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Published: August 20th 2007
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THIS is Africa
Elephants in the plains, how much more picturesque could my life be?! As part of our orientation period, the school pays for all new faculty to go on a 3-Day safari! We hopped into 2 buses at 7am on a Wednesday and drove for about 6 hours to Mikumi National Park, just southwest of Dar. We arrived at about 1pm and checked into our rooms. We were served a full-on 3 course lunch before being given some free time to sit and read, nap, or generally enjoy our surroundings. Note: wandering around or exercising was not an option because you could not leave the designated walkway between the hotel and the bandas (cabins) for fear of being slaughtered by wild animals. No, I am not exaggerating.
So, around 4pm, we regrouped and hopped on our buses for our first drive around the game park. We saw so many zebras, giraffes, antelope-type beasts, water buffalo, warthogs, etc. It was so cool! I was amazed at how close we could get sometimes! I had never really known the true cuteness of a warthog prior to this experience. When they run, their tails stick straight UP into the air, and they have an adorable little waddle to their canter. They may be moving up in my
Elephant family
The little one tried to charge us, it was actually quite cute. They were really just as close as they look. list of favorite animals!
We then stopped at the hippo pool, where our admin. team promptly unloaded coolers of beer, wine, etc. so that we could have "sundowners" while watching the hippos frolic. It was a beautiful sunset! So cool to see the sun slowly move down on the wide open African horizon, and then to have real life hippos in the midst of the scene! There was also a random Crocodile or two, but they paled in comparison to the hippos.
After the sun was down, we drove back to camp for another 3-course meal and then played some board games before the generators were shut down at 11pm and we had to carefully wander back to our bandas for sleep. We woke up at 5:30 for a 6am game ride to spot some of the more early morning animals. We saw more of the giraffes, elephants, zebras, etc... but no lions, which is secretly what I think everyone wants to see on their first safari. We returned to camp for breakfast, and some casual meetings with the new director of the school. Then it was rest time before a 3-course lunch, break, and another game drive. We ended
Elephant
Other than at the zoo, when can you see a wild animal this close up!? Amazingly enough, we saw one twice his size on Day 2. at the hippo pool again, this time seeing a hippo out of the water, just meandering along the road. We also saw some hippos get frisky, and some came quite close to charging one of our new staff members! We headed home soon after the scare, and settled into a slide show presentation by the school expert, and a published author: Graham Mercer. The photos were beautiful!
That evening, as we sat outside eating our HUGE buffet dinner, we happened to see a buffalo wander through our camp. Not only was he wandering, he was limping. The Askari shone a flash lite on him so that we could see what was up, and that's when we saw 3 more buffalo in the bushes, "keeping an eye on him." Apparently this is a tactic that many herd animals use, when one is hurt, in order to protect him from a lion. However, should 4 or more lions appear on the scene, all protection is foregone in favor of every buffalo for himself. In any case, we took this as a sure sign that the buffalo would attract a lion into our camp - how cool! As we occasionally shone a flash
Mikumi National Park
This is where we stayed, where we safari'd and where the animals all seem to reside. Highly recommended for a short safari! lite around to check on the injured buffalo, we came across a family of elephants also hanging out in our camp! They did not appreciate the light in their eyes and soon left. The buffalo, meanwhile, had limped over to the end of the line of cabins, and was settling down right in front of my cabin area! Lions were pretty much guaranteed at this point, right?
So we all very carefully and quietly walked to bed, fingers crossed for seeing a lion in camp the following morning, on our final game drive. Well, the lions decided to come a little bit sooner than that, and we were all woken up at about 3am by the interesting sound of lions all around our camp! They didn't roar, just grunted and groaned as they walked around and did their thing. I eventually got up the courage to get out of my bed and peek out of the window (which was only a thin little screen, mind you) at them... but, being too afraid to use my flashlite, for fear of a pouncing lion in my bedroom, I didn't see much or very far. In the morning, however, everybody had heard (or
Banda number 9
My cabin for the safari. Surrounded by field, which was open for all animals... how can you really keep wild animals out in these places anyways? even smelled) the lions, and it was confirmed that at least 5 lions had been in camp. Similarly, when the Askari brought out the tea and coffee for us in the breakfast area, he began setting up at 5am. He said that he turned around and suddenly there were 3 lions IN the breakfast area with him! How scary!
So we ate quickly and jumped into our vehicles, certain that the lions were just around the corner. We sped all around the park, ignoring all of the more common sights of giraffe, zebra, etc. with eyes only on the prize. Needless to say, no lions were found.
Luckily I am going back to that very camp with my entire fifth grade class for four nights in October.
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ellie rivellino
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Can't believe you're teaching in Tanzania!!!
Congratulations on your choice of a new location...what an experience you're in for, Alex. I really enjoyed your amusing write-up, especially the contradiction between wishing to see lions and fearing their presence...I would have been right with you! Great photos too...I bet you spent a lot of time getting the blog just right...thanks for sharing! I'll miss you in October, the next time at TASIS (for the baby's arrival)...Ellie