Breakfast at Tan-Swiss Lodge
Breakfast included homemade bread (think: pain de campagne), espresso, bacon, sausages, baked beans, eggs, and believe it or not, when my friend asked if they had any feta cheese (which we both love), surely enough, they gave us complimentary feta cheese. 
My travel companions and I had dinner, took advantage of the very well-stocked bar, and then decided to call it a night.
The next morning we would be up at the crack of dawn for a full-day safari.
Visiting Mikumi National Park in Earnest
The following day for me began with a very hot shower in the neat, clean, spacious bathrooms at Tan-Swiss Lodge (something else that stood out for me), and after a hearty breakfast, off we went in the lodge’s gisty open-air safari vehicle with our guide in tow.
In minutes, we were at the gate of Mikumi National Park. There, we paid the required Mikumi National Park fees.
Mikumi National Park Fees
The Tanzanians in our group paid Tsh. 10,000 each (this was pre-COVID-19), while the non-East Africans paid US$30 per person.
We had all assumed we would be able to pay our park entrance fees in cash. This was not the case. Instead, we had to pay by credit or debit card.
Luckily, I had my debit card on me so with that quickly sorted, we entered the park.
Our Mikumi Safari
September is