the land of punda milia (striped donkeys?)

this past saturaday was the day of many zebra. (we travelled to tarangire national park, 2hrs from arusha for a daytrip into the life of a "tourist")

funny thing is, both michael and i agree that these 'striped donkeys' (as the kiswahili word literally tanslates) were not the highlight of our day (apologies to the zebra, you were all beautiful... no hard feelings...)we have two fav moments to share.

the most exciting and least likely to happen again was when a young giraffe (foal?) went running alongside our vehicle. we kept going, and so did the little guy. so, we were at exactly the same speed and i got to snap a few pics while michael managed to get a little video footage of the whole thing.
we've decided that animals in movement are one of the most beautiful things to get to see. most of the animals in these parks stand and hang out, or flee just too fast to appreciate.
so basically, we just like running with the herd... ?
(below is an adult giraffe, also caught on the run)ok, experience #2 was the elephants - and our first meeting was an extreme close-up...
not more than 10-15 feet from the vehicle, a bunch (pod?) of elephants had just finished drinking/bathing in the river and were en route to crossing the road we were on (they had stopped momentarily for a snack when we came upon them)so they then crossed right behind our vehicle (as again michael videoed)...
with a few sniffing trunks pointed in our direction, but i suppose they determined us to be harmless, and thankfully all went on in usual order.
the rest of the day, we saw elephants a few other times - always awe-inspiring.

overall, a beautiful venue
and some haunting treesplus another candid shot or two (there were so many great pics... but then if i put too many up they will start to seem repetitive...)(if you look closely, this little zebra was giving me some lip!)then we were off.
(homeward bound for all?)sunday: michael got to try out the sport of cricket for the first time - alas, i left the camera behind, so you will just have to imagine the hilarity, boredom (it is cricket after all), and beautiful views of mt. meru that were involved.