A Language Older Than Words

The past two weeks were crazymagicalintensespecial - so full of life. I don't think I'll ever be able to properly explain it. Right now the most I can say is I would live all these days twice.

A Language Older Than Words is not only the name of the book I just started (and highly recommend), but also how I felt about being in Ngorongoro and Serengeti. Everything was talking to me - the trees, the dust, the animals, the rain, the clouds. I made room in myself for the energy these beings were so generously sharing with me, and I gave myself fully over to the land and the experience. I've begun fantasizing about a magical power that would let me close my eyes at night and re-see the day. Pictures aren't enough. Here are some anyway; the stories will reveal themselves. 

Dirt tan. This is from after a super dusty safari car ride in Lake Manyara National Park.

Our first view of the crater. I like the rain.

Another picture from the same lookout point. 

Our tent city on the rim of the crater.

Magical sunrise. The crater is a bowl of cereal. 

Cheetah kiss :) 

;

Black rhino! There are only 12 in the crater and 200 left in the world. They're being poached to extinction because their horns are highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine. Weird to think I might be part of the last generation of eyes to see this animal. 

A lone wildebeest in front of the crater wall.

Two wildebeest crossing the road. Cool rain in the background.

Buffalo skull.

Sleepy simba.

Yummy punim.

 A lackadaisical simba by the ladie's room.

Crested cranes mid-mating ritual.

Cape buffalo cuddle puddle.

Mama and baby vervet monkeys. 

The sunsets tell me stories.

The shifting sands. The rock is a marker of where the sands were in 2003. The sands move all together and in the shape of a crescent. It is a holy site for the Maasai because it is made of ash from the explosion of Oldonya Lengai, a volcano whose name translates as Mountain of God.

River in the sky.

A dead reedbuck. We know it was killed by a leopard because leopards are the only carnivores that peel the skin off their prey. I was surprised by how little the leopard ate.

The hungry leopard?

Another leopard. Meow.

Another night of sunset stories.

Topi, a ruminant that we saw for the first time in Serengeti. I love their colouring.

Mama simba with CUBS. I love baby lions. Rawr.

Hebert and Larry. After male cape buffalos lose their reproductive capacity, they leave the herds in pairs and spend the rest of their lives together. We caught these fellas in what our teacher, Babu Leeky, called a "peculiar behaviour." Babu Leeky had previously stated that he believed homosexuality was wrong (it illegal here) because it doesn't exist in the animal community. Hopefully Herb and Lar will make him rethink this notion.

Hippo kiss (they're probably actually fighting)

CUTE

Cool rock. When you hit any of the pocks, it sounds like its hollow. Serengeti steel drum.

Rays

Giraffe kindergarten! It's a real thing. So many watoto (babies).