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As we woke up after a night of listening to a roaring lion, knowing that all that was between the king and the jungle and us was some reassuring mesh and fabric. Most of us woke up a little sleepy, but the early 5:15 start with some good coffee set us up for our morning safari. Kenneth our guide, was determined to find the king of the jungle, with that, we went on our way. We saw and followed lots of lion prints, with fewer impallas around, and as Kenneth refers to the impallas as MacDonald signs (M on their rear end) we knew we must be getting close. We ended up going along the Shire river and managed to see a hippo in the river, some majestic elephants across the river, and one sun tanning crocodile. We then headed for some higher grounds and as we rounded the corner we were startled to come face to face with a hyena, which was surprisingly larger and meaner looking than I was expecting. As we continued our treck up, Kenneth slammed on the breaks, almost losing a few members on the truck, as we regrouped, he convinced us all there was a herd of zebras in the bush, and sure enough there was, this guy has eyes like a hawk. As we continued checking animals off our spotting list, Stephanie called giraffe! We continued slowing and got to see a mom giraffe with her 2 kid giraffes, what majestic animals indeed. The bus reached the top of the mountain where we were able to get out and stretch our legs as we took in the views. As we rolled down.the hill, Stephanie again with her hawk eyes, spotted a water buffalo way down by the river bed. Even though we were much much higher, it was undoubtedly a beast of a creature, no surprise it belongs to the big 5. With Stephanie being such a spotting asset on this truck, Kenneth offered her a job on the spot. But the fun didn't end there, we also got a rare glimpse of a sable antelope, which is the animal on the Majete Park logo. Kenneth also informed us of the benefits of burning dried elephant dung, apperantly the smoke cures headaches, not to worry though, we left all the dung there and we'll be sticking to advil. Then on our way back to the lodge, we got front row seats to the breeding program of the baboons, they will not be going extinct anytime soon. We did not see the lions but we did see much more than we ever expected to on this safari and the roar of the lion continues to give us goose bumps.
Back at the lodge we got spoiled with a great breakfast while the impallas and water bucks roamed around us. After breakfast, some of us got warm and decided to take a dip in the natural pool, which also contained little fish that provided free feet cleaning services once you called out "here fishy fishy", we just had to make sure we left with 10 toes as they got more aggressive the bigger they got. After some torrential rains, we were again spoiled with a lovely lunch. Shortly after, Henry came and picked us up to take us back to Blantyre. On our way back to Blantyre we were able to witness first hand the effects of the rainfall, kids that were walking on the road were wading through knee deep water. As we climbed the mountain the full extent of the flooding become evident, the river had widened and significantly more land was taken underwater then the week before.
On our way back into the city we stopped for groceries, we had 9 minutes to get our stuff "sunga sunga" which is hurry hurry in Chichewa. But this is Malawi, so although the store closed at 5, we did not get out until 6 due to the till lineups. Once we were all out of the store, we came across one of Garret and Gretchen Oomans son, he and his friends were having car troubles. They had faulty jumper cables but we pushed to car to the bus and were able to get them on their merry way.
For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant where we all got pizza and a round of their infamous milkshakes to end the night off.
