Giraffes

The last herds of giraffe in West Africa have found a refuge just 60 km from Niamey, and Jodi and I took one Sunday afternoon (one of my two entire days off during my entire 40 day trip to Niger!) to go visit. It's right on the main road and amazingly easy to get to - you can usually see the giraffes from the road itself!

One of the promised landscape pictures - the soil is incredibly sandy, but during rainy season everything turns from brown to green. And one of the everpresent termite mounds.

They are so beautiful - I took a lot of movies of them, which unfortunately I can't load - we just stood in the truck bed overlooking the cabin and watched - much fun!

Then we decided to get out and walk around a little - giraffes have incredibly small poop for such a large animal!

Me "next to" a giraffe - this picture has not been photo-shopped! They have no fear.

Road scenes - this is a little boy herding his family's animals - cows, sheep, and camels. This scene repeats itself over and over across Niger.
As does this one... I have never seen vehicles loaded as heavily - this happens to be incredibly precious firewood. One day in Niamey, I saw a minivan drive by with a cow lying upright strapped to the top, facing forward, as if it was cruising around the city! I was so sad to have not gotten a picture, as it was one of the funniest sights I've ever seen!