Parks and Recreation

On the second day of our stay we headed from Dar es Salaam to the Mikumi National Park.  We spent the late morning and afternoon driving through the park looking for animals.  The area of the park is huge and so the animals range freely.  As you can see the park is very dry at the moment because they are moving from winter into summer (south of the equator so opposite seasons from here).  The summer is the rainy season and Fr. Mbiche recommended that we not come much later since the weather would be more changeable and with the dirt roads would make travel much more difficult. 

We were very fortunate in the number of animals we saw.  There were many impalas which we saw throughout the park.  After registering we made our way with our guide to our cabins.  These were much more comfortable than the ones that Denny and Tammy stayed in six years ago. They had attached bathrooms and showers - the lap of luxury.  We settled our belongings, made arrangements for dinner and then headed out for lunch.  We went to the private hotel for lunch and sat overlooking a watering hole.  There was a large herd of water buffalo at the water along with baboons.  Suddenly they all began to scatter.  We wondered what was coming.  Pretty soon a lone elephant came to the pool and spent some time there.  Little by little the other animals came back.  Here are some water buffalo we saw later in the day.

After lunch we began driving through the park.  It was amazing to see all of the animals roaming free and get fairly close to some of the animals.  We saw many zebras but my pictures of them got lost and Denny didn't have any on his roll.  We saw giraffe, we saw eland, we saw impala, we saw crocodile, we saw some hippoes but they remaind submerged, and the crowning glory were the lions.  We saw six.  Our guide said they could go weeks without seeing any so the fact that we saw so many was an extra treat.  We were able to get quite close since the lions had fed.  After feeding the lions become quite sedentary and docile.  They basically just sat there and were in the same spots the next morning when we went back to look.  I learned that lions only eat once a week so we were not in any danger.

 After several hours of touring we returned to the cabins for the night.  One disappointment was that we did not have any good, close sightings of elephants.  In fact, we only saw a few.  The next morning when we got up I walked to the side of my cabin, and what did I see?  Six elephants feeding in our "backyard."  It was pretty cool.  And then as we drove around some more that morning we saw a lot more elephants in the park.  There was one line of them moving across the plain toward the watering hole which you can see above with the impala in the foreground and the giraffes in the background.  It reminded me of a scene from "The Lion King" - only cooler. 

 

The elephants behind our cabins.

 

Later that morning, before we left hte park we visited with William who is the park superintendent.  He is a friend of Fr. Mbiche.  We learned that he is being transferred to another park and will be beginning his new job soon.  It was interesting to hear of his work and he invited us to visit him in the other park in the future.  There seem to be two kinds of parks.  One is a haven for animals and the other focuses on plants.  There is one near Matamba that focuses on plants that Denny and Tammy visited last time but we did not have time to visit on this trip.

 

Our third day was taken up with travel.  We headed to Njombe which is the diocesan seat in which Matamba is located.  We had hoped to meet the bishop but he had been called away.  Our big adventure that day was that the truck overheated as we went up into the mountains.  Thank the Lord for Denny's car knowledge as I have none.  Between him and Fr. Mbiche they got the car patched up and we could continue on our way.  We stopped at a nearby town and some of the local men worked on the car to patch and repair but it would be a temporary fix.  The next day in Njombe, we took the car into the shop and it was repaired.  When I saw the mountain road leading to Matamba I was glad the car was in working order!

 

We tried to go to an internet cafe before we left Njombe but there was no electricity.  This is a common occurance in Tanzania.  We were often faced with lack of electricity or internet access.  Not like carrying a smart phone around with you for instantaneous and constant connection.  This is one of the reasons we were not able to post to the blog - no connection for most of our time in Tanzania.