Gorongosa

We had a great opportunity  to go to Gorongosa, a very large national park in mid Mozambique.  This park was decimated during the civil war when soldiers killed most of the animals.  The park is down to 300 elephants, 40 lions, 5 zebras etc.  The park was bursting with life however.  We saw hundreds of baboons, hundreds of bush pigs, scores of monkeys , hundreds of imapalas, and all types of antelopes and the most beautiful birds.  I do not have room to show them.  We did see a large crocodile in the waters in the foreground of the last picture posted and caught a glimpse of an elephant as it walked away from us through the trees.  We were able to drive our car throught the park unaccompanied.  Due to the recent rainy season many of the roads were still closed due to mud but I can surely vouch for the parks nickname "The Lost Eden."  The plains were spectacular as far as you could see with animals all over.  The grass was green and lush.  In the forest it was higher than the car and in many areas impossible to see anything if it was there.  Greg Carr from Idaho  committed $40 million dollars to the park over the next 20 years and was given an exclusive contract to run the park.  It was well worth the drive inland.  The bridge in the top photo was destroyed during the war and rebuilt.  The canyon it crosses is spectacular.  The eagle on the ground with the white head had just caught a large catfish in one of the evaporating ponds and it was so large it could barely get airborne a few feet to get away  from us.  Tomorrow is Sunday and we will be receiving 3 volunteers to help us during the upcoming week.  I look forward to posting next weeks activites.