6-7-16

Moni families and friends!

Today (Tuesday) was day one of our African Safari adventure. We headed off in Stan the Van, dropped our North Carolina friends off at school, and made our short journey down the road to Liwonde Safari Camp. I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we were beyond ready for this incredible opportunity (and break from our busy days here in Malawi).

One thing that surprised me was how many houses there were so close to the camp. Houses and small villages popped up here and there down all the roads, even right outside where we are staying. We drove into the camp, checked in with our new friends who work here, and settled into our living arrangements. Our group is staying in one of the dormitories. The building is a long thatched roof structure with about 10 beds lining the walls (and mosquito nets of course). We took a tour of the grounds which includes a kitchen and eating area, another dorm, a few raised tents (where Patti and Jennifer stay), a beautiful self-serve bar filled with games, books, and built-in couches, and two amazing watchtowers with comfortable seating for everyone! I was hooked instantly (and I think everyone else was as well). Our wonderful guardian, Sammy, even decided to stay with us! We were all very excited to see Jennifer as well, who joined us on the trip. We will all be sad to see Patti leave us though!

We did not have an outing originally planned for today. However, we arranged it so we could have a driving safari so we wouldn't have to wait until tomorrow. We all had to pay a little extra, but we knew it would be worth it. After a delicious lunch, we got ready and headed to the open Jeep with our safari guide, Paul, in hope of seeing beautiful creatures and scenery. It was about a 5-10 minute drive back down the road to the entrance of the camp. While we were waiting to sign off on the official entry paperwork, we saw our first animal - yellow baboons. There was a whole family of them right inside the gate and they were so cute! As Paul drove us through the first part of the camp, we saw all the beautiful plant species including my personal favorite tree, the Baobab tree (look it up, they're awesome).

Our next animal sighting was a group of Impalas, which are apparently everywhere in the camp because we saw so many today! They remind me of antelopes/deer. They typically hang in groups of mostly females and one male. However, sometimes you see a group of young males (buckshots, I believe) traveling together. They practice fighting as young males in hopes of attracting the ladies later on in life. The next animals we saw were the water bucks (named appropriately because they are almost always near water). However, we saw them on land as well and I am convinced that they should be called land bucks some of the time too. They are really big animals! We saw a large group of them and then also several smaller groups as well. We also saw a few kudus. I don't know as much about them, so I won't pretend I am an expert. However, they are beautiful animals. We also got to see warthogs (pumbaas for all you Disney fans). We saw a few by themselves, but they seemed to be more attached to other groups of animals for some reason. I was very excited to see those! On our way back through the park to the exit, we saw elephants! Personally, this is what I was the most excited about. They were down near the water still, making their way back up to the woodlands for nightfall. Still at a decent distance, but we drove up to get somewhat closer to them. There were at least 20 of them lined up against the background of the setting sun over the beautiful African mountains. We took so many pictures, but I doubt any of them will really do justice to the real thing. They were breathtaking! We sat there for a while just staring and taking in the awesomeness, but then sadly had to drive away to make it back to camp before nightfall. I think it is safe to say that we were all delightfully satisfied with our first safari outing.

We came back to another delicious dinner! It's probably the best food I have had on the trip so far. We watched it cook on the outdoor kitchen as well. It was nice to have the whole group together and catch Jennifer up on our travels so far.

After dinner was the real adventure. We headed back to our dormitory to discover a decent amount of fairly large spiders lining our walls and even some of our beds. We attempted to kill off some of these creatures, but eventually enlisted Sammy's help as well. I am not a big fan of spiders, especially at night when they could crawl across my face. Unfortunately, two of our group members are deathly afraid, so we needed to find a solution. Eventually, our squeals and screams attracted Patti and Jennifer to our dorm. Our moms helped to spray the beds with even more Deet, shake out the blankets, and tuck us into our mosquito nets. Once I was in the net, I felt much safer and was ready to brave the night. However, I do not think any of us got much sleep at all. We were promised that the room would be sprayed and bombed the next day in hopes of killing off the rest of our eight legged friends.

We are all looking forward to what adventures lay ahead of us tomorrow...and maybe also getting rid of our creepy crawly roommates.

Emily