I am a Woman of Words...

I assure you! There is a whole lot more to the Africa trip than pictures. I am working on finding the perfect words. But just to hold you over I'll tell you about the most amazing part of the trip:

We arrived at the Samburu Game Reserve in central Kenya on May 13 or 14th (looking for my travel journal with the exact dates) The trip was set up so that we had the same guides for the whole trip, Joshua and David. The game parks that we were visiting were pretty far from each other, so on travel days Joshua and David set out ahead of us in the Land Rovers and we flew a Caravan Flight with Martin (the coolest pilot in the world).  So, when we arrived at the Samburu airstrip, we had surrogate guides for the afternoon.  Gladwell was our guide for the afternoon on this particular day.  He picks us up from the airstrip and tells us how sad he is that the river (that runs through camp) is dry, and has been since December.  With a dry river bed, things can be dangerous for the animals.  Elephants are okay, because they can dig holes for their water, but the other members of the African Animal Community are pretty SOL. This was saddening news to hear, because May is supposed to be the rainy season for Kenya.  The Climate Crisis coupled with humans moving into the bush and tapping the water systems upstream for their own use is slowly killing off a lot of indigenous wildlife.  Gladwell assures us that the Game Reserve and the individual camps are doing their best to provide water for the animals.  We get to camp and try to make light of the lunch by the (non)river and our (non)waterfront views from our tents.  We were having an afternoon cocktail at the bar near the (non)river when out of nowhere this Land Rover comes screeching in...

"The river is coming!!"  he says waving about wildly, camera in tow, "we followed it all the way down here, there's a wall of water!"

Puzzled, we all looked at each other for a split second and then raced to the river bed, cameras in tow as well.  We looked towards what would be up river and sure enough, a flash flood! It had been raining up in the mountains for the past couple of days and the water had just made it down to the flats.  

I had seen such a thing on the Discovery Channel, but I always thought it was a time laps camera, I can tell you, if it is time lapsed, it's not by much! It took all of fifteen minutes for this river bed, dry and cracked, to become a river. The Uaso Nyiro River, meaning Red River, or Muddy River, is never blue... but it sure is a beautiful sight to see!

Nature sure is an amazing thing! 

(I did get this on video- when I get the final product made I'll share it with you guys)

That being said, it's soap box time for a second: The Earth has the ability to and will repair herself from all the damage humans and her other inhabitants have done.  Mother Earth is a powerful being and she loves her children, however, if we don't take care of her, she's going to kick us out! So please please please, when traveling especially, respect the Earth, do what you can to make up for carbon emissions and waste you have created. Reduce what you use, Reuse what you can and Recycle everything else! I would love for my grandchildren to be able to see such a sight one day, and I know you wish the same for your offspring and future offspring. 

I know that when my friends come back from a trip that was really exciting, I want to hear all about it.  And I know that most of you are expecting that from me... But I tell you, a trip like this is just so boundless I am having trouble finding the right words for you guys.  So in this instance, all I can give you is these: 

Out of Africa...

I'm home!!! And I have 1,950 pictures to go through, and about 3 hours of video footage, so please be patient while I get readjusted to Mountain Time and Mountain Life... in the meantime, here are three of my favorites that I was able to do a quick edit on... 

I've been asked for further explination...

I guess I haven't really told ya'll about my trip to Africa.  I mentioned it in passing in a previous blog, but I haven't really explained the whole story.  

I'll start about a year ago...

Daddy was invited on a Father-Son fishing trip to Mexico... Since Daddy doesn't have any sons (and was not granted an exception), he took my step-brother Mark.  I'm not the biggest fisher-woman, so I didn't really care... but the feminist-girls-can-hang-with-the-boys kinda girl I am, I was pissed! I threw a little mini fit because I felt that the "boys club" -that half my cousins got to belong to and the other half of us don't - is a totally bogus.  So mini-fit happens, passes and I get on with my life.  Fast forward two months later.  ring ring it's my sister.  She's at my grandparent's house.  "Fay Baby wants to know," Kelly says in this totally giddy voice, "if you would like to join Lesley and Kitty and possibly Laura and Mary and I on a photography safari to Africa?" 

REALLY?!?!?! I'm totally taking an all-expense paid trip to KENYA.  MY (sorry Mom) FUCKING DREAM TRIP!!!!!  as long as I can remember I've wanted to travel to Africa.  Probably because my dad went when I was in 3rd grade or so and I remember seeing all his pictures and thinking they were the greatest things I had ever seen.  All my friends wanted to go to Europe and Australia- ya know? Fancy places- I have always wanted to go to Africa. 

"Well, I think I can maybe get off work, hell I'll even quit if I have to." 

Now keep in mind, I recently threw a mini-fit over my male counterparts going to Mexico.  MEXICO-AFRICA... (imagine me with my palms in the air like a scale...) mmmmmm.... Glad I'm a girl at this point!!!! 

So.  In 17 days I will be embarking on the trip of a life time.  I fly from Salt Lake City to New York, where I will meet up with my older cousin Laura.  From New York, we fly to Amsterdam where will meet up with the other four Ireland gals and Uncle John (I will take just a quick second to publicly announce my disappointment that Daddy (the only one sans sons) doesn't get to go on this trip.  From Amsterdam we all fly to Nairobi, Kenya.  From there I have 10 pages worth of an itinerary that I will not subject you with now. I assure you, you will get the play-by-play with tons of pictures when I return from the trip.  I will be keeping a travel journal (the old-fashioned-composition-notebook kind) so that I don't forget any details of my 14 day trip.  

We are going with my grandfather's friend and artist, Larry Martin.  I had the pleasure of meeting Larry a few years back with Daddy.  We went and saw a painting Choo-Choo (my grandfather... remind me to tell you the story why I called him that later) had commissioned at the Anniston Museum of Natural History.  He's a very cool fella.  I remember talking about his trips to Kenya and buying one of his prints (the one at the top of this page).  He signed it.  I thought it was pretty rad.  Now I'm going with him to the very spot he painted that picture. 

Needless to say, I'm STOKED!!!!!!

Now, to address the bitter-sweetness of the trip... 

The Man that made this entire trip possible wanted so badly to accompany his granddaughters on this trip of a life time.  He will, instead, be watching over us on our experience from Above.  Thank you Choo-Choo for being the most unselfish, loving, caring, positive, gracious and amazing man I've ever known.  I miss you immensely.  

So there ya have it.  KENYA!!! I'll for sure report back upon my return!!