We woke up in the dark in Mikumi Village. Marc and I were anxious to get going and face our first encounter with “Wild Africa”.
All the bullshit about finding our “lion-killer” for these circumstances and all the joking about “what we would do if” was over. It was for real now and it was frightening to know that the possibility of encountering lion while you pedalled defenselessly looking like a wounded buffalo with your loaded bike, was reality!
After a quick stop to take a picture of the warning sign we started our fifty kilometers through Mikumi National Park. At first your mind plays on your adrenaline-filled legs. Something moves and next thing your speedometer is clocking new records.
It defeats the object to just pace the fifty kays through the park and not enjoy it. After the first five kilometers of dodging impala, nervously eyeing out buffalo and staring up at giraffes you start to relax and realise that not everything has teeth. (Mind you the thought of the tawny cat in the long yellow grass never escapes your imagination.) All you would see anyway would be its black tipped tail playfully flicking at the top of the sandy coloured grass while it sized you up.
“On your left!”, Marc called out, staring back at me less than five meters behind. I was looking in the bush when it moved less than a few meters from me. I looked up, silently, due to the fact I was to astonished to speak, or possibly scared silent. A huge male Masai giraffe towered over me. It obviously was just as startled as I was because it turned and ran. I think I forgot to pedal. Not good when a giraffe can deliver one of the most dangerous kicks in the animal kingdom, and why pedal, they can reach speeds of up to 60km/h. If he wanted to kick my arse, I had no chance.
We had good fun chasing down stubborn baboons on the road. They are just like humans. They look at you coming and refuse to move until they realise that its probably a better idea to move. They still give you a bark in disgust for good measure. After our fun in Mikumi I would not be surprised if they have learned to flick up the middle finger at tourists. Fun and games.
After surviving our fifty kilometers on Mikumi National Park we exited only sighting one distant elephant, no lions and enough buffalo, giraffe and zebra for the day. We pushed on 70 kilometers to Morogoro to see Ian and Sarah, whom we met at Mayoka Village in Nkata Bay in Malawi. We also asked the if two of the most dangerous animals we had met in Mozambique could also spend the night in Morogoro. I really appreciated Ian and Sarah’s response of, “No problem if they are friends of yours.”
So Marc and I survived Mikumi National Park, but would we survive another night out with the boys from Throttle2Bottle?
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