Near Nairobi, Kenya / April 2012

I was traveling in a private car with our driver, Louise, and her cousin’s two young adopted African children and we went to a nearby game reserve. It rained a bit while we were there in the early goings. It was quite different from the parks we’d been experiencing, mainly because of their proximity being further away from civilization and the need to have an licensed parks driver and vehicle.

We came upon this water buffalo that had been rolling around in the mud. To the left of his head are seemingly whitish blurred dots. Are they mosquitos, or birds out of focus in the distance? Many animals like the mud because it adds another coat that the flies and/or mosquitos can’t penetrate and thereby keeps the bugs off. If you can believe it, even though they are not carnivorous, water buffalos are the number one killer of people in Africa.