Safari nzuri sana!

Hello all!

On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, Laura and I got the opportunity to visit Mikumi National Park and go on safari! Safari literally means "journey" in Swahili, and what a journey it was--safari nzuri sana. A very good journey.

Although we went to Swahili classes on Tuesday morning, we left for Mikumi just after lunch and arrived around 2 P.M. We entered the park (and "park" is a relative term--Mikumi is something like 2000 square miles!) and drove around scouting out various flora and fauna until the park closed at 7 P.M.  Although five hours might sound like a long time to be driving around looking at animals, it certainly didn't feel like it! Tuesday afternoon and evening we were lucky enough to see more than a dozen elephants crossing the road right in front of us, two female lions, lots of zebra and giraffes, hippos staying cool in the water, herds of antelope and water buffalo and wildebeest, cranes, baboons, and much more!

Then Wednesday morning we got up early (the park opens at 6 A.M.) and were at it again. Because you pay for a 24-hour pass, we had until 2 P.M. on Wednesday to be in the park and we wanted to make the most of it! Some of the exciting moments on Wednesday included seeing a lion (very closely!) with its water buffalo lunch, finding many more zebras and giraffes and antelope, watching baby baboons play in a tree, and discovering four lion cubs lying with their mother in a culvert to stay cool during the hot day.  All of these things sound nice, but it's another thing entirely to see them for yourself. I've attached a few pictures from my collection (I took more than 200 while at Mikumi!), but even photos cannot do justice to the spectacular sights that we saw.

tembo 

twiga

punda milia

chui

simba

simba--check out the silhouette of the lion cub!

simba na "rafiki" (friend)

sunset on Tuesday evening in Mikumi

sunrise Wednesday morning--because Tanzania is so close to the equator, you can literally watch the sun move into the sky! As we watched, it took less than two minutes from when the sun peaked up above the mountain until it had fully emerged.

As we were getting ready to leave the park, the car broke down and we (Ema, Laura, and I) had to push it several times to get it started up again. Even then it would spontaneously stop running, which meant we had to push it again. Once on the highway, it continued to give us problems and eventually we had to be pulled to the nearest town and mechanic by someone who had stopped to help. We found it interesting that even our "good Samaritan" wouldn't help us for any less than 90,000 Tsh! Still, the car got fixed within a couple of hours and we were on our way back to Morogoro again. All's well that ends well. Granted, this is quite a gloss of the situation and the frustrations that always go with car troubles, but I think you get the idea. ;^)

Ema taking a look at the problem... 

Well, although there's always more to say, I think I'll stop there for now. 

Hope all is well in the Midwest--stay cool. ;^) 

All the best, 

Ellen