It’s been an adventurous 30 hours to say the least!! Then again…what isn’t an adventure here I guess?!?!? :)
I went to class all morning and finally after 4 really long/slow lessons we’ve moved into learning times/dates/numbers/math!! I wasn’t feeling the greatest (kind of sick to my stomach all morning) but I ate a quick lunch, grabbed some clothes to pack and met Pastor H, Luka, and Sophia at the car about 12:40pm. Sophia is 20 and is from Germany. She is here @ the Seminary for one year teaching English to the Kindergarten class (she has been here since September already). It was nice to have some company! We had to make a couple errands in town, and then it was off to Mikumi National Park (the 4th largest game park in the country)! It is only about 45 minutes away to the non-official entrance to the park, then we had to drive another 30 minutes on the same paved road where we were able to see a few elephants before actually coming to the official entrance where this is a tiny museum. As soon as we drove through the entrance we turned right into our lodge for the night so we could check-in and drop off our things. It is a nice safari lodge-as you are literally in the game park and the lodge had even created its own small waterhole near the restaurant/lounge area so one can see animals while eating.
It was about 3pm when we went out for our first game drive. Luka drove our vehicle the whole time in the park to give PH a rest!
NOTE: if you have never been on a game drive before, it’s not like what we see in movies or think: there are not animals everywhere ALL the time…one has to look for them. It is a Large area and most of the animals travel in packs or herds and they move around…a lot! It does not mean that when we were in an area where there were many animals that we had to stop the car for many a zebra crossing, or impala, or buffalo, or elephant, or giraffe!
We drove around from 3-7pm and at first saw quite a few elephants near the road (the elephants at this park are not real large- about medium sized) - also some baby ones! Also right next to the road were about 6 or 7 large buffalo practically submerged in a pit of mud/water staying cool (it made for a good photo)! We saw herds of zebra, impala, eland, and giraffes!! I absolutely fell in love with giraffes as we saw SOOO many of them! When my family visited a few parks in Northern Tanzania we saw some giraffes, but not that many and very few up close…but Mikumi Park is crawling with giraffes!! After our trip 4 year ago I ended up really not liking zebra because it was like seeing deer in the States…but at this park I think I saw more giraffes than zebra so I was a happy camper!!! We saw some waterbuck, and some wildebeest (surprisingly and unfortunately not too many though). We stopped at a hippo pool where we saw about 15-20 hippos in the water (their top half anyway) and there were also a couple crocs in the water, except they of course only show their eyes!! :(
We saw 2 different cape buffalo herds, and one of the herds was incredibly large- at least 100+ and we stopped the car because we saw that the whole pack was slowing moving across the road right to the other side where there was water/mud…it was exciting to watch for about 20 minutes as the buffalo just kept coming and coming from the field… most of them stopped to look at us for a few seconds before continuing on…I only got scared a couple times… but when you have a hundred buffalo staring at you wouldn’t you be at least a little concerned?!?!
Many times we will be driving and see nothing so it’s nice to just feel the warm/cool breeze (as it got later) on my face and see the sun setting behind the clouds…it was so peaceful. I would also say it was something tranquil to see a lone giraffe in the distance slowly walking gracefully, yet confidently across the plain, with the outline of the sun behind the clouds and the shadow of continuous mountains…
It’s one thing to just see the animals, and the herds standing around and eating grass…it’s another thing when you see other interactions between the animals and realize that there is also so much Life. For instance, driving close to an impala that is right next to the road standing completely still with it’s beautiful horns and beady eyes- practically a statue…and then all of a sudden it turns and sprints away into the trees… or watching two male impala fighting each other using their horns… to turn off the car, silencing the engine while we watch the buffalo herd ever continuous follow one another to the waterhole…witnessing 2 giraffes “necking” as PH calls it- which actually means they’re fighting…I had never seen it before, but it is incredible how they can swing their long necks in a circle to hit the other… a 3rd giraffe was standing nearby until all of a sudden it too, joined in on the fight… I took a couple videos of this!!! When we were driving back to the lodge for the night we also saw a mother elephant very close to the road and the young one nursing :) This is what I mean when I say that the animals aren’t just animals to look at and take pictures of anymore, but rather, it is a witnessing of great life inside this park.
Once back at the lodge we washed up and went to the lounge area where we had some water and popcorn and read some newspapers. A man who works at the lodge (therefore obviously knowing PH very well as PH brings students here all the time) sat with us and we chatted with him for a few minutes, then we decided we had better get to the restaurant to the table prepared for us. We had ordered our food dinner when we checked in earlier, and I had trouble deciding as it was a 3 course meal and I am not used to having so much to choose from…let alone anything to choose from! :) I had a salad, some (warm) bread, beef kabobs with rice and vegetables, and for dessert we all had some warm pieces of banana in a sweet/cinnamon sauce (amarula?)…it was very tasty!! The man that knows PH is very thankful for how much service he brings to the lodge and wanted to thank him so he ordered us a bottle of wine for dinner!! When I was in the supermarket I looked over the wine section and noticed one kind called Tall Horse (but there is a giraffe on the front) and the red merlot kind had a blue giraffe! I have always wanted to try it, so guess which wine was brought to our table??! The same one!! My favorite color with my favorite safari animal…and red merlot wine is my favorite wine! (It is actually South African wine). I was incredibly full, and it was 9:30pm. We went to our rooms and Sophia and I sat outside to see if we could see any animals…there were a few gazelle or impala behind our cabin, and some in front as well!! We had our own little house as there was one room with 4 small beds in it and another room with a HUGE bed in it (bigger than King size)! I wanted to sleep near the window though so I could look out at the stars before going to bed so I took the smaller bed in the other room!!
It was finally about 10pm when I went to bed, but I did not sleep very well because I was paranoid about the noises I was hearing ( it seemed like there was an insect party in my room)! Haha Anyway, 5:30am came way too early!!
Wednesday January 30, 08
Now, of course I should have remembered that this is “Africa time” therefore it’s always at least a half hour later then when people say to meet…but I guess I forgot, or just assumed that since we were at this park that it was a tourist place and so we would just be on time… so Sophia and I were out on our porch with the coffee brought to us at 6am (it’s still dark) waiting for PH and Luka to meet us at 6 like they said, so we could get out on a game drive early- at 6:15ish….well…. they eventually make it over-about 6:40am and after they finish we get going around 6:50!
We are driving for maybe 10 minutes when we run into a couple that had a flat tire and had the manual out on how to change it…so Luka, being the jack-of-all-trades that he is, hops out and changes it for them…super quickly! In the meantime, I had plenty of giraffes to watch in the field nearby! Sophia and I got out to take some pictures with the giraffes behind me :) We drove some more until we came to a large dip in the road where there were large trees on both sides….and Tons of baboons sitting in the road and the trees…there were some little ones playing and swinging as well. We stopped the car to watch them for a while…also getting some good laughs! Talk about entertaining… We continue on to the hippo pool…the crocs are still in the water… we then drive over an hour around a different end of the park, which was completely barren- it was a densely wooded area but we saw maybe a few impala, a couple buffalo, and a couple giraffes, and guinea fowl of course… there were also many tsetse (?) flies in this area so we kept our windows up! We were supposed to eat breakfast at 10am back at the lodge, but because we were so far out we didn’t get back in until 10:30, but it was nice to just eat by ourselves…with the company of watching an elephant family in the distance, some buffalo, giraffes, and at the waterhole right next to the restaurant area a family of warthogs came to play in the water!! The little ones were so adorable! (Note: Whenever we would see a warthog, PH and Luka would call out: Wartburg!!) We had bread, cereal (with warm milk of course), mango, watermelon, pineapple, and they would make an omelet or eggs any way you liked, so I got scrambled eggs and bacon!! Another big meal! Also, one other thing I should mention… there is something called Marmite which the Australians and New Zealanders eat much of…but it is thoroughly disgusting, unless you are Pastor Hafermann… it is 100% vegetarian, and It comes in a jar and it looks like a solidified form of car oil…maybe like molasses (dark brown in color)…it is topping for bread and PH enjoys it, with some Banana jam on top, because Marmite is incredibly salty. It may look like chocolate in a jar, but don’t let it fool you! I decided to try some on my bread- just one piece… it was, well, I kept it down-let’s just say that! PH has story after story of people coming to try it and vomiting it back up! Haha Luka won’t touch the stuff, and Sophia didn’t try it either.
We decided to go back out for a couple more hours so we checked out and drove around from about 11:45-2:45pm, visiting the Hippo Pool two more times and the crocs still hadn’t come out to sun themselves :( We did see a couple different kinds of storks, some quails (?), and a couple bald eagles…along with numerous giraffes of course! We watched a couple small elephant families spraying mud and water on themselves at a small waterhole. Also, Luka spotted a small box turtle on the side of the road, and a young python about a meter long. Well, little did I know that PH used to have a python as a pet, so he really likes them. We get out of the car and I carefully follow him as he follows, or “chases” the python slithering through the grass. He tells me to get my camera ready and leans down to touch the end of the snake and as he touches it, the snake lurches, I took my picture and took off running for the car! Sophia and Luka watched from the road! :) PH had a good laugh about that one! If pythons bite, they are not poisonous though! In all the years he has been coming to Mikumi he has never seen a python so he was very excited!
We were getting very tired, and I was getting a headache from furiously looking for a lion for the past day, so we headed out about 3pm!
NOTE: Although PH had story after story about encounters with a lion (or lions) we did not see any. However, it is very rare to even see one so I was very lucky to be able to see quite a few when I was here 4 years ago! I was pretty bummed, but I am not in Tanzania to see lions, and I kept thinking, is it really that big of deal? It’s exciting to anticipate seeing one, but once you do, will I say, okay-my trip is complete, or my life is complete because I saw a lion??! So, I am okay with the other wonderful animals we did see :)
I took a nice nap on the way back to the seminary where Sophia and I got back in time for tea at 4:30pm. I started to journal until dinner, and when I went to dinner at 6pm the sky was incredibly dark and I knew a storm was coming any minute…well, during dinner did it ever lightning and thunder! I don’t think I have ever heard thunder so loud (maybe that’s because here, there is no where to go to be completely inside, so it’s much easier to here!) Sister Aileen and I do not like storms so we cringed and I covered my ears every time :) We knew the power was going to go out, as unreliable as it already is, so I come back to my room to sign online for a few minutes and at 6:45 I was on for maybe 3 minutes to say some hellos, and the power went out. So unfortunately, I couldn’t do anything on my computer the rest of the night, nor finish this blog! I studied Swahili for 2 hours and was going to go to bed by 9:30pm, but it ended up being around 10pm, right as the power came back on actually! I thought I wouldn’t get it until morning!
Hope you enjoy the few (of many) pictures from the mini-trip!!
with love,
Alana :)
a wonderful view from my school!
this is the mountain I climbed! 
