Nyika and Vwaza

This past weekend Sami and I were invited, along with our neighbor Aaron, to go on a safari with a few other volunteers in the area. How could we pass that up??

There are four Aussie volunteers north of us at two different schools. In addition, there is also a Canadian volunteer here with Determined to Develop for a few months. Two of the Australians have a student whose father works for the National Park Service in Malawi. He offered to take them on a trip for free for up to ten people. All they had to do was split the cost of the gas for the hired car he would get us. As far as the food, all we had to do was bring the supplies and the staff would cook it for us. Score!!

On Friday afternoon, Aaron, Sami, and I packed our bags and set off for the stage at Khwawa. The stage is the bus stop just down the hill from our houses. It's where we pick up public transport or sometimes Matt will pick us up on his way to Maji Zuwa. We were picked up in a safari truck by the 4 Aussies, a Canadian, our guide (who was in posession of a rather large gun), and our driver. It was a 6 hour drive to Nyika National Park and most of it was on bumpy dirt roads. Nyika is the largest park in Malawi and it was also the first. The locals call is the Scotland of Malawi because of the rolling hills and frigid temperatures at night. We arrived late Friday night and stayed in the camping hostel that the park operates.

Saturday morning was safari time! We ate a quick breakfast of instant milk with corn flakes, and bread and peanut butter and headed out in the truck. We trekked through the park for hours and saw tons of wildlife. We saw antelope, zebras, warthogs, giant things with horns that looked like giant deer, and some awesome looking birds. Not only does Nyika have beautiful wildlife, but the scenery is gorgeous as well. In the park is the second largest peak in Malawi and a few protected Juniper Forests. Apparently Tolkien traveled through the area and based some of the settings in the Lord of the Rings books after the landscape of this park and the Zomba Plateau in southern Malawi. Our guide also showed us the fancy cabins and lodges in the parks that I'm sure a lot of international tourists stay in...not a volunteer's budget!

The next morning, Sunday, we packed up our hostel and headed out of Nyika in search of more traditional animals that you think of finding in Africa. Our guide was nice enough to get us into Vwaza Wildlife Reserve and inside the park we also picked up another guide and a random Peace Corps Volunteer who happened to be there that day as well. His name was Stony and he is stationed at the Reserve as part of his service. Inside Vwaza is a giant watering hole, reminiscent of The Lion King scene when Pumba recalls his traumatic experiences there. In fact, we talked a lot about the Lion King on our trip. How could you go on a safari and not sing every song? Anyway, back to Vwaza. Our first animal we met was a herd of elephants. They were heading back from the watering hole and we caught them just in time. The mother of the herd got a little territorial so we had to drive away, luckily enough we ran into a few more herds along the way. Once we finally got to the watering hole, there were TONS of hippos. Get it? Tons? Anyway, they were awesome. It was kind of surreal to see the elephants and hippos. They are such massive creatures and something you only see in movies or on TV. Also at the lake were some impalas and Kudu.

We had an awesome safari and I can't wait to hopefully do it again soon. Sami and I plan to travel to southern Malawi after our term ends in early December. We're hoping to hit up the Zomba Plateau and Liwonde National Park.

I'm headed to Livingstonia this weekend. Sami and I are hiking with a guide starting at our house in Khwawa. It should be about a five hour hike. On Sunday I will be attempting to skype with my church in Farmersville for World Communion Day. Hopefully I will be able write a few more posts on Saturday.