Mikumi National Park

An African Safari was on my "to-do list." We booked a day safari with Augustine, a friend of Lindsey and Jessica's. He just started his own Safari company and is an avid hunter. He is also married to a Canadian, meaning his English is fluent.

We met up with Augustine at 0500 in order to make it to the park at sunrise. Much the same as a National Park in Canada, wildlife hang around at the road side. Only here the animals are baboons, giraffes and zebras.

Some of the wildlife we saw include buffalo, warthogs, giraffes, zebras, elephants, crocodiles, hippos, and lions. The lions were the highlight of the trip as we found a lion and lioness mating. Truly unbelievable to see these creatures in the wild.

Even as a National Park, poaching within the park is still an easy income for locals. Poaching was evident during our safari. We saw one elephant with a torn trunk, mostly likely from a snare as well as a buffalo with a snare around its neck.

After our safari we stopped in the town of Mikumi to grab a quick bite to eat and to check out a snake farm. Not much to say about feeling safe surrounded by poisonous snakes in make shift cages. Those include the black and green mamba as well as Egyptian cobra. The snake farm also had five resident crocodiles. One of which was small enough to hold.

This entire day was phenomenal. Up close and personal with Africa.