a bit more on Africa...
Here begins my adventure in Africa. We began our journey in Livingstone, Zambia: home of the incredible Victoria Falls and my amazing sister. :) We had the opportunity to volunteer in the community, which was humbling and hope-filled, and reminded me how truly blessed I am. In addition to that, we did the scenic (and touristy) Vic Falls excursions, both walking to the falls (aka getting completely soaked by the "mist"), as well as flying over them in an incredible helicopter tour through the gorge and around the falls, and then, yep, bungee jumping off the bridge. Both amazing and insane.
The city, although much more like a small town than a tourist destination home to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, was fascinating. In addition to the falls and the volunteering, we did a lion encounter, went to several local markets, and even got to try the local food "nshima." Without offending anyone, it like a play-dough / uncooked dough consistency of corn meal, which is used almost in lieu of utensils to help pick up each bite of food. Very messy and extremely filling. Mmm-mmm. Hey, when in Rome...
Anyway, enough stories, on to the pictures.
We began our week-long safari out of Arusha, Tanzania with our wonderful guide Charles. I suppose, at the time, he was just our guide Charles, but I can say this now because we have just spent 8 days with him, Charles was the most knowledgeable, friendly, wonderfully caring, and most go-getter guide we could have ever asked for! And these pictures are just the beginning. We thought we were going to see a few animals. Boy, how we were mistaken! A few... more like a few THOUSAND. And no exaggeration there. Like I said, this was just the beginning.
The safari continued into the Serengeti, which means "endless plains" - quite an accurate description. The plans literally look as if they could go on forever, stretching out as far as you could see into the horizon. The animals were everywhere, hundreds of thousands of amazing animals. Just to give you an idea, there were over a million zebras and over a million wildebeest migrating through the Serengeti while we were there, so to say we saw thousands wasn't an exaggeration. Here are some pictures of the highlights
Continuing on in the Serengeti, we got to the off-roading area called Ndutu. Again, filled with unbelievable animal encounters. Charles, our guide, was incredible at tracking and finding the animals we wanted to see, including a mama cheetah and her cubs, and a rhino up close! Wow.
