cookie, Frodo, and Sam. Before we even got back Frodo caught chickalaria and had the same results as Amber. The day after we returned Sam was taken by a bird while Sammy was watching him, as for Cookie, she was fine until one day Elise came into school crying and announced Cookie was sick, and she was very sick. After school finished, Cookie had bit the dust.

Pickely is the only chick left and we all hope he survives and stays, as we nicknamed him,

 The Everlasting Chick!

Me holding Pickely and Mekdes eating sugar cane infront of our house