Welcome to Mikumi Safari Lodge
As I said in the introduction, Fred’s motto for our
imaginary safari company is “To Endure is to Enjoy!” I think that this time
even our prodigious endurance was tested to the limit by events out of our
control. Despite all the trials, however, we were actually in the right place
on the right day, albeit exhausted from a very long day in the saddle. I’ll
never know how Joseph managed to drive in such traffic for more than seven
hours with just a short rest stop. Not to mention driving through torrential
storms and on into the darkness. I know I couldn’t ever do it and would have
given up long before he did.
Anyway, finally time to enjoy our day of safari in Mikumi
National Park and the true start of our holiday. Elizabeth chooses to rest and
the three of us board our now rescued Landcruiser and head down the track at a
leisurely pace. It should take a little more than an hour to get to the park
entrance and we’ll hope to start seeing wildlife on the way there.
Inevitably – for there is indeed some degree of inevitability about the events of this trip – we don’t make it down to the main road. We haven’t gone more than a kilometre or so before I start to hear odd noises from the underside of the truck. At first, I think it is just a knocking exhaust, but when it starts to get worse and louder when the engine is under load, the driver (and I) soon realize that it is much more serious.
I wasn’t getting under the car in the mud to find out, but
we’d managed one of three things – probably the night before. We had either
thrown a drive shaft, the prop shaft or wrecked the front differential. In any
event, it was terminal and we’d need to be rescued again!
We waited by the vehicle, Chris and I examining the flora
within easy viewing distance, for almost an hour before we were ushered into
another Landcruiser and finally able to continue our journey to Mikumi National
Park.
Mikumi National Park
Once you make it to the main road, Mikumi National Park
starts just a few metres to the north, but the park gate is about 20km further
along the road. That’s fine, though, as the animals don’t know where the
boundaries are and can be seen from the road as you drive along. We’re not
stopping for photos, but it’s nice to see a few impalas, giraffe and zebra at
last.
The formalities at the park gate take just long enough for
me to follow the given instructions and post my status on Facebook and
Instagram. There’s free wi-fi at the gate and it’s just about up to the task.
It also allows me to pick up a couple of messages from friends and customers.
It’s nice to hear from Tahera, as she was born in Tanzania and tried to get me
to meet her relatives who still live in Dar es Salaam. We didn’t have the time
in our schedule originally, but with all the chaos, they could have come to the
airport for a chat!
Mikumi is small enough to not be too arduous. You probably
can’t see it all in one day, but one day is enough to get a good feel for it.
If I had one word for it, it would be “picturesque”. The open plains and sparse
woodlands are classically African, but they are accented by misty mountains as
a spectacular background. It makes it easy to get pictures of awesome wildlife
with a pleasing backdrop thrown in.
And we don’t have to try too hard. There are zebra and
wildebeest within a couple of hundred metres of the gate. They are close enough
to fill the frame for the 150-450mm zoom with ease. Within just a short
distance there are elephants. A small family have just crossed the road and are
mostly moving away from us, but the bull moving with them gives us a good view
as he heads towards some shade.
We even see a lion. She is moving across the open plain with
purpose and we manage to get close for a couple of photos before she grounds in
some longer grass but is then seen to be still moving. Benson, our driver for
the day, takes us in off on a tangential track to get in front of her once
again and I manage to get some amazing photos of her as she starts a stalking
approach to a herd of impala a couple of hundred metres away. Ears and head down,
steps measured, she slinks through the tall grass. Sadly, she is spotted when
she raises her head and the hunt is foiled. Appearing very disgruntled, she
looks around at the alternatives before heading to the nearest shade and
settling down for the heat of the day.
And, it really is hot. There are almost cloudless skies and
the sun is soon almost directly overhead. I don’t have a thermometer, but it is
clearly in the mid-thirties and the heat really is draining and oppressive. The
heat is only to be expected, though, and doesn’t detract from the safari
experience.
It’s great to be back to the enjoyable bit, pure safari in a
great national park. There are warthogs, impala, buffalo and hippos, as well as
a large number of really quite spectacular giraffes. We are not left short of
birds either, being able to spot more than 20 species to add to what has been a
very short list so far.
