Camping in Mikumi

I am very sore and tired this monday morning because we finally got to go on our camping trip. Eight of us spent the weekend at Mikumi National Park having a blast. It took about 6 hours to get there but there was beautiful scenery and a gorgeous sunset to enjoy en route. We got there a little after the gate closed (3 hours late) so had to do some driving around and negotiating to get into the park but finally got to our camp site, set up tents, lit a fire and got dinner cooking. Each morning we got up at 6:30, drank some coffee and loaded into the land rover for a game drive. There are soooo many animals everywhere. We saw zebras, wildebeest, buffalo, elephants, impala, giraffes, hippos, lions, baboons, jackals, warthogs, crocs vultures and eagles (We also had a whole lot of insects at camp, including army ants, which hurt like hell when they bite you-I got nibbled twice). One of the guys let me use his 50-500 zoom lens on my camera so I've got some amazing close-up photos.... although more often than not, the animals were so close we didn't need the zoom at all. I spent most of the weekend sitting on the roof of the land rover getting bounced around (hence the sore), listening to music and taking photos of the amazing animals and scenery. We had in our group a couple guys who worked for a hunting/safari company so they knew everything about the animals and the trees and so on. After a few hours we'd get hungry and head back to camp. Saturday we went on an afternoon drive as well (which turned into an evening drice as we ended up really far away and didn't get back to camp until after dark). Sunday we spent a couple of hours sitting around a hippo pool watching as one by one herds of different animals came to the water hole... there was some serious negotiation involved in accessing the water as there was a clear priority sequence and crocs waiting in the water for their lunch. Lions are not the most exciting animal to watch (didn't do much but lay around) but it was pretty cool to get so close up to them and we found four cubs as well. Anyway, beyond this description I think the photos will have to speak for themselves... I took about 400 pics so it'll take a couple of days to download and sort but I will post photos here soon. I had an amazing weekend and couldn't have asked for better company. All in all, a huge success and I could definitely have stayed longer.