Day 1
Hi everybody its me again. I have to say that Africa is FANTASTIC. We just started our safari this morning and we have already seen two giraffes. They were very young. Our guide said one was 5 and the other he did not say. If the other was 5 than this one was most likely young too. It is about 15 minutes to lunch, so two o’clock in the morning at home. The African landscape is just as I thought it would be but it has more mountains. It’s pretty much just a wide open space with BEAUTIFUL trees. Every now and then we pass a small farming town and a few herds of sheep or cattle. Other than that, there is hardly any life outside of vehicles before we entered the park, Not including plants. If I were including plants, there would be a LOTS of life.
Entering the Park
We are just starting our tour. We entered the national park and the first animal we saw was …… (drum role please)
Day 2
Today we went to a HUGE volcano crater that is inactive and we saw all kinds of animals. Some of these are: zebras, wild boars, ostrich, spotted hyena, jackal, thomson gazelle, birds (I do not know the names), lion, dead zebra, leopard, lion cubs. There were 5 lions lying around the dead zebra, resting after the kill. We did not see the kill but there were birds and other animals waiting for spare grub. The lion cubs we saw later on were VERY CUTE. All in all the best part was the vehicle ride. It was SO bumpy that if you stood up on the ride to the top of the crater you were practically flying out of the car. I stood up for almost the entire time !!
P.S. The zebra’s guts were coming out all over the grass. The tail and one of the eye balls was missing. Nummy eh?
Day 3
Not much happened today. Unless I heard the other talking about an animal I had not seen before, I would not look. The exception is if it was a lion because they are so cool. Im looking forward to seeing another dead zebra but I will not get my hopes up. The only new thing that happened was that we saw a warthog up close (Pumba). We also saw some mongoose’s (sp?) They’re like meercats, so close enough to Timon (from the Lion King movie). Last night we met some kids our age. Their names were Zack and May. We stayed up in their tent until 10 to 9. We told jokes and sang Mika (very off tune and at different times). It was a LOT of fun. Later we exchanged E-mail addresses. The sad part was they had to get up at six in the morning the next day and their tour ended that day so we did not get to see them again. 🙁
Day 4
Today was not much different than yesterday. We did not see any new animals, but we did see a lion up close. It was right beside the road. We are staying at the same campsite as yesterday, so we have 2 safaris today. We have only taken one and there is no new people at the campsite yet. I can not wait until we see the McBride family again in Egypt. We’re going to party till were purple (just kidding).
Skipping to the afternoon now… WOW! Forget what I said earlier, the afternoon was fantastic. We (finally) saw a male lion behind a few bushes. We would not have seen it if we had not seen another tour jeep taking pictures of a tree. When we saw them doing this, we went to see why they were taking pictures of it. As we got closer, they pulled away. So we were looking around for what they had been taking pics of. Then Dad said what were they looking at? Mom, staring at the bushes said, maybe that lion. Sure enough, hidden under the bush was a VERY well hidden male lion. We took a lot of pics of him. Shortly after that, we saw a dead baby buffalo (close enough to a dead zebra) hanging on a branch in a tree. The guide said it was probably put there buy a leopard. He also said they eat their food in trees so the lions don’t steal it because the lions are bullies. Other than that, the day was like any other with zebra’s, wild boars and birds.
Day 5 Final Day
Today we are heading back to Arusha. During our last safari we did not see any new animals but on the way to Arusha we saw 4 leopards. Yes leopards, NOT cheetahs. We also saw a camealean (sp?). It walked very funny. When it walked it walked like a rocking chair. It would swing 4 times before putting its foot down, then repeat for every footstep. When it was in the grass, it turned green. When on the road, it was a reddish brownish. The ride was long and very bumpy. We took the long way so we could see a volcano. While we were there, it had a mini eruption!! There was ash everywhere, it was very cool. Well actually hot but it does not matter. There was also mini lightning or lava, we’re not sure. You could see a flash every now and then. It was hard to see because it was bright and not very cloudy. About 10 mins later we saw a mini twister, that Dad said went up about 40m. It was not as cool as the volcano, but still cool. That is two more things for our natural events list. When we got to the hotel it was 8:00 PM. We ate supper at 8:30 PM and when i had a shower my hair was leaking dirt. Now its SO soft. Well that’s about all. But I’m writing a kids chapter book about me and Ian in a fairytale land. Once I’m done, I will put it up as a post on the friends Blog. I am writing chapter 2 right now.
Sianara, Luke 🙂