On Safari at Kuti Park

June 23^rd, 2013

This weekend, Kim and I went with a few of our fellow volunteers to the Kuti Community Wildlife Park just outside of Salima.  To get there, we took bicycle taxis.  It was surprising how cheap it was.  A taxi driver will take a 200 lbs. guy like me 10 kilometers for 700 Kwacha (roughly 2 dollars).  I don’t know of anyone in the United States who would bike with an extra 200 pounds for six miles for 2 dollars.  I kinda felt bad, really, because the wildlife park is in the middle of nowhere, so he had to bike back to town as well.

The park itself was quite nice.  On the website they said that you would be camping in an A-frame, but it was really just a triangular-shaped house.  Here is what it looked like.

After we got settled we went for a 4-hour hike around the park, and we saw quite a few animals.  We saw a lot of bushbucks, kudus, and best of all—a baby giraffe.  He was so cute, and he stood absolutely still, so we could get quite a few nice pictures of him.

After a long day on safari, we settled in at the sunset deck at Kuti park to see the “best sunset in Malawi”.  As advertised, it was a very beautiful and peaceful way to bring the day to a close.  Here is a photo, but pictures really cannot do it justice.

After the sun went down, we prepared a traditional, African Braai, which is basically a barbeque.  I love a good Braai!  The meat was delicious, especially after all of the hiking, and the cassava was roasted perfectly.

 

On Sunday morning we rode back into town on the bicycle taxis.  Then we took our lives into our own hands and rode on an African minibus.  Evidently, Malawi has the 8^th highest per capita road fatality rate in the world, and I can see why.  Though they call it a “minibus”, it is basically a pickup truck whose bed is filled to the brim with cassava bags, beer crates, and about twenty Africans.  We were crammed in there pretty tight, and at one point it was so full that several people had to climb on top of the cab to make room for the next stop.  By the end, half the bus was standing up in the bed of the truck because there was not enough space.  However, you can’t beat the price.  For 1 dollar, you can ride almost the whole way from Salima to Lifuwu village, and it is quite a colourful experience.  About halfway through the ride, the side of the truck bed was coming off, so they stopped and tied some rope around it to keep it on.  I’m sure that made it much safer.  Nonetheless, we made it back to Lifuwu safely.  All in all, it was a lovely weekend.