The Group

Aaron Franczek, Collin Hartman,Monica Kling, Sarah Meleski, Claire Pattison, Amanda Schmidt, Becca Scholz, Alyssa Stuiber, Becky Thorn, Ryan Treviranus, Gracie Ventura Haas, Marcie Weiss, Jenny White, Robert Bhatia, Jill Braasch, Jenni Herrick and Laine Philippa

Monday, June 4, 2012

Safari by Becca Scholz

Everyone is having a lot of fun but it is getting to the point that we are missing our loved ones. Before we leave this beautiful country we visited Mikumi National Park. The best part about this national park is that you don't even need to really go in the park to see the animals. The main road goes right straight through the national park. Right away we saw baboons followed by elephants. Jenny White thought they were fake because they were standing so still and that they were an advertisement for the park. She realized that they were real once they started to move! All along the road we saw giraffes, gazelles, and zebras!!!!!!

Before we went into the actual park we stopped at our hotel to drop off our things. We got to the park at around 4:30 p.m. and had a couple of hours so we thought to look around. Turns out when we got there that we needed to be back by the gate by 6. The sign however said we needed to be out by 7? Well either way we had a guide with us in Bumble Bee our truck. Right away when we got in through the gate we saw a giraffe which was really close to the truck. Then we saw gazelles, water buffalo, warthogs, and zebras. We travelled around on the dirt road until we saw some more zebras and a few more elephants. OH BUT JUST  YOU WAIT!!!!! WE SAW A LION!!!!! OMG!!!!! We only got to see the ears, tail, and paw. We all tried to climb up the truck so we could see more but we couldn't because they were so far away. After awhile we headed towards the water hole. There we were able to see hippos and one opened its mouth. Since it was later at night the hippos were starting to come out of the water. Hippos hide in the water during the day because they get sunburned. Our guide was extremely nice we were in the park until 6:30. Some reason I feel like the rule about being out at 6 wasn't true.

The next morning we woke up every early and was got to the park around 8 A.M. Again we were able to see gazelle, water buffalo, zebras. While on the road we stopped for a family of elephants. Peter turned off the truck and we were able to hear them stomp through the grass. My favorite part about turning off the truck is that you are able to hear the animals around you and hear nothing but nature. During the times that we saw nothing it was nice to experience the quietness that nature had to offer.We travelled through the park and saw a lot of the same animals we saw the night before. We stopped at a camping site where we took a break at a 300 year old Baobab tree.  Heading towards the other side of the park we encountered the same lions we saw the night before. Another truck passed us and gave us news of another lion that was closer to the road. We headed towards the other lion on the road and the lion was less than 100 feet away from us. Almost everyone freaked out!  The lion roared a few times and had its ears back. We were in her territory and she was not too happy. Since everyone was freaking out I feel that we were probably making her feel more uncomfortable. After seeing the lion we made our way back to Dar.

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