Hip-Hop...Hip-Hop-Anonymous

Yesterday, as I was returning from a morning in a village down south, we decided to take a short stroll through a nearby game park.

This is actually one of the worst times of the year to actually see animals. Because of the rains, the the bush is very thick and green... and there are plenty of water holes for animals to find a drink. It's best to go during the dry season, you are almost guaranteed to see animals at one of the few water holes.

Nonetheless, we were driving by, so we thought... what the heck.

When we got to the gate, we inquired about the price to get in... and it was not to my liking. I gave the guy a hard time for charging too much... then reached in my pocket and complied because I wasn't just going to turn around after all that effort. Then of course, you have to pay for a guide... and a map... and a car fee. So, after I was close to broke, he opened the gate, and in we went!

After driving for quite a while and only seeing crickets land on our windshield, we looked at each other and said, "If this was a tree safari, it would be amazing!"

Then, we rounded a corner and bam... there they were...

A group of Elephants!

Immediately, I yanked up the parking brake and jumped out of the car with a huge camera as my only shield.

Our guide, who moments earlier I saw dozing off in our back seat, suddenly started yelling at me to "Get back in the truck!! These are very dangerous animals! If they start charging, they will crush the truck!!" For a guy carrying an AK47, he sure was a little weenie!

So... I snapped a ton of pictures until they started staring me down a little more and I turned into a little weenie and decided to move on.

With my adrenaline out the roof, we started down the trail again... then, around the next curb... we saw this...

As we got closer to them, I was able to stop just a few meters away from this magnificent creature and watch him pose for me...

Suddenly, I was no longer thinking about how mad I was that our guide fell asleep on us or that our car was making funny noises. I was pumped!

Next stop was the Shire River.

**Side note: For all you Lord of the Rings fans out there... Tolkien was actually inspired to write the series while he was staying in Malawi. And the Shire (pronounced: shir-ree around here) would later become the Shire in his books.

Anyway... when we drove up to the bank of the fast moving river, we saw a nice group of Hippos just bobbing in the water. Actual wild hippos. I was really stoked!

I was a little aggravated that our guide once again was forcing us to keep our distance. Although, in this case, I was a little more willing to comply, considering Hippos are one of the most man killing animals in Africa.

But, then our guide gave us a chance to break free when he turned around and started peeing in the bush. So, we got a bit closer and were able to get some cool shots!

Although this isn't something that I see everyday here in Malawi, it sure made my day yesterday!

You can check out some of the other pictures that I took of these guys on Flickr.