Wed July 9th- Mvuu Safari Camp

We left around 8am and Charles was going to come with us and stay the night! We could shower but the advisers said we probably won’t want to since we go to sleep late and wake up extra early. I just packed lots of layers since we were told it would get cold at night. I also got my camera, camcorder and tripod! I was ready to see some wildlife. Between my backpack, fanny pack and camera equipment I was pulling off quite the traditional tourist look and gave everyone a good giggle. I embrace the tourist look and don’t even try to hide it or blend in. haha After all our family vacations, I am not too cool for fanny packs!

The drive to Mvuu (means hippo in Chichewa) took about 2 hours but 16 KM of it was down a long dirt road and took forever. Krista and I sat in the front of the bus next to Charles and got to see the sights on both sides of the bus. We went through so many little villages and mini markets. We drove through such poverty even though we were going to a high class resort. The kids just kept running and waving screaming, “give me money”.

We arrived at a parking lot and dock. We parked the bus and took a boat over the river to the resort. A guide welcomed us and introduced himself as “This is George” instead of “My name is George”. A group of 13 girls just talking about the boat can really get everyone worked up about being scared of the dangerous animals in the water. Some were more scared than others, but of course we made it over just fine. I was thrilled to see palm trees because those are my favorite!!! Apparently they are not native- they came during the Arabian slave trade but have been here ever since.

We got off the boat and were greeted with a glass of fresh orange juice! This is the life! The lobby and dining area are completely open and have a very natural, safari decoration. Very cute! The advisers signed us in and then a guide came over and welcomed us. Unlike Mount Mulanje Park, Liwonde National Park is very professional. They have uniforms and signs around the park. The park is 530 square kilometers. We were given strict instructions not to put our hands in the water, not to drink the water, and not to wear black or white. They explained that nothing is gated or off limits so to be prepared to see animals as we eat and by our chalet. I felt like we were in a safari theme Disneyland resort.

As we were waiting in the lobby two adorable blonde children came up to their mom and were raving about a safari they just went on. I was eager to see what they saw, so I asked them. Of course their accent was to die for! They told us they saw “loads of zebras”. We were told we wouldn’t see a zebra here so our faces lit up! They said they saw about 20. We had no idea zebras were here so we wanted to go wherever they went!

We had a guessing game to figure out where the two kids were from. Some said UK, New Zealand or Australia but someone asked them and it turns out they were from Malawi. Part of the park is gated off and called the “Rhino sanctuary” and costs extra to go inside. Of course that’s where the kids went to see the zebras. Dr. Kelly has paid the extra and gone in there many times and never seen anything worth it. But all of us were so excited about the thought of Zebras we wanted to try it. It’s only $5 a person and we had enough money in our budget for it. We decided to replace our afternoon game drive with the Rhino Sanctuary drive.

We had planned 4 safaris during our trip- game drive, evening safari, morning walk safari and river safari. However since we arrived so early, they let us split up into two groups and take us on a mini ½ water and ½ land bonus safari!!! Yay! We drove down the river in a boat then met the jeep and hopped on to the jeep and drove back.

Our tour guides came to greet us, one was Samuel and the other introduced himself as “my name is Danger but I’m Dangerous” hahah! The VT group got Danger as our tour guide.

If this was our only safari we would have been happy! We saw so many things in the middle of the day with the sun bright and open sky- we got some great pictures. We saw a huge croc next to a little croc. They didn’t look real. I know Africa doesn’t have alligators but I asked what was the easiest way to tell the difference and he said crocodiles teeth are on the outside of their mouth, and they are usually bigger than alligators. Alligators also have a shorter snout/mouth. Every once in a while we would see their eyes and a little bit of their head creep out of the water- it was pretty scary. Apparently crocodiles only eat once a year so they usually aren’t hungry, they are just very dangerous. The crocodiles are the ones that will get us if we go in the water. We probably saw about 6 crocs from the boat and we were very close to them.

Next we saw hippos- hundreds of them. They stay in herds and just pile on top of each other in shallow water. They walk on the bottom of the river and every once in a while you see a random one come up for air, but usually they are just chillin in the shallow water. I think they are so cute! They have adorable little ears. They don’t do much but I really wanted to see a whole body instead of just their heads in the water.

There were tons of birds and I’m sure we saw lots of interesting birds, but they just don’t amaze me so I don’t pay much attention. I did videotape some of the animals and you can hear the birds in the background.

We saw elephants from far away so we powered the little boat up and went on over! I am not kidding you, it was like the Lion King. Everything about this park reminds me of the Lion King. There was a tree in the middle and there were probably 15 elephants of all different sizes all around the tree, each doing their own thing. The boat was able to get very close to the tree and the elephants didn’t seem to bothered but they were starting to walk away. A smaller elephant was getting upset with us and walked towards the boat and flapped its ears-that means it's angry!!! The guide didn’t seem nervous and he said the elephant was just doing a “mock charge”. It sure did make for a great picture. We decided we better let the elephants be. We had seen 3 major animals and gotten very close to each of them. We were beyond thrilled and if that was all we saw it would have been okay. Dr. Kelly rode with us and I was really glad because she has been on this trip so many times she is a great narrator and she knows so much she could be a tour guide herself. I felt very safe in the boat and the tour guides were very well trained and knowledgeable about the animals and nature. I was impressed!!!

We switched onto the jeep-what a fun safari jeep!!! Baboons were jumping all over the place. We saw warthogs and we thought they were sooo cute! They were running away or after something because they passed in front of us running in a straight line. Just like Pumba from Lion King!!! We saw some more later but we were a lot closer and I quickly realized that they aren’t cute at all.

We saw something that looked like a deer but it had a white circle around its butt. I can’t remember its name. Those were cool but that was about the only thing similar to deer that interested me. Other then the white circle, they all look the same to me.

We passed a long stretch of land and I thought how cool would it be to be running/driving from a stampede of something-just like in the movies! Okay, probably not very cool but the whole park reminded me of Jurassic Park minus the dinosaurs. Turns out the long stretch of land was a runway for private jets. This is a very fancy resort and I guess some people don’t want to drive by the villages and prefer to fly right in. Later in the afternoon we saw a helicopter take off.

We drove by a part of the land that looks exactly like in the Lion King when the mean uncle takes over and everything is dead, scary and abandoned. Since it’s the dry season, the vegetation is looking pretty scarce but the guides told us it is all green and colorful during the rainy season.

We made it back and everyone was ready for some lunch. It was buffet style! Lunch was chicken, rice, bread and veggie lasagna. It was all excellent and we ate a lot because dinner wouldn’t be until after 8pm. I was really excited about dessert- we got something similar to an apple pudding crisp. It was delicious! The dinning room probably only holds around 50 people but it was never completely full so this is a very intimate location. At lunch another group was celebrating a girls 18th birthday party at a safari in Africa! That’s some birthday celebration! The Malawian workers sang Happy Birthday.

We had about 2 hours until we left for our jeep safari at 3:30pm. We got our room key and couldn’t wait to check our chalet, #8. The chalet was out of this world! Dr. Kelly said our chalet was on “hippo highway” because all the hippos come out of the river and walk on the land right in front of our chalet. The chalet was separated into two front beds, the bathroom and then two back beds. Krista and I slept in the front beds. The bottom half of the wall is stone and then the top half is a net and then a roof. Basically the only layers of protection from the outdoors are a net and a curtain and then the net over our bed. It’s very clean and at first glance we thought it was even nicer than Annie’s and had less insects and creatures. The bathroom looked like a stone covered spa. The porch had a table to sit outside and enjoy the view. The room looked like a honeymoon suite and we were super excited to stay here! It’s a very natural setting, there really isn’t any landscape or bright colors. It’s nothing like camping but I feel more outdoors in this chalet then I do in a tent because its so open.

We took pictures and took a short nap before we met for tea and coffee at half past 3. In our room was a checklist of all the animals and plants we could use to check off as we saw them. Krista took it with us so I’m sure she will blog the whole list but I didn’t keep track. We wouldn’t be back until around 7-8pm for dinner so we packed our sweatshirts and long pants for when the sun goes down and it gets chilly.

The park has one remaining lion. Poachers came many years ago and were hunting the lions so they all moved north to escape. For some reason one lion was left and is still here today.

We got in our super cool jeeps and were on our way to the rhino sanctuary. Charles doesn’t like boats but he enjoys the jeep rides so he joined us. He is adorable! It's like a vacation for him and he even brought his camera!

The rhino sanctuary is 48 square kilometers and has 10 rhinos but they told us the chances of seeing one are very slim. We told them we have our heart set on a Zebra and then we will be happy. The fence around the sanctuary is a solar powered electric fence. It was just like in Jurassic Park because we entered a huge fence and didn’t know what animals we would come across. Inside the fence is a lot more vegetation because there are less animals eating so the grass is higher and there are more trees.

We drove around for a while and I have never looked so hard for animals and it took a long time to find anything. Finally, when we did see some animals, my first instinct is to wave! Haha after waving at children for weeks, it’s the first thing that comes to mind.

Finally, we saw Zebras! There were in the distance but their black and white stood out through the bushes. They didn’t run off so we were able to take pictures!! Yay! Everyone was thrilled and content with our Zebra find! We rushed through the park to make it to the river to see the sunset. We stopped our jeep and got out to enjoy the view. We missed the actual sunset but we saw the orange and red sky after the sun was gone. I managed to get an amazing sunset picture with palm trees and the reflection from the river. I am so proud of it and I set it as my background for my computer. You could order drinks and they kept them in a cooler until we stopped for the sunset. The other group ordered drinks but they didn’t stop at the same place as us so they didn’t get their drinks. We bundled up and were ready for the evening safari.

There is a seat in the front of the jeep where a guide holds the light to shine in the woods to look for animals. We saw some animals but nothing too exciting. It wasn’t very cold, a blanket was enough to keep me warm.

I have a very creative mind and as it got darker I would look into the grass and think I saw a lion. Every time he shined the light on something, I thought it was an animal. I think I made myself see things and I’ve probably watched way to many movies where animals come out and attack at night. It was fun and I enjoyed the night safari even though we didn’t see very many animals.

We got back and conversed with the other group. They saw Zebras too! So everyone was happy with the day and ready for some dinner. Dinner was corn bread, fish, carrots, potatoes and spinach. It was a great meal and there was apple pie for dessert.

We had a worker escort us back to our chalet. We had our lantern and turned on the lights in the room. We were greeted by some lizards in our bathroom. We saw one, two and then as we were able to point them out we recognized they were all over the walls. They blend into the stone and you can’t tell they are there unless you are looking for them. Lizards don’t scare me and I’d take them any day over a snake, but it's still something crawly and I wasn’t fond of them being all over our chalet. We were sleeping with nature that’s for sure! It was a fun night and we made peace with the lizards!

I didn’t bring my computer and I was excited. It was my first night where I didn’t blog and just went to sleep after writing down some notes. I could relax!

I loved sleeping “outdoors” and hearing the birds and noises outside. However the chalets are very close to each other chalets and since they are open you can hear everything. We listened to the nature sounds and the conversations of the neighbor chalets all night long.

Our curtains were closed but I could hear the hippos all night long. It didn’t keep me awake or bother me but I remember hearing the hippos and the big splash then they would hop back into the river since that was right outside our chalet.

In the morning we compared the animal noises we heard all night and apparently an elephant was right outside other people's chalets so they got very little sleep because they were so excited from watching the elephant. They said part of them was a little scared too. We all decided we enjoyed staying here but we knew we couldn’t stay here more than a couple nights because it’s hard to get well rested with so many animal distractions all night long.