Lions, giraffes and zebras…oh, my!

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to go on our first safari! (our internet has been down - sorry for the delay) Students from Wartburg College in Iowa are spending the semester in Tanzania. Unfortunately, their supervisor here had to return to the States for family health issues, so we have been able to take them to villages and help them get settled. Part of their experience here is a trip to Mikumi National Park, which is only about 1 ½ hours from Morogoro. We were lucky to be able to experience this with them.

We were excited and were certainly not disappointed! The first sighting of giraffes in the distance was almost magical. I had imagined that we would see a few animals, probably far off in the bushes, but I was wrong! We saw hundreds of animals – wildebeests, giraffes, zebras, elephants, hippos, impalas, buffalo, warthogs, baboons, many types of birds, etc… , and they were close! Many were on the side of the road or on the road, and we got a little closer than planned to some elephants. At one point we counted 22 giraffes surrounding us- wow.

We stayed at a lodge in the park and sat under the stars of the southern sky late into the evening listening to the sounds surrounding us. We heard a lion in the distance, and I was glad it stayed that way. There were animals everywhere – an impala was just outside our door, and many more were on the field area in front of our room. We tried to make out shapes in the distance, but we will never know what was there.
It was a fantastic experience, and hopefully will entice some of you to visit!