Glamorous Only in Retrospect: 7 March - Baobabs, Elephants and mountains!

7 March

Forest Plantation – Karogwe

424 Miles

Erik:

We went through the Baobab Valley. There were tons of them everywhere. It was really cool. I drove up with Dave for most of the day while the girls hung out in the back. We also drove through Mikumi National Park. Dave said that sometimes he sees Elephants there but we ended up seeing Elephants, Buffalo, Giraffe, Impala and Zebra.

There was a group of Elephants right on the side of the road and we stopped to watch them. An adolecent male thought he would charge us but then changed his mind halfway. His trumpets ended up being really pathetic and very funny. It was cute.

We drove well into the night trying to find a place to stay. All in all it was a good day. The news is proclaiming Kenyatta as Kenya's president and that violence is minimal. So Kenya is a go again.

Steph:

That Elephant was so cute. You could tell he was young. The rest of his family just slowly wandered away from the road, not really bothered. But he wanted to be the big man and was clearly scared. He'd decide to charge and flapped his ears but then would turn around and shuffle away. Then a few meters later, he'd turn around and trumpet at us. It sounded more like in the cartoons, when a elephant trumpets but then someone grabs his trunk and he just runs out of air. You know what I'm saying? Super cute. I must say, coming across these guys on the truck is quite a different experience than on the bikes. I was looking down on them here and saying, "oh how cute". They were still cute on the bikes but about 3 times taller than me and I had to whisper it so I wouldn't get killed. :)

We stopped at a bus rest stop for lunch. It was a really yummy buffet thing for not very much money. The islamic influence is much more obvious here. From the dress to the "Salaam Aleikum" (spelling?). It's time to cover up the knees and shoulders. People are incredibly friendly and very welcoming.