National Park Niokolo Koba

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It took us two full days of driving on a cramped truck, in the heat, over a road that has so many pot holes, we averaged in some sections 20-30km/hour to get here, but once we got to the national park, it was totally worth it. We saw our first big african animal, the Hippo.

We spent 2 nights here, so we were able to relax and enjoy the park. In the morning, we went for a nice relaxing boat ride along the river to spot Hippos, which are apparently one of the more dangerous animals in Africa. During the boat ride we spotted 3 hippos in the water ahead of us; so the boat operator turned off the motor and we drifted quitely towards the hippos, hoping to get closer to them, but as we floated closer and closer to where we last saw them, they weren't surfacing, we had no clue where they were, it was kind of errie in a way. When they didn't resurface, the boat operator turned the motor back on and we continued on our way. We did manage to get a few photos of the various monkeys, and hippos from the water, although I imagine once we get to East Africa the animal photos will be much better, this was just a teaser to show us whats to come in about 4 months.

In the afternoon, while Kathie stayed back at camp for some R&R, Jordan went out on a safari through the jungle in trusty Daphne. Saw lots more monkeys/baboons but not much else. We did, however, encounter our first experience with mud bogging. The guide took us up a route through a mud hole with no fresh tracks to be seen and sure enough, we got stuck. Out came the sand/mud mats and shovels. A sneak preview of what's to come in Cameroon. Sand was a piece of cake compared to getting out of mud, but we made it after deciding to turn around and go back the way we came.

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Photos

Bush Camp
Sunset over the baobab trees at one of our nicest bush camps between the national park and the Mali border.

Comments

[samia]

j'ai adoré
salut j'ai regardé presque tous les photos de votre blog et j'ai beaucoup adoré surtout les coucher de soleil et j'aimerai tant decouvrir ces endroits magnifiques surtout l'afrique , l'amérique avec des personnes comme vous qui aiment l'aventure et faire aussi beaucoup d'amis partout dans le monde , je vous conseille de visiter la Tunisie c'est un pays très beau à voir merci et bon courage à tous les deux samia de Tunisie

[Christoph]

Good Comment
I visited the Parc January 2009. The road N 1 is really a challange (and ony a few parts seem in construction). It seesm as to hinder tourists to com. But once in the park it was great! We enjoyed it ver much! Christoph