OFF TO THE NORTH! (part 2)

Safari! (note: phtotos to follow...) Simply getting to Yankari is an adventure in itself, but it was a lot easier than I had expected. The Bradt Guide (which I’ve never perused as much since I bought it at Heathrow airport) advised to get an early headstart, but heck, I was on vacation and it was just so great not to hear the whole village shouting and going about their business before freaking 6am. So, even if I woke up before 6 anyway, I took my time from Jos, got on a bus to Bauchi, and got on another bus to Mainamaji, which dropped me off at the gate of Yankari National Park. This gate is still 43 kilometers of “road” to the “resort”. Entrance fee to the park is only N200, but the N1,000 fee to bring in a camera makes up for that. When I got to the Wikki Camp it seemed I was the only visitor (as I had expected), and the baboons who claim ownership of the chalets looked quite disgruntled that I had arrived and disturbed their lazy afternoon. My peace didn’t last long either. After my careful planning I had overlooked that my Yankari days fell on a weekend. Buses after buses of students soon arrived, and the very old and very sick safari truck was filled up the Nigerian way (meaning, more than you can imagine possible). It was good that I had psychologically prepared myself that I wouldn’t be seeing any lions, because I didn’t. Only very few have been lucky to see them in Yankari, about the only place in Nigeria where they still exist. For an African park, the experience was quite pathetic, or so I was told by many others who have been in other parts of the continent. Buti nalang mababaw ako, and I’m so used to the tiny and elusive wildlife we have back home anyway, so the sightings of waterbuck (of the antelope family) and bushbucks (like our spotted deer) were a treat. I didn’t see the much-awaited hippos, though we went to their pool and saw their prints. Elephant bones, too, just so the park guides can prove to unlucky visitors that they can indeed be found in the park. At least I was not that unlucky. One of the three times I went on the safari tour I actually saw live savannah elephants! There were only a few of them (best count 15), but it was still a high to see them so close in the wild. It was also great to see two species of monkeys, excluding the baboon. Of course majority of my officemates are monkeys, pero iba yung bigla mo nalang makita na di naka-cage. Unfortunately, the first Nile Crocodile that I saw in the wild happened to be somebody’s unfinished meal. And like I said, Nigeria IS the place for (h)ornithologists. I suppose my eyes have been trained to watch out for the little things, as I could spot the teeniest of birds but often missed the big mammals right in front of me. Notable of these birds were the African giant kingfisher and the ground hornbill, which looks like a turkey with a distinct beak. Oh and of course, these Pumbas were all rather aggressively after me, probably more for food than to protect their territory.