Africa, yawning hippo

With the new printer and projects to do in the darkroom traveling is over for awhile. Luckily Lake Havasu is a great place to live so I won't suffer. I remember living in Phoenix years ago and hating to come home from vacation. Now when I come back to town and see the lake driving in, it's great to be home. However I would like to plan a trip to Iceland, in summer the days last forever with long periods of twilight and dawn for photography. A friend who was there on a photo trip told me of leaving a 8 PM wake up call so he could go out to photograph. Also its been months since I have been in Turkey and need to get back again.

Have been going through some photos from a three month trip to Africa so will post some. In Africa I traveled with http://africa-in-focus.com/, we traveled in a truck but a truck with real seats and windows. Slept each night in tents but had a cook, driver, and guide. Wasn't sure I would like Africa but now I want to get back, it was great.

The guide told us a story about why hippos yawn, actually they are not yawning. It seems like when they were made they were told they must stay on land. The hippos wanted to spend there days in the water and asked why they couldn't spend the hot daylight hours in the water. They were told that they had such big mouths and would likely eat the fish. So they promised to eat no fish and that they would raise their heads up periodically and open there mouths wide to show they weren't eating any fish. For most of the day hippos do stay in water but come out to eat grass at night. The first night we camped in the Serengeti I heard chomping outside the tent and when I looked out there was a hippo eating grass a few feet away. Not the only time hippos kept us in our tents as they are very territorial, not to mention big. Nothing will bother the tents but humans in the open are another thing. You always were told to pitch tents far enough apart to allow for animals like hippos and elephants to pass between and to shine your flashlight around before leaving the tent in the dark, if you see eyes in the beam of the light do not go out.