Vacation at Parc W, 2013

Right after Christmas, we had an opportunity to load up the car and head on down to Parc W where we basically sit around, read, talk, play games, chat some more and oh yeah, go look for animals. It is funny to find that when new people come out and they have been someplace like Kenya or South Africa, they become so disappointed at the lack of lion sightings. But, this year, the water buffalo and horse antelopes and other deer like creatures were out in abundance! We did see a herd of Elephants the first night, but I don't have pictures. We watched them through some trees and when we pulled up to where we could get some pics, the male stomped his foot, flapped his ears and then turned around and walked away. They didn't even charge at the car! 

 But, it was nice to get away from Niamey for a few days and be able to relax with others, sitting around a campfire, freezing at night, yes, I said freezing. I think it got down to around 14 degrees C. When you sit on top of the car early morning in hopes to catch sight of lions, it gets pretty chilly up there. I don't know if you can see the bird below. It was a rather pretty bird which are plentiful in this park.

 As I said the water buffalo were out in huge herds. Whenever we found a smaller one by itself, we would watch, and wait, not because the buffalo did anything funny, but because he was potentially the next dinner for a few lions. But, that never happened.

 Around the park, the guides have made these "salt licks" for the animals to come enjoy. Here you can see a horse antelope on his knees partaking of the salty solution. If lions were in the area, I don't think he would be on his knees...just saying. All in all, a very enjoyable time. The kids got to go hiking quite a bit and Jayson even found out what happens when you step on a thorn! ouch. It went into his foot and I think he thought he was going to die. But, he survived.