If I have a complaint, it’s that the journey from our lodge,
even forgiving breakdowns, takes a little too long and is a little too bumpy.
Actually, much of the bumpiness is down to the Landcruiser, and the holes and
ruts caused by the floods, but it is an arduous and time-consuming part of the
day.
We stay in the park until mid-afternoon before making our
way back to camp. The clouds are building again and there are flashes of
lightning and rumbles of thunder all around us as we get home, but the rain
holds off long enough for us to have a comfortable dinner and a couple of
beers.
So, in a way, the endurance of the first 48 hours is repaid by five hours in a great National Park with good and consistent viewing. I could easily be sorry that we don’t have a few more days, but we truly hope for better from our longer time in Ruaha and The Selous
Down to Udzungwa Forest National Park
We had always planned the excursion to Udzungwa Forest
National Park, there are rare monkeys and birds to be seen if you’re lucky. We
do discuss the possibility of not making the drive down, but decide that we
won’t see much different if we spend another day in Mikumi instead. I do think
I’d like to see more of Mikumi another time, but for this trip, it’s just a
convenient stopping point on a much longer journey.
The day starts fine and we are back on the bus, which offers a much better ride down to the main road and pleasant air conditioning for the hour or so drive down to the park entrance. The drive down is actually one of the highlights of the day, as the scenery is varied and spectacular. There are deep river valleys, tantalizing glimpses of the vast plain of The Selous and the towering mountains themselves with their turbulent streams and spectacular waterfall-edged escarpment.
When we arrive at the park entrance, unfortunately, it is
even hotter than yesterday and, frankly, too hot for me really. It is possibly
close to 40 degrees when we have our short briefing. Eunice, our guide leads us
on a fairly short walk. We opt for a short walk mostly because of the heat, but
also because I don’t feel that I’d be able to do any of the bigger walks that
involve hundreds of metres of climb.
I haven’t really talked about being physically unwell, as it
is hard to put a finger on exactly what might be wrong. I went to see the
doctor late last year, complaining of being short of breath and my heart racing
whenever I walk quickly or do a couple of flights of stairs. I’ve had tests and
have started on some medication to reduce my hypertension, but I still feel
breathless after even short exercise.
Walking even slightly uphill in a dense forest in 40-degree
heat really doesn’t help at all and soon the sweat is pouring from my forehead
and my pulse in up above 160 with my heart pounding and aching in my chest. Add
in the leaden legs from my ongoing sciatica and every step is an effort that I
have to push on through for the team and myself.
The little waterfall is pretty and the deep shade is a
little cooler than further away from the river, but there doesn’t appear to be
much to see because of the heat. We spend a fair while taking photos, including
the obligatory group shots before walking slowly further into the forest.
The heat, as it turns out, is both a blessing and a curse.
It is so hot that all the birds are silent and motionless – we don’t really see
any and that’s a disappointment for Fred and Chris. However, it is so hot that
the monkeys that we want to see are also too hot to move and hiding in the deep
shade. Mdoe is with us and has a far keener eye than I ever had. He can spot a
monkey resting in a tree where I can barely see the tree!
So, we first spot a small group of black and white colobus, seen often, and always with that sad expression on their faces. They are a real effort to photograph, though, as they are deep in the shadows and hidden by leaves and branches of the trees in front. Much rarer are the Udzungwa (or Iringa) red colobus that are found only in a couple of these insular mountain locations in the centre of Tanzania. Despite the deep shade we all manage to get some really good photos of them.
At least the walk back to the bus is downhill, but Fred
manages to trip over some vines and has to suffer the indignity of being helped
to his feet. I came close myself, but I’ll always blame the sciatica if I do go
down. One of us always seems to end up bloody and battered on these trips!
Eunice is quite worried, but Fred isn’t going to let a couple of bramble
scratches slow him down.
Two good days make the stop in the area seem well worth the
time and we are now refreshed somewhat and ready to head to the vastness of
Ruaha.