The Places I've Been

Pendjari is a game park in northern Benin, about 3 hours from Kara. It's a true safari experience; those East African safari parks are nothing more than big outdoor zoos, with animals just sitting around and lazily watching yet another batch of cheesy tourists drive by in the Sam's Safaris tour bus. In West Africa, you have to work for it and you get to drive around by yourself with no guide and few rules, which makes the animal encounters you have much more exciting...So anyways, here are some pics from the trip. My teammates Bryan and Dave and I went for 2 days with their older boys, Isaac, Graham, and Elijah. We had a blast, seeing lots of big mammals and countless beautiful birds. Yes, I've gotten into bird watching, mostly because my teammates are into it, but also because West Africa is home to a huge number of rare and beautiful birds.