6-8-16

After a very sleepless night, we were ready for some happiness and fun. We had a scrumptious breakfast and jumped back on our van for another ride. Although this was technically the same drive we had made the previous afternoon, it was completely different in every way. Every time you enter the park, something will be completely new and something entirely changes from the time before. It’s so freaking cool. Since it was early in the morning, most of the animals were starting to wake up from their homes and make their way to the water. To do this, many packs of animals have to cross the road we drive on. Within the first 20 minutes of our drive, we ran into some friends :) I thought yesterday was about as close that we would come to elephants, but boy was I wrong. We were probably less than 10 yards away from them at some points during our drive. It was so amazing.

Something I forgot to mention – our van had some problems starting that morning, so we had to push it from behind to get it moving. A few times in the park it would suddenly shut down, and we would jump out and all push it. One of times it decided to stop running was when we were feet away from a pack of elephants. Our driver and Sammy slowly creeped out of the van and started to push it away from the elephants. It was pretty exhilarating. If those elephants got provoked right then and there, we would have been toast if they charged. But we were fine :) and it was secretly kind of fun to be in a little danger for a quick 60 seconds. I really can’t describe how cool it was to get so close to these giant animals. We also saw all sorts of other animal friends on our drive, including king buffalos, and we learned a lot about the Baobab trees as well. These things are enormous and thousands of years old. The circumference of the trunks supposedly determines its age; every one-meter is equivalent to 100 years. This was such a cool drive, we learned and saw so much.

We went back to camp for lunch and some relaxation. Later we took a 15-minute walk to the nearby river (which we had no idea was so close to our campsite), and we went on an afternoon boat ride down the Shire River. This was probably my favorite safari adventure of the whole trip. Our tour guide, Henry, was awesome and told us so many facts about our hippo friends. In the water, there are literally hippos everywhere. Sometimes they can be shy, so you’ll just see a little head popping out of the water. But when we would get close, they would quickly sink back under and disappear. They were so cute and they would bob their heads up and out of the water during the entire trip. They reminded me of the little moles in the Whack-a-Mole game. They’re just so funny because they’re just so big and cute. They also have the best snort I’ve ever heard. They all will snort and call out to each other in groups sometimes, and it sounds like a bunch of laughing pigs. We had so much fun learning about them and loving their enormous bodies.

When we approached the grassy banks of the water, we were able to see some hippos on land. They’re so big and they can move so fast, it’s unbelievable. It was really cool to approach the banks of the river because we could get really close to these animals, and they wouldn’t run away like they did in the water. They would just hang and chill, and eat some grass while they watched us. We also saw some elephants grazing along the river and we got an entirely new view of these majestic creatures. Every time we see these things I think there’s no way we can get as close to them as we did last time. But yet again, I was proven wrong and we got within ten feet of a couple of these babies. It was the coolest thing. We were able to see so much more from a different view, I loved it.

We also got to see some beautiful birds, including the Jesus bird that walks on water, and some cute water bucks on our voyage down the Shire. All of us were mainly excited about the elephants and hippos though. However, Sammy said he really wanted to see some crocodiles so Henry made sure we would. We didn’t get too close, but we got to see 3 crocodiles! Although this wasn’t very many, I thought it was the perfect amount. Apparently crocodiles kill a couple fishermen every month here, so I was perfectly happy just seeing a few.
This boat ride was so beautiful and so amazing. We saw so many incredible things; my words really don’t do this gorgeous country justice.

In the evening, we hung out on the lookouts until the sun set and then mingled a little in bar area. A new group of students had rolled in, and they were so much fun to talk to. They were high school students and they attend this amazing boarding school in Arizona. It sounds incredible. They get to go on so many cool trips around the world and they have a totally unique experience that other high school kids could only dream about. They were really mature for their age and I was pretty impressed. We had another amazing dinner and we felt very content by the end of the meal.

After dinner, our group went up on one of the lookouts to look at the stars. We’ve seen some pretty awesome stars in Zomba, but nothing campares to the stars in Liwonde. I wish I had a camera strong enough to capture what these stars looked like. They are completely breathtaking and there is an incomprehensible amount of stars in the sky. We all sat staring in silence for 30 minutes, and loving our African night. All my worries about anything and everything were completely gone after those 30 minutes. I loved this so much. There’s really nothing like this back home. You can see a beautiful starry night in a lot of places, but not like this. Gazing up at the stars just feels like a remedy for your entire life; you feel completely rejuvenated. I’m never going to forget this night and these truly beautiful stars.

Afterwards most people went to bed, but Lauren and I decided to stay up a little later. My plan was to stay up really late so I would be exhausted by the time I went to sleep, that way I could just pass out and forget about the spiders :) We started hanging out and talking with another employee by the bar/hangout room. His name was Charles and he was awesome. He told us all about his life and how he wanted to be a math teacher as well! He also really wanted to know what kind of music we listened to. So we played him a bunch of different songs and he played a bunch for us. After awhile, Lauren stepped out to use the bathroom and returned quickly because she said she could hear the hippos nearby! So Charles took us up to one of the lookout spots and we looked around with flashlights and saw a bunch of hippos!! It was so cool because they were completely inside our campsite. We hung out on top for a while and listened to the hippos snort and laugh. We had so much fun.

By the time we went back to our cabin, I was completely exhausted and I passed out immediately. My plan had worked :) Although I didn’t get a ton of sleep, it was still worth it.