On Safari 1

We recently took a few days off and used the opportunity to go on safari.  It is always nice to get out of the city and away for a few days.  But this was incredible!  The picture below was taken from where we stayed looking out over the area that we visited on safari.  As usual, captions will be posted below the pictures.

If you are wondering about the haze, it is not mist.  It is smoke from fires set to clear the brush.  Hunters (including poachers) do it, but so do the rangers.  It both flushes out wildlife and lets new sprouts come up.  The wildlife loves to eat the new sprouts and hunters lie in wait for them when they come to eat.  The rangers do it in the national park because it clears places so that the wildlife can be seen, but more importantly, when the new sprouts come up the wildlife come there to eat and thus stay in the park where it is easier to protect them.  If no burning is done in the park, many animals will go searching outside of it for the new sprouts and be killed by the hunters.  Again, some of that is sanctioned and not a problem, but many are poachers and that is.  In this photo, if you look carefully, you can see some antelope just left of the center of the picture (There are three in almost an exact straight line - the top one is standing between two trees, and the other two are down and closer to the center of the picture.)  and two warthogs.  The latter are just a bit past half way up the picture and half way between the center of the picture and the right hand edge.  They are dark in color, and walking in line toward the center of the photo.  The lead one has a bush just below him.

This is our driver on the left, and our guide (a ranger) on the right.  The guides carry the rifles (powerful enough to stop an elephant!) to scare off animals that menace those on safari (They fire them in the air.) and if absolutely necessary to bring down an animal that will not be persuaded.  He gave me the impression that the latter is almost never necessary.

Our guide again.  We road in Toyota Land Cruisers such as the one behind him.

They certainly have termites in Ghana!  This is one of numerous termite mounds we saw.  It is taller than I am.  These are common in the bush, but not unheard of in the city, either.

I know this is what you were waiting for: elephants.  Here are three that came down to drink from the waterhole and to play in it, which they did later.  There are three: two walking side by side in front, and one following up behind.  The guide told us that there were crocodiles in these waterholes, but that they know better than messing with elephants.  All the other animals that came down to drink were very skittish, many not ever getting up enough courage to drink and leaving again while still thirsty.  We wondered if that was due to crocs, so we asked the guide and found out the answer.

One of the many varieties of antelope to be found in Mole National Park.  I believe this is a Cob.

Have to get a warthog in here!  This one (Pumba maybe?  I neglected to ask. LOL) is walking right through a human settlement, as you can tell by the background.  Much food available for them there and they were all over the place, mixing with the inhabitants without incident, even though they can be very dangerous.  Apparently, there is peaceful coexistence there because they have it so good.

I am going to finish with four vultures, sitting in a dead tree.  They were plentiful in the park.  Beautiful birds when in flight, unless of course they are circling above you, I suppose.  LOL  But we didn't have that experience.

We would astounded by the plentiful wildlife in the park and by the opportunity to be among so much beauty created for us by God.  More to come,

Elder Emfield

Baboons

Captions are below the pictures that follow.

Some weeks ago we were invited to a meeting that was being held away from the city on the shores of Lake Volta, one of the largest man made lakes in the world.  On the way we traveled through baboon country and came across two troops while driving,  In each case we stopped to feed, observe and photograph them.  It was so much fun.  This is the first time I have seen them in the wild.  At the first stop the troop virtually surrounded us.  They were on both our right and left hand sides, and one climbed up on top of the car!  This is a picture of one that was on our left, in the road, but if you look ahead of him there is the shadow of another.  That is the one that was on the roof of the car.



At each stop most of the troop remained on the right side, near the bush.  In both troops there was an alpha male that took the majority of the food we threw from the vehicle.  And in the case of the second troop, he took it all!  Those who ventured too close were quickly chased away.  In the first troop the alpha male shared a little, both with the lesser males, and with the females and even with the little ones.



Some of the rest of the troop.  The picture wasn't really good because they were in the shade, but who can blame them?  Of course, if one has time to make the proper adjustments one can get a good picture in the shade.  We had to take the pictures rather quickly, as you may imagine.  Sooo.  Notice the baby on his mama's back.  The smaller ones are usually hanging on underneath.



This female was running along with us as we drove away from the first troop and toward the second.  She was one of those who had a baby hanging on beneath.



One of the alpha males stuffing his face with bread we threw out of the car.  Baboons are formidable creatures with large canine teeth that could be used to do serious damage to a human, if they wanted to.  Some troops do not have an ongoing relationship with humans, others do.  The two we met clearly did.  Adventurous Sister Emfield got out of the vehicle and took most of the photos.



We looked for more baboons on the return trip to Accra, but saw only one emerging from the bush.  It was afternoon and we suspected that most were staying out of the tropical sun.  It is interesting to note that this one is a different color than the others, which makes me wonder if he belongs to a different troop.

Of course, we are not here to watch wildlife, but to do the work of the Lord.  But, we do enjoy the opportunities when we get them.

Elder Emfield