Blog courtesy of Maddy K. from their safari a couple of weeks ago! Thanks for your patience with the delay on posting this blog as internet can be challenging in Tanzania.
Hello Hello Hello!
I am Maddy Karsten from Grand Rapids, Michigan and this week’s blogger! Since our five days learning Swahili at River Valley Campsite, we have had an unforgettable 5 days. We spent three full days walking around the quaint town of Iringa eating, exploring and most importantly… CRAFTING! This place is full of awesome craft markets with everything you could imagine. Jewelry, clothes, paintings and more. I think it’s safe to say some of you readers will have a good Christmas this year! Neema Crafts in particular is a store whose proceeds go towards educating and supporting people with disabilities. We have all eaten our fair share of yogurt in this wonderful town with flavors of vanilla, mango, raspberry, passion fruit and chocolate! Yum! Our second afternoon we spent doing a bike tour of Iringa. While the first 5 kilometers were downhill and lovely, after our lunch break we were all pushing our bikes up seemingly endless hills. Despite the unanticipated “walking bike tour,” it was lovely to see other parts of Iringa and some of us celebrated with milkshakes at the Warthog restaurant afterwards.
Then early Sunday morning, we departed Iringa for the 3 hour drive to Ruaha National Park where we began our safari! We had two wonderful drivers, Elasko and Alfanzo who drove us around in open land rovers during our adventure. Where to even begin! We saw so many awesome creatures: hippos wallowing in the river, crocodiles sun bathing, elephants eating the bark of Baobab trees, baboons playing in the grass, a leopard eating a kill, antelope, impala, and gazelles grazing, 3 different lion families (yes there were cubs!), and zebras and giraffes wandering the beautiful savannah landscape. It was without a doubt one of the coolest things I have ever done! Some of us (Grey, Kyra and I) may have taken over a thousand pictures…each… Not only were we able to see these animals, but very up close and multiple times. At one point, one car was only about 3-5 yards away from an elephant family, and we were probably 15-20 yards from the leopard, and the lion families. It was so cool!! Both nights we were there, the sunset was just out of this world. The sky was painted with beautiful shades of pink, orange, and gold which illuminated the park so beautifully. We would go out from 7 in the morning until 1ish, and then again from 4-6:30. I think I speak for the whole group in saying that our 2 days of safari flew by and we couldn’t have asked for a better experience. I am still just sitting here remembering how interesting it was to see these animals actually in the wild! It honestly felt like Animal Planet. One particular thing that made all of us smile was seeing the giraffes running. Their legs were just so long and it almost looked like they were floating! Too funny. After just arriving back in Iringa around 4 in the afternoon on Tuesday, we are all catching up on emails, and preparing for our bus ride tomorrow to Mufindi. There are 10 smiling girls here in Tanzania sending lots of love back home to you all! Thanks for reading 🙂 Special shoutout to my people back in the mitten. Please eat a honeycrisp apple for me and know you are all in my thoughts and prayers!