Safari Day 3, Kili Day 4

sorry we weren't in touch yesterday. as it turns out, there is no wireless here at the lobo lodge in the Serengeti, and the lodge's internet connection was down yesterday evening when we arrived. unfortunately, there is also no cell service here - the lodge, which is really neat, is actually built into the side of a rock in the middle of the Serengeti, so it looks like an african swiss family robinson hotel, which is awesome, but not exactly "cell phone friendly." so, i have not spoken directly to drew and the kili crew, but was able to connect with alexis who is in arusha and speaking with me and drew to relay news of both groups to the other. at the end of today, we have 29 of the original 31 safely at base camp 4, which is just amazing! 2 of our girls are down from the mountain and back in arusha due to illness and altitude, but we are so proud of their efforts and how far and hard they pushed themselves. we all said from the beginning that each person hiking kili will have a different "summit" for some it may be 15,ooo ft, for some it may be 19,200. ft., so we are proud of each one of the 31 for going until they couldn't go any farther! As for the safari 12, we have been having an amazing experience! We left Ngororongoro Crater around 8 am yesterday, and after a stop in a Masai Village and at a local museum, we made our way into the Serengeti and arrived for lunch around 12:30ish? once we got into the park, the animals began to appear and they just kept coming out for us all day. we saw multiple lions, and in fact watched two lions mating from about 15 feet away, which was pretty cool. grace blair, the 9 year old twin sister of anna blair that made the initial statement, "animals are cooler than hiking" said that, "lions are WAY cooler than hiking. especially when they do that thing." so, we have all been experiencing the circle of life and it has been fun and educational for all ages of our group. :-) finally yesterday we saw elephants! they are phenomenal and personally, they are my favorites! still seeing lots of zebras, giraffes, widebeasts, warthogs, gazelles, hippos, monkeys etc... also yesterday we saw a crocodile, which was pretty cool and another really neat thing we saw was a lioness on the hunt. unfortunately, the 12 safari trucks around tipped off the gazelle she was after, so we didn't get to see a kill, but we are still hoping. :-) so far we have seen 4 of the big 5 - elephants, buffalo's, lions and rhinos. we are still searching hard for the leopard, and also hope to get a good look at some elephants up close. we went out this morning around 9 for our game drive, and it was a bit slow, but we saw some great elephants. just had lunch and now down time as it is hot and the animals aren't out...several of the group are lying poolside hoping to see some animals as they migrate. we headed back out around 4 pm today which was possibly the most amazing afternoon ever. we saw a pack of 22 lions - 20 lioness and 2 lions - then, we watched for over 45 minutes as 17 of the lioness took down a buffalo. watching the kill was incredible to say the least. seriously, it was incredible. preston blair said it was the "most spectacular thing i have ever seen!" i can assure you that i do NOT have enough film/memory cards if tomorrow is even remotely as awesome as the past 3 days have been. we start out with an early morning game drive tomorrow at 6 am and then back for breakfast and a full day game drive with a picnic lunch. it's exhausting as you can imagine... truly, the safari 12 are spoiled rotten about now, and having come from legho village, are so grateful for the small things like toilet seats and running water. our prayers are with the remaining kili 29 and our 2 friends back in arsuha. i know the Lord is using this experience to work in each of our hearts in his own way and we are all so grateful for the opportunity to spend time with him in Africa here among his great creations.



i'll be in touch soon with more from the kili group, but please continue to pray hard and pray strong for them - Day 4 is hard, and Day 5 will be harder as they each move towards their own summit. but the fact that 29 made it to 4th base camp is HUGE and i am confident the Lord is hearing our prayers for them and will continue to do so as they move onward and upwards on Kilimanjaro!



God Bless and love to all,

anne genevieve