It's time for a safari
Hardly arrived in Tanzania two weeks ago, I am already ready to go on a safari, with the volunteers of the KVOC structure present. The Mikumi National Park will be our destination, being the nearest park to our camp (about 120km I think), so that's still a good half day on the bus to get there..
For this trip, we did two days of safari to enjoy and see a max. Of course, we needed a place to sleep, so we settled at Tiger Lodge, recommended by former volunteers. It is a good lodge, with everything you need (shower, "real" toilet, air conditioning, etc.), with a very nice manager, and especially a very affordable price. However, it doesn't propose a safari to the Mikumi NP. Because, yes, you must know that the park doesn't rent vehicles and doesn't offer a guide. Those are the lodges (and not all as you can see) or tourist companies that offer these excursions. For our part, we did our safari with Tan Swiss. Some of us preferred to stay in this lodge. What could be understood, as this lodge was more luxurious, with outdoor pool, WIFI, sofa and flat screen on the terrace, secured by a guard, etc. In short, it's quite different from Tiger lodge and prices too. So, although I slept at Tiger Lodge, I still enjoyed a little of this little comfort and this pool..
Well, it is 7 am, our guide awaits us to leave. On our first day, we decided to spend a full day of safari in the park. We had not even arrived at the entrance of the park that we had already seen some animals along the road: impala, zebras, baboons .. Once inside, the observations of large herbivores were quite fast. In less than an hour, there were already many herds of wildebeest, zebras, elephants and impalas which could be seen from near or far. We also saw a solitary lioness in the morning. The heat was already beginning to be felt, so we observed this lioness walking in the bush and between the cars to go under the shade of a tree, far from the roads. After some pictures of this beautiful feline, we went back to see the elephants. There was a group resting under the shadow of a baobab tree. We continued our morning on the park paths to observe this amazing wildlife. Finally, before lunch, we went to the ponds to the hippos, two big water points where we can see hippos, crocodiles and other mammals wishing to hydrate. With this heavy heat, it was our turn to go to eat and refresh ourselves with our "lunch box" bought at the lodge. For this, our guide took us to a corner of the park where a covered terrace is available for lunch. On the other hand, we must pay close attention to the opportunists surrounding us, the vervet monkeys. These "little" monkeys only expect one thing, to be able to recover part of our lunch, with or without our agreement, because they are not fierce .. So pay attention to his business !! And more precisely to the cameras.
After lunch, it's time for us to go back on the roads of the park, hoping to see other lions or better, a leopard, two of the BIG FIVE .. But unfortunately, we found that It was more difficult to make some observations in the afternoon, even for herbivores. On this great heat, many of them hid themselves in order to be far of the tourists and to take their siesta. Despite everything, we were able to see some herbivores, as well as many birds, such as vultures or kingfishers. We took the opportunity also to see some baobabs, closely. Besides, it is possible to climb on one of them. This is not easy for me, with my vertigo. But hey, my taste for adventure being stronger than my fear, so I climbed and I didn't do the smart. During our break "climbing", we had the surprise visit of a marabout, who landed with us. I could see that this bird was a sacred scavenger to swallow large pieces of bone. Well, the hour passes, the temperatures go down and it is already time for us to take the way back. But before leaving the park, a little surprise awaited us, we could see a group of lionesses hidden in the grass. On this last observation, with a sun setting behind us, we go back to the hotel..
The next day, back with our good humor, we left earlier hoping to see, closely , these felines seen the day before. The luck was with us, because we had a nice surprise. It was not one lioness we saw, but five lionesses and close enough to make great pictures. We were able to observe them walking, sharpen their claws on a tree or playing between them. Then, in an instant, their behavior changed, all went in the same direction, with a different look. What's happened? In fact, on the other side, there was a warthog, a little dizzy, looking for food but also walking in direction to our lionesses. This is where we felt the strain of this hunt, these lionesses advancing step by step towards their prey, minimizing the noise of their displacements. We see them coming closer together. First of all, 40, 30, 20 then 10 meters .. Ready to leap, to jump on this prey .. But there, a wrong step, the warthog raised his head. When he saw them, he ran away very quickly and escaped death.. To be short, this moment was just incredible. Personaly, I thought he will caught it. The warthog was really lucky..
After this big moment in emotion, we continued our safari. We still saw many elephants, two groups with a small elephant. We also came across an enormous herd of buffalo, with several small ones. In this morning, many observations were made of large mammals, and with many babies..
In short, we had another great day of safari.. This trip was just generalissime !! It was great to be able to see as many large mammals, failing to observe only their tracks during our study with KVOC.