Into the wild

On Saturday morning at 6:30am we went on a Jeep safari tour through Liwonde National Park. To enter the park from the front gate we had to drive 20 minutes down a bumpy dirt road. During the ride, we passed many traditional African villages: small mud huts with thatched roofs, clothes lines hanging cloths to dry, and many barefoot children playing soccer in the dirt. As we came roaring down the road, kicking up a cloud of dust behind us, the children all stopped and starred. The youngest children who had never seen a car before stood there, not knowing what to do; while the older children started running along side the road, screaming and waving at us as we drove by. It was the most precious thing for me to see the joy on those children's faces because of something that I consider to be most mundane: a car. I wish I could have scooped all of those children up and brought them along for the ride.

 

Once we entered the park, we started our 3 hour long safari tour. The first stop we made was at the 4,000 year old Baobab tree. It was huge! 18 meters wide and 35 meters tall. I learned that elephants will chew the bark off the bottom of Baobab trees because it is saturated with water. Surprisingly, this does not kill the tree. 

After that, we saw our first wild animal! It was a waterbuck (also known as kudu antelope). It was the most beautiful thing. He laid there, calmly chewing his food, not even bothered by our car.

 

The next animal we came across were the elephants! There was a large family of them (~60 in that pack) feeding on a tree. The elephants were so busy destroying the tree, they didn't even notice we were there! Lucky for us because that meant we could get closer! Our driver, Happy drove us right up next to the elephants - we were about 40 yards away. It was one of the best moments of the tour. Seeing the family of elephants (even baby ones!) in their natural environment was so surreal. Our tour guide told us that they will go 3/4 days without seeing the elephants because they continuously migrate around  the park, so we were very lucky to have that experience. 

Some of the other animals we saw on our tour were impalas, monkeys, eagles, and another kind of antelope. 

Going on that safari adventure was so much fun! I got to experience the nature of Africa that you only see in a movie or read about in a book; and it was amazing! Even with the dusty air and dry grass fields, Malawi is truly a beautiful country.