{"id":558,"date":"2007-02-18T11:38:40","date_gmt":"2007-02-18T11:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/archives\/2007\/02\/18\/yankari-national-park\/"},"modified":"2007-02-26T12:09:53","modified_gmt":"2007-02-26T12:09:53","slug":"yankari-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/archives\/2007\/02\/18\/yankari-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankari National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thessa organised a trip to Yankari, partly to celebrate her birthday and partly as a send-off for Pete and Mary.<\/p>\n<p>Most of us met up in Bauchi motor park and then chartered a minibus to take us to Wikki camp, where the accommodation is.  The journey wasn&#8217;t too bad, the park is currently being renovated and this includes surfacing the road from the entrance to Wikki.  The accommodation and facilities are a bit run-down but we were lucky and managed to see quite a few animals.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/YankariReception_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/YankariReception_t.jpg\" alt=\"A large round building in ugly grey concrete\" title=\"The main reception building at Yankari National Park.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/DilapidatedSign_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/DilapidatedSign_t.jpg\" alt=\"A sign with several of the arms pointing at the ground\" title=\"The dilapidated sign outside reception.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/Bushbuck_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/Bushbuck_t.jpg\" alt=\"INSERT ALT TEXT\" title=\"A bushbuck, the first animal we saw on our tour.\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThe rooms are one of the most run-down parts, some have been renovated but aren&#8217;t available yet.  A lot of effort seems to be going into building an enormous concrete VIP lodge and impressive gates at the entrances, not quite the priorities I would have but quite normal here.<\/p>\n<p>Our game drive on Saturday morning was a highlight, we managed to see lions and crocodiles as well as lots of bushbuck, waterbuck and guinea fowl.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/SqueezedIntoAPickup_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/SqueezedIntoAPickup_t.jpg\" alt=\"Lots of people sitting in the back of a pick-up truck\" title=\"Everyone squeezed into the back of a pick-up truck.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/Lioness2_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/Lioness2_t.jpg\" alt=\"A lioness among trees\" title=\"A lioness sitting in the shade of a tree.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/RiverWithCrocodile_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/RiverWithCrocodile_t.jpg\" alt=\"A wide, shallow river.  A tiny crocodile-shaped blob is in the middle.\" title=\"One of the rivers, with a crocodile in the middle.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/MaleBushbuck_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/MaleBushbuck_t.jpg\" alt=\"A male bushbuck in grass and trees\" title=\"A male bushbuck down by the river.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wikki camp is full of baboons and warthogs, even down by the warm springs.  On one of the days, while we were swimming in the springs a large group of baboons arrived and had to be chased away from our things.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/WikkiWarmSprings_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/WikkiWarmSprings_t.jpg\" alt=\"People swimming in shallow, blue water\" title=\"Some of the VSOs enjoying Wikki Warm Springs (David, Wil and Mo).\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/DogfacedBaboonWithBaby2_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/DogfacedBaboonWithBaby2_t.jpg\" alt=\"A female baboon with her baby sitting by the side of a bright blue river\" title=\"A female baboon and her child by the warm springs.\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/Warthog_w.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/media\/Nigeria\/Yankari\/Feb07\/Warthog_t.jpg\" alt=\"A warthog looking towards the camera\" title=\"A warthog.\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Another highlight was Thessa being given a bottle of Nigerian tonic wine as a birthday present (disgusting, but she gained lots of new friends among a group of students).  We were also saying goodbye to Pete and Mary, they&#8217;ve headed off on an overland trip around West Africa, which was especially sad for me as we arrived in Nigeria together.  They&#8217;d brought Henry (picture <a href=\"http:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/archives\/2005\/06\/26\/opobo-to-eket\/\">from a trip to Opobo<\/a>) up from Opobo with them, he&#8217;s currently at a bit of a loose end because some &#8220;militants&#8221; stole the Opobo-Nkoro Community Development Foundation&#8217;s boat.<\/p>\n<p>So, a lovely weekend, meeting new volunteers and saying goodbye to old friends.  It&#8217;s odd to think that Jenny and I are now the longest-serving VSOs in Nigeria!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thessa organised a trip to Yankari, partly to celebrate her birthday and partly as a send-off for Pete and Mary. Most of us met up in Bauchi motor park and then chartered a minibus to take us to Wikki camp, where the accommodation is. The journey wasn&#8217;t too bad, the park is currently being renovated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-friends","category-travel","category-vso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.caboose.org.uk\/b\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}