Animal Planet

I've never really been much of a zoo person. I don't have anything against zoos; it's just that most trips to the zoo (in any city) are disappointing. The animals are tired and resting or hiding in a corner. So I wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy a safari - long drives to see animals. But these animals are roaming around in one of the largest national parks on the planet. You can drive for hours before you happen to come upon them in their natural habitat. And then you find them doing the things they do in the wild! Today felt like we were living a television special on the Animal Planet.

We encountered a huge group of water buffalo crossing the road, so we just stopped the jeep and watched them for a while. They seemed somewhat interested in our presence, but they didn't bother us. Then we saw a large group of banded mongoose. They ran across the road and in and out of the grass for quite a while. But the big excitement came when we saw a group of elephants make their way to the watering hole. They walked in a single file line to the water, and when they got there, they spent a long time drinking and splashing water on themselves. I've seen elephants do that before in zoos, but these were real Serengeti elephants, and it was so cool to watch them splash around in the water. As we were getting ready to go to the picnic area for lunch, we saw the most exctiing thing we've seen on the safari. Two cheetas were sunning themselves on a rock. In the distance, some Thompson gazelles were munching on grass. A bunch of jeeps stopped to see if anything would happen. Sure enough, the cheetas got down from the rock and began moving through the tall grass. they moved so quietly that the gazelles had no idea that cheetas were coming up right behind them. All at once, the cheetas pounced, and the gazelle took off running. The two cheetas tried to corner him, but he got away. It was very thrilling to see it happen in front of us. I'm glad for the gazelle's sake that he got away, but we read a statistic at the information center that said that a baby cheeta only has a one in twenty chance of survival, so I actually felt kind of bad for the cheetas. They may be the fastest animal on earth, but they don't always get lunch.

As I was watching all of this, I couldn't help but think of Dave Ramsey and his illustration of cheetas and gazelles :-) (I thought of you especially, Jen and Cliff)

We left Serengeti and drove back over the bumpy road to the rim of Ngorongoro Crater. The lodge we area staying in is a huge change from our tent lodge of the past two nights. First of all, there's running water - even hot water - and a flushable toilet! This is really a fancy lodge that has an incredible view of the crater. We'll be going down into the crater tomorrow for our last big game drive. The main animal we want to see is the rhino, but we also hope to see flamingoes.

This whole experience is so much greater than I expected it to be. It's really difficult to express how much we're enjoying each day. I'm trying to take it all in, but it feels overwhelming. I find I'm spending a lot of time telling God "thank You!" I'm even more amazed at what an amazing Creator we have. Tomorrow we'll worship on the Ngorongoro Crater.