"Safari"

Wart hogs were everywhere, even around our tent.  They just ignored us.

Wow, our first Safari.  In obedience to mission rules for couples, we took a few days off and went on a Safari to Liwonde National Park, located about 3 hours south of where we live.  We went with the couple missionaries from Blantyre and the Collins family from here in Lilongwe.  The park is located on the river that drains Lake Malawi, the Shire river (pronounced Sheeree).  We drove to the city of Liwonde and boarded a power boat with about 10 other people besides our group.  It took us about 60 minutes traveling up river to get to the camp.  Along the way we saw numerous hippo pods, elephants and crocodiles.

The river is a couple of hundred yards wide in most places and the scenery is absolutely breath taking.  This is a shot of the bank with Elder Bullock in the foreground.  There was another group of hippos around every bend and crook in the river.  They are a bit shy and sink out of sight if you come too close.

When we got to camp there was this local group of musicians playing.  Their drummer was great, and if you look closely at his drum set you will see that they are just old barrels cut up and painted.

The cymbal set was the best part.  Just the gears off of a bicycle.  Crude as they were, they sounded great.

In the trees around camp was a group of vervet monkeys that were constantly trying to raid the dining room.  They would lounge around until they thought no one was watching then dash through and try to grab a muffin or what ever was available.  They were good at it, amazingly clever and fast.  The staff carried home made wrist rockets to shoo them away.

Sunset over the Shire river on our first evening game drive.

Our little group. Us, the Bullocks, and the Collins family.  We got to go on 2 game drives a day in our land Rover with two guides.

This is a Sable Antelope. They are beautiful with long scimitar shaped horns.  This one was laying inside the 

 rhino sanctuary.

Throughout the forest were these large python vines that use other trees to get up into the sunlight. What did they call that in biology...a symbiotic relationship?

Very much the rainy season still, and on this occasion, our driver got a bit too close to the edge and we were stuck but good.  We had to call for help. This is actually the main road into the park but in rainy season you aren't allowed to drive in, for obvious reasons.

This is our cabin at the camp.  An open sided shelter with fully screened sides.  Inside a king sized bed, chairs and a bathroom with shower.  Even hot water. It was great because you could lay there and listen to all the night sounds, the insects, birds and hippos. It was nice, that is until a very noisy flock of (it sounded like geese) birds flew over at about 4 in the morning.

This was the dining room, a large thatched building with open sides, thus the monkey challenge.  A few paintball guns would have been a lot of fun. There were about thirty people there with us.

Typical woodland scene with a herd of Kudu in the middle, they are about the size of an Elk.

Some of the many palm groves along the river.  The cormorants roost in the trees along with the egrets and heron.  The birds in the park were amazing.  There are over 400 different species of birds in the park.

We saw elephants on 3 of the 4 days we were in the park.  Deb love the elephants.

These are Impala.  They were everywhere along with wart hogs.  There are only a few lions just now coming back into the park so the prey species are thriving at the moment.

There were also a lot of baboons.  This fellow just seemed too bored to even pose for us.  He just sat there and didn't move a muscle for the longest time.

Scattered throughout the park are these wonderful baobab trees.  They are incredible.  The elephants rip bark from the lower parts to get moisture in the dry seasons. Don't you love them? They have a fruit/seed pod that the people here break open and use the insides to flavor a drink. Can't say that it was much to write home about but they like it. We love the trees though.

A small herd of forest Zebra, they are beautiful and shy. We were hoping to get closer to them but weren't able to.

Elder and Sister Prete in front of the dining hall.

Impala

Hippos. They are amazingly huge. We saw them everywhere along the river but only a few times out of the water.

and more hippos

Croc.  I must tell you about the crocs.  They are very plentiful in the river.  No swimming allowed at all.  No playing in the water, or even near the water.  The guides were very strict and rightly so.  I got up early every morning to go out along the river in front of our cabin.  One morning I was standing on the bank about 6 feet above the water when I spotted a large croc making his way up stream about a hundred meters off shore.  Suddenly he spotted me standing there and immediately started angling in directly to me.  When he got about 50 feet from shore he submerged and kept coming until he was right below me under the water.  He was hoping I would come down closer to the edge, I think.  It was freaky knowing I was on the menu for breakfast.  It made the hair on my arms stand up.  Nasty fellows.  Every year here there are people taken by crocs, but hippos kill even more people apparently.

hippo

Elephants. Isn't the little guy cute?

This is a water buck,  they were also plentiful.  They are about half way between a muley and an elk in size.

There is a baboon on the stump between the large palms.  The scenery was stunning.  Iysha would have gone nuts with her cameras.