Niokola Koba National Park

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November 27, 2005

After a very relaxing, lazy day (even by Senegalese standards) on Saturday, we all geared up for a trip to the National Park near Tambacounda. It’s considered to be the best park in Senegal, and it was beautiful. Earlier in the week, we asked Ikupa if she had been to the park, and although she had been once before, she wanted to go again. On Saturday she sent us a note, through Maktah (the Africare driver), saying to be ready at 6:45am to go to the park. We headed out early and drove an hour to the park’s gate. Once we entered the park we almost immediately saw a warthog family passing across the road in front of us. While driving, we had a huge hoard of flies following us; Ikupa said that they were a cousin of the tse-tse fly, but don’t carry any illnesses. They followed us the entire time we were in the park, even though the windows were closed and they couldn’t get in. Soon after we saw some red and green monkeys, really close to the car. Over the course of the day we also saw several kinds of birds and antelope. Our guide took us to two different areas which he called ‘hippo lookouts’, but we never saw a hippo. While looking at the river, John and Alex (we were in the bathroom) heard a really big splash, and the guide said that it was a hippo jumping into the water. Who knows if this is true, or something they say to wind up the Tubabs, but it worked. We spent awhile, trying to identify every ripple we could see in the water, but never actually saw a hippo.

Before lunch, we saw one of the coolest things in the park. Apparently the park took ownership of a leopard cub, who was orphaned in the wild, adopted by a French woman, and eventually turned over to them. He’s not a cub anymore, and lives in a large, caged area in the middle of the park. We were really lucky that the guide found him, and that he was lazily lying around, right next to the edge of the fence. We could have stuck our hand in and touched him, he was that close. He was asleep when we arrived, but woke up, and had a good look at us for awhile. The guide stuck a long piece of grass into the cage, and we got a good look at all his teeth. He doesn’t know how to hunt, so animals are put into his cage for him to eat; this was evidenced by the skull we saw laying nearby. The cage itself was questionable. It was really tall, but made out of regular wire fencing. We were hoping for something a little stronger. The leopard never showed any sign of aggression though, so we were never actually concerned. The whole experience was really cool, especially since, even at the zoo, you can never normally get that close to a leopard. He was really beautiful, and I think we could have watched him for hours.

Afterwards, we headed down to the banks of the Gambia River, where we had a lunch that Ikupa had prepared for us. It was really nice, and surprisingly, not one of the tsetse flies that had been following us for hours, bothered us while we were down there. They stayed up the road, buzzing around the car. After lunch we headed over to a big, rickety suspension bridge. The guide breezed across it quickly, followed by a more timid but determined Ikupa. Marian was next, followed by Alex, who is scared of heights. He got out halfway, and decided that he’d rather come back, so we took their picture out there, then she continued on and he came back. John was almost out of his mind with excitement at this point (you know how he loves bridges), and could hardly wait for his turn. He quickly scooted out to the middle, followed by a very timid me. The bridge was swinging and some of the cables were broken. The guide had told us to make sure that we stepped on the steel bar and the wood plank at the same time, because the wood isn’t sturdy, and at that point, I bailed. My safety radar told me not that this was a terrible idea. So, after getting a picture also, I headed back, and John continued on. Alex eventually made it across, and the five of them took off on the other side of the bridge to see baboons. I was really disappointed to miss them, but really couldn’t imagine making it back again if I did muster up the courage to go across the bridge once. I knew it was definitely out of the question when I heard John muttering about the structural integrity of it. I got a bunch of really good pictures of everyone else though, from far enough away that you can’t tell that Alex is scared out of his mind. The guide took the group to see a group of baboons, crossing the road about 20m ahead. It was a pretty large family of them, some had already crossed the road, while others remained on the other side. John, Alex, Marian, Ikupa and the guide must have cut off their path and split the group, which they didn’t appreciate, because they surrounded them and started squeeking like monkeys / barking like dogs. They could see them all around them, staring and making frightened gestures. The guide seemed fine, and eventually they calmed a bit, although they did bark until everyone had left. After crossing the bridge, we took a long drive back through the park, seeing more antelope, baboons, warthogs and birds before leaving the park. On our way back home, we went through Missira, and gave Ikupa and Maktah a good laugh when we asked to stop to buy bread, and returned with ten loaves. It’s really good bread…

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Photos

Warthog
A warthog in front of the car

Us on the bridge
This is as far as I went!

Comments

[Jeremy Trudel]

Miss TV yet?
Apparently you guys are having some ups and downs on this adventure of yours, but I glad to hear that you are both doing well and are safe. I love the pics keep 'em coming! John, don't know if you're a fan or not but the Raptors are having their absolutly worst season ever! Be cool! luv Jer.

[Barbara Flynn]

Hi guys, Colleen just turned 19 this week. Maybe I'll send her to visit you for a vacation (?) Take lots of pictures.....