Mwagusi Safari Camp! Posted on January 25th, 2015 by Linda Shaw

On Tuesday this week we departed from Tungamelenga and headed to Ruaha National Park for a two day stay. It was a bumpy ride there, but it was so worth it driving through yet another beautiful part of this country. Our bus driver Peter, was nice enough to stop so we could begin to see the hippos and crocodiles that inhabited the park. Also along the way we saw lots of animal statues that gave us directions to where we wanted to go. One of these signs turned out to not be a sign at all, but was in fact a giraffe standing very still. Which gave us all a great laugh as the giraffe was just as startled by us as we were of him. After arriving at the beautiful Mwagusi Safari Camp, we settled into our bandas. Even though these bandas are tents, they don’t look like that from the outside! Each one includes an outdoor bathroom with solar heated water and an outdoor porch overlooking a river. When we first arrived there was a herd of elephants facing our bandas on the other side of the river, it was like a movie! Then we enjoyed a lovely lunch with some of the richest foods we have had thus far before heading out on our first safari. Before leaving we asked our safari guide how likely it would be for us to see lions and he said we had a 50/50 chance. About two minutes into our safari the very first animals we see are a mating pair of “simba”, which is Swahili for lion. The adventure continued as we got close with some giraffes, elephants, impala, zebra, and even a cheetah! Ok, not too close to the cheetah, but close enough to see it enjoying its dinner. We then went back to camp and enjoyed our dinner after a successful first day in the park. After an eventful first night full of little critters outside our bandas, we headed out for round two. After such an exciting first day, we couldn’t imagine that day two could compare. Turns out, we were wrong. A while into the drive we managed to spot a leopard lounging on a rock! Shortly after this discovery, the leopard joined us on the road for a short meander amongst the safari vehicles. Apparently this doesn’t happen to often, as many leopards are rather shy when it comes to humans. After a delicious picnic lunch in the park, we also got a little too close for comfort with some hippos, which can be quite dangerous despite there large, non-athletic appearances. They can actually run up to 36 kilometers per hour, and will “kill you straight” as one of our guides Geofrey commented. We all survived and managed to finish out a successful “day in the bush” as the locals refer to it. Some other sitings included dik-dik, many assorted birds, crocodiles, hyrax, gazelles, and many more we are forgetting to mention! We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to Ruaha, thanks for reading!

KaLeigh Berg and Alex Hultgren