Tuesday 26 April 2011

Sr. Couple's Safari to Maasai Mara, April 2011

 A little change of pace from our mission life, we're off to the Serengeti located in Western Africa, close to the Tanzania border.  Its referred to as the Maasai Mara because its on the Mara river right in the middle of the Maasai tribal land, also it's where the amazing migration crosses the Mara River.  We (nine senior couples) were only there 2 nights 3 days, spent most of the time on game drives in open topped safarai jeeps.  It was amazing - of course, you know how much we both love animals, Dad has never had so much fun, he was always trying to "call" the animals closer.  As you can see from the pictures, the animals were everywhere, completely out in the open.  Its not like hunting deer/elk in the Utah mountians.  The Serengeti is a large, wide open grassy savannaha, with a few trees here and there. 

Sit back and enjoy mostly pictures this time, I will try to name them if its not obvious what they are.  To put it in perspective, Dick took 250 pictures and I took 205, we deleted about 50 percent, tried to only keep what was focused.  What I wouldn't give for a good zoom - but as you can see we were so close most of the time - it was unbelievable.



We stayed in these tented rooms - it was just like "Out of Africa", all the night sounds, monkey's running on our roof at night.  Our beds had the nets around them, and yet we had hot running water, electricity and the food was gourmet.   Now you can see why we could have stayed longer.                          
We flew in and landed on a dirt air strip, with giraffes and zebras right next to the runway.  Our game driver/guide was a native Maasai named Rueben (his Christen name) he was very knowledgable, he seem to know all the floral and fauna, recognized especially the pride of cats, cubs, who was the mother/father etc.  There was never a dull moment, the service, the weather, the animals, the beautiful skys, landscape, trees - everything was out of the world.

Thompson Gazelle

Sorry, I just realized that I have to post all the pictures at once so I need to start another post.  Please log back on because there are many more wonderful animals to see.

Love you all,

G & G Tuttle, Dick & Janet, E/S Tuttle

1 comment:

  1. Tuttles. It looks like you're doing amazing things on your mission! My name is Rebecca Loveland and i'm working with a group to get liquid fertilizer into the southern region of Kenya so that people can increase their crop yield and help themselves out of poverty. I'm wondering if you might have any information and contacts that would assist us in our efforts? I can be reached at Rebecca.loveland@byu.net if you have a moment, your help would be much appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Rebecca Loveland

    ReplyDelete