Walking safari group
Our walking safari started at 6 AM. We were accompanied by the two English girls and a German man named Manford. We were lead by two men, one who was the guide and the other who carried a gun to ward off attacking animals. During the walking safari, they told us we would keep a good distance away from the animals and that we should keep our voices low. During the walk, we learned about animal dung, animal traces, and medicinal plants. Like the previous safaris, this one also last four hours but with no break in the middle. We spent the whole time on foot.
Examining ants
We learned about the fives in the African wilderness. The big five are rhino, elephant, lion, buffalo, and leopard. The small five are the elephant shrew, ant lion, red billed buffalo weaver, leopard tortoise, and rhino beetle. The green five are lions tale, elephant grass, leopard orchid, buffalo bean, and rhino thistle.
In the afternoon, we went swimming and hung out.
We left for our second night safari at 6 PM. Before it got dark, our guide (named River) took us to the north eastern part of the park. This was a part we had never been to before. It was really beautiful. We took a break at the edge of the river. Along our way, we saw a buffalo and saw elephants up close — two of them trumpeted at us.
Elephant on evening safari
As it got dark, we got back into the vehicle and headed into the center part of the park. Along with way, we got a flat tire. We pulled off the road and the guide and his helper began to fix it. They began to jack up the wheel only to find that the jack was not high enough to get the wheel off. So, they took a ladder out of the back and placed it under the jack to fix the problem. After about thirty minutes, the tire was fixed and we were moving again. During this time, it was completely dark outside. I sat on the ground in an attempt to take some pictures of the stars (you need to be really still to take night pictures). I was reprimanded for my sitting by one of people in our cohort — someone from Zambia — because of the of possibility of scorpions being in the area. During the night time part of the drive, we saw many smaller animals including [[gennets]], civets, a honey badger, a fishing owl, and a mongoose.
Flat tire on night safari
After the safari, we ate with the two English girls and a guy from Germany named Manford. I ordered a steak and when I received it, it was hardly cooked at all despite ordering it medium well. It was if the steak was simply singed on the outside with no further cooking. I sent the steak back and it came back still very red in the middle. I was not going to take a chance of getting food poisoning in the middle of Africa, so I sent it back one more time for additional cooking. When it returned, it was cooked perfectly and delicious!