Chéri, the elephants have been restless again

This past weekend, as a reward to myself for finishing my thesis and making some good progress on my assessment, Jennifer and I went to Liwonde National Park in the heart of Malawi. This was my first super touristy thing and a major treat after spending much of the first two three weekends in Malawi parked in front of the computer.

We had an amazing time and I have the pictures and a slight case of heat stroke to prove it.

Liwonde is set around the Shire (Shir-EE) River which snakes its way through southern Malawi. Liwonde is home to hippos, crocs, zebra, rhinos, loads of birds, antelope, warthogs, monkeys, two very reclusive lions, even more reclusive leopards, but most importantly, elephants. We were lucky enough to see many of the animals who call Liwonde home over the course of our one night stay deep in the park. We opted to say as far in as possible at a place called Mvuu (hippo in Chichewa) Camp and it was worth every penny.

The whole adventure started out with a 40 minute ride up the river passing hippos and crocs along the way under a clear sky (the first in about 5 days). My father has told me I convey my feelings well in these posts, but I can say there are no words to express the absolute natural beauty of the park.

The river was like glass, the clouds hung in the blue sky in a way that I never see at home; everything was more vivid in an almost haunting way. We arrived at Mvuu and only had a little time before we set out on our first game drive.

As soon as we left the camp, we were immediately surrounded by a wilderness I have never experienced before. It was so strange just stepping into a National Geographic safari. I had it in my head that we would need to drive for a while before we would see animals, but that idea was immediately erased as we passed warthogs foraging in packs, baboons grooming each other, herds of bushbucks, impalas, and even a few sable antelope. We went in search of elephants, but found hippos instead.

While hippos spend most of the day in the water to protect their sensitive skin, they venture on land at night in search of food. Let me tell you, it is impressive and intimidating to round a corner and face an enormous hippopotamus in the middle of the road. These creatures may look gentle, but they are the most dangerous animal in Africa to people and it was humbling to be so close to them.

While we did not see any elephants on our night drive - it was a great way to start the evening and experience at Liwonde.

Fast forward a few hours to when we are settling in after a decadent meal...

"Jennifer, do you hear that? I think something is outside."

Of course, like idiots, we open the door and come face to face with a grazing hippo no farther than about 15 feet from our porch. Needless to say we spent a mosquito-ridden period of time on the porch watching the hippo lumber around the meadow in front of the chalets. We also sent a restless night getting up to see what this or that sound was, hoping for another sighting. We were frequently deceived by the snoring Brit in the chalet next to us, who no joke, rivaled the hippos in volume.

The next morning we set off on our boat safari and it did not disappoint. While we saw many animals and birds, the undisputed highlight was the 60 plus elephants we spotted in the reeds along the river. We spent about an hour just drifting with the current mere feet from the herd. I have never seen anything like it.

I remember the first time I dreamed of going to Africa when I was younger. I had seen "A Far Off Place" with Reese Witherspoon and Ethan Embry and decided at that moment, someday, I would travel to Africa. And I would see elephants.

This surpassed any expectations I might have had.

There were a number of babies in the herd, which was a real treat, and they did not seem to mind our presence at all. I will be sure to send out a link to a shutterfly album as soon as it exists as I cannot post all the pictures here.