Safari Continues

11 June 2010

The screeching sound of a tree hyrax woke me this morning at 5:30.  I rolled over in our huge king size bed, pulled up the heavy down comforter and reached for one of the hotwater bottles the staff had left the evening before.  We are at Sweetwater Camp- right on the equator and the mornings and evenings are very cold.

At 5:45 I layered several shirts and jackets, opened the flap to our tent and stepped out to survey the sunrise across the savannah plains of central Kenya. The quarter moon was setting over Mt. Kenya. Warthogs, zebra and gazelle were gathered around the watering hole just 50 yards away.  We grabbed a quick cup of coffee and by 6:30 we were off on our morning game drive.  We returned to camp at 9:00 for the huge champagne brunch. 

By 10:30 we were off again to see the chimpanzee sanctuary.  They have 43 orphaned chimps that were brought here from Rwanda by Jane Goodall to save them from extermination.  After the chimps we encountered a bull elephant along the road.  As he was crossing the road about 25 feet behind our land cruiser he turned, stomped, lowered his head and prepared to charge.  I thought it was kind of fun and just kept taking photos until I heard the panic in Preston’s voice as he shouted at Star to start the vehicle and get going.  Three more bulls came from the trees and we just kept moving.

The morning game drive ended just after noon so we could be back for the buffet lunch, a swim or massage, a nap and some afternoon tea before we head out again at 4:00.  We will stay out until dark at about 6:30.  After watching the sunset we will return to camp and clean up before dinner at 8:00.  Then back to the tent (which is bigger than our last hotel room) plug in the camera to recharge and off to dream of more animals and birds.

Every morning I wake up and give thanks to God for Eli Lilly and the folks at the Endowment who made this all possible.  Then I thank God for Northminster not just allowing, but encouraging me to take a sabbatical.  Then I go through my whole list- Phil and Beazy for making sure I had a new camera for the trip, Ruth and Andi and the whole staff for making it so easy for me to leave, and on and on and on.  Then the tree hyrax screams and I forget about Indiana for a while and enjoy Kenya.