Mikumi Safari

I finally got out of Morogoro for the day. T-Man, Dundy, Will, and Bird-Man were heading to Mikumi and invited me along for the ride. I had the opportunity to learn ELISA with the vet students but opted for the impromptu safari. We headed to load up with petrol (about $20 each) around 8 a.m. It took about an hour to get to the National Park but the drive was smooth and picturesque. Every 10-15 minutes we passed another village, each one abuzz with people and plastered with the usual VodaCom advertising. And then, Mikumi! Lonely Planet (I finally took a look at a guidebook) describes: “Mikumi, part of the vast Selous ecosystem, is Tanzania’s fourth largest national park. Within its 3230 sq km, set between the Uluguru Mountains to the north and the Lumango Mountains to the southeast, Mikumi hosts buffaloes, giraffes, elephants, lions, leopards, crocodiles and more, and chances are high that you’ll see a good sampling of these within a short time of entering the park.” Entering the park was another $20 (SO CHEAP!) and the weather was perfect, breezy and warm. Just to give you an idea of what kind of equipment we were working with…
Mom don’t read this part…To check out the animals or take pictures we just roll down the windows and sit out on them.

We entered the park—wishing I could still pass for 16 and save $5—and within minutes saw some giraffes. The park is massive and apart from the occasional Land Rover, surprising not packed with people. While the scenery is evocative of the San Diego Wild Animal Park, this is a real-life, no-joke park. No trams, just animals and grounds for them to wander. Every animal spotting was a thrill.

T-Man drove the Land Cruiser toward the hippo pools while Bird-Man was on the look-out for bird species to catalogue and record in his notebook. He’s a well-equipped bird watcher with USSR binoculars and a sweet camera—bird watching, I learned, is really quite an art. The hippos were AWESOME. They stayed in the water the whole time we were there but you could still see how massive they are.

Dundy insisted on exploring and by exploring I mean cheating death and getting as close to the crocodiles as possible. I was sure he was going to get eaten.

Don’t forget the baboon and the impala spotting. This is literally on the side of the road. We didn’t have to get out of the truck to take pictures of them or anything!

After some quality safari time we decided to break for lunch. I had a hamburger—for some reason having my second hamburger ever sounded really good—and fries (yes, T-Man, FREEDOM fries) at an over-priced hotel restaurant. The hotel was totally safaried out with posh little houses facing out to the plains and mountains, think the London millionaire meets Tanzania national park. While we were eating baboons were playing in the tree right in front of us! Too bad I didn’t want to share any of my fries.

Ready to see some elephants and simba (lions) we got back on the road, and what do you know, ZEBRAS!

We searched for a few hours but no luck on the elephants and lions, although Bird-Man had some excellent luck with his bird spotting. Around 5:30 we headed back out of the park and back towards Morogoro. On the road back we had our elephant spotting and like true tourists we hopped out of the car to snap some shots. The boys fell asleep on the ride home and after the requisite half-pound of pasta with tomato sauce I headed over to Bird-Man’s project house to close out an awesome day with more soccer. I couldn’t have asked for a better day to mark two weeks in Tanzania!