Close Encounters of the African Kind-safari day 2

Day 2 of the safari we went to Lake Manyara. It was soooo beautiful!! Like a rainforest! So full of trees-exotic trees & huge green plants. There was a lot of shade as we were driving through so it felt good. Some areas we came into a huge open plain nearer to the lake.

Driving through the forest part, we saw tons & tons of baboons right alongside the road. LOTS of babies too! Tons were in the trees above us knocking off little pods to eat. Some were landing on us, pegging us in the head! Billy wanted to throw them back at them,haha. We also saw velvet monkeys & about 3-4 blue monkeys.

We saw elephants!!! They were just randomly throughout the place, not really together just one here, one there. We did see a mom & a baby though!

So the big story on this day was that we all had a "near death experience"! We (3 trucks) are driving along & see a huge elephant alongside the road up ahead. We stopped fairly close- my truck was on the right side of the road, another on the left alongside us & 1 truck behind. We turned off the engines, sat & watched him tear off a branch & eat it. He was on the left side of the road.
Then he started walking right towards our trucks (left side). He came closer & closer-right up to the truck next to us! The drivers started shushing us. We all watched in amazement & almost paralyzed fear as he stodd right up against the truck, blew dirt up all over the truck & gave really dirty looks. We were afraid he would just ram the truck & roll it like a toy. Then that truck would roll on us & we'd roll. I sat down right away & kind of braced myself for whatever would happen. We kept exchanging looks of fear & surprise w/ the others in the truck next to us. Leann was crouched down,praying for her life I think!
The elephant peed, walked past the truck, stopped by the truck behind us, then walked into the woods.

DEAR LORD ALMIGHTY! We pulled away & everyone in that truck was sitting down. We all popped up in the moon roof but they kept sitting. I laughed saying they were still so scared. A little later they all stood up & I asked,"How many of you need to change your pants??" They said "We all do!" We stopped at a rest area & we all just couldn't believe what happened. Some got great pictures. Their driver showed us where the tusk actually scraped the side of the truck. Holy Hanna-

SO-after that excitement, we got to see GIRAFFES!YAY! That was awesome. We were able to get out of the trucks & take pics. They were pretty far away.

So it was a dream come true!!! The BEST time of my life!!!!!!!
Jes