This is what the climb looked like all the way up (or down) pretty much.

The Crutchers have done this hike before while it is raining and cold. We wished for some sprinkles as we walked through clouds and clouds of dust! I don't know which is better...walked through mud or dust?? It was a very hot day needless to say. Sometimes you had to crawl to get through. I have never been so dusty in my life!

We took about a 30 min. lunch break when we reached the top. I have to tell you a little bit about this picture. You would never guess, but two weeks before this hike, I had been battling something. I had been having body ache and chills, but never really had a fever. Many times I'd wished I could go to bed. But there was work to be done, classes to teach, children to discipline, etc... The Lord had given me strength to carry on with my work. Did I take anything? No. Some of you know how much I hate taking anything! Anyhow, everyone I talked to about it diagnosed me with malaria. "Great!" I thought. But then again, the locals think if you are sick, it is most likely malaria. Saturday night before this hike, I finally broke in to a fever. And it was a good one. I did break down and took some Advil. Slept like an angel! Woke up feeling great! Ready to face my mountain! So I thought... When I reached the top, I noticed I wasn't hot like everybody else...I was cold! I was actually shivering! And to think I still had 5 more hours to hike! Not good. This time I didn't think twice. I had brought some Advil with me and quickly took 2. Somehow I made it to the bottom. Someone told me "Climbing a mountain is all in the mind." In this case I'd say it was all in the Advil! :) I still don't know what I had, but I'm glad I'm over it.

These are some of the breathtaking views. Wow!

You feel rather small. It is a great feeling.

It was great reaching the top. What an accomplishment! Never mind how much we complained all the way up...It is a volcano; inactive at this time. I have never been to the top of any volcano, but this one was humongous!

I couldn't get the hole crater in my camera. These are from three different angles.

Quite impressive.

We were extremely tired by the time we reached the bottom. I know you can't tell. It was one of those pictures in which you are forced to say: "Cheese!"

















I love this picture of the boys! They were so filthy! (we all were!) I was so proud of them! It was a tough hike. They haven't seen anything yet, but they are determined to climb Mount Kenya. They both carried their own water and lunch. We'll let you know how they do in the next hike. Great job boys!

Ngong Hills Part I

We decided to take a trip with the Dosses to the Ngong Hills one sabbath afternoon. It was sunny when we left Maxwell, but when we reached the top, we noticed it was raining on Maxwell.

Introducing our new vehicle. We have thought of different names for it, but haven't nailed down one. Derek and the boys would like the "Antichrist," (if you have seen "The Gods Must Be Crazy" you'll understand). I don't particularly like that name. So they have thought of "BB" (short for "British Beast") a little bit of an improvement.


We took some rough trails... Don't worry the truck is made for it (I wish it wasn't!). I don't particularly like to go four-wheeling. We had to make sure all of our body parts we'd like to keep were in the car

The boys had a blast going through the trails.

Ngong Hills part II

This is what we saw from inside the car.

Not very roomy isn't it? Even though the car is old, 17 years to be exact, I was a bit concerned about scratching it! To my surprise, there were no more scratches than when we first started.

You can't seem to go anywhere without your vehicle breaking! And it wouldn't be fun if it didn't! Ours just didn't want to start. So we had to do, what we had to do! (See below)

Push down hill! Thank goodness we had parked on top of the hill! Some Masai boys helped us push it down.

Camping at the Masai Mara

Here we are again on same spot two years and one month later. The boys have definitely done some growing!

Here's our camping crew.

This is how the boys prefer to ride while on safari.

So ugly...yet so cute!

Cat pile.

This is what's left of the guy who got out of his car! They are having a blast with someone's hat.

Just shaking some rain off.

He must've been staring at something. I hope it wasn't one of our kids who were in the other car!

Here are the guys being funny. Richard (the tallest) is boys' dean, Derek (remember him?), Elvin is the computer graphics and P.E. teacher. The three of them are like little boys with big toys.

African sunsets are truly beautiful. You will see me posting more of these. I really like them. We are told the sunrises are just as nice... we just can't seem to drag our posteriors out of bed early enough to see any!

This picture is worth a thousand words... We have seen 4 out of the "Big Five." The Big Five consists of elephants, rhinos, leopards, lions, and cape buffalo. Richard spent 14 years growing up in Africa and never once saw one. He considered himself blessed after this weekend. So did we. We didn't have to wait 14 years!! They are truly beautiful animals.


Most common wildlife shot.

This time we saw lots of elephant herds.

African Sunsets are truly beautiful.

Sometimes the clouds are so low it looks like you could just reach out and touch them.

We finally got to see lions! And lots of them too. They are so beautiful and amazingly big. We went camping hoping to see them as we did not see them when we first came for a visit. Since we lived in Tennessee for 13 years and visited the Smokies at least once a year and never saw a black bear, we were beginning to get a bit concern....May be there is a reason why we never saw a black bear, but lions? We HAD to see lions! And when we first saw them, I almost cried! It was a dream come true! A friend and I agree that for some reason they don't look mean at all! They look like you could get off your car and pet them! (we were afraid to try it out!)