Safari - Mikumi

We just got back from a two night stay at Mikumi National Park for a group safari. Mikumi is about a 4 hour drive west of Dar es Salaam, but it feels about a million miles away. After about a half an hour of driving, the landscape completely changes from bustling streets and densely packed buildings to open fields and beautiful blue mountains.



We all piled in to our safari vehicles and settled in for a long drive. The time flew by and as soon as we knew it we were entering the boundaries of Mikumi and we got to open the rooftops of our car and continue the last legs of our road trip safari style!





We went on four game drives total: two in the evenings and two in the mornings. Even the drive in blew all our expectations away - we saw giraffes, elephants, zebras, impalas, cape buffalos and baboons before even getting to the lodge! We had heard that seeing lions was very rare and certainly not a guarantee, so we kept our eyes peeled but had low hopes...and then we found three lions eating a zebra! And THEN we found FIVE lions - a mama and her cubs - eating a buffalo!!! It was unreal. We thought it couldn't get any better than that until we saw a male lion being chased by a herd of cape buffalo at a watering hole right behind where we were eating breakfast. The whole experience was amazing and something none of us will ever forget.









Now we are back at UDSM for three nights until we are allowed to go back to Zanzibar. We were told by the U.S. Embassy not to be on the island for elections, which take place on Halloween, due to the history of political friction between CCM and CUF, the two main political parties. We have been told that there will most likely be no problems, however, as this year the Zanzibari government has compromised and set up a coalition government, where the winner becomes president and the loser becomes vice president. Guess we'll see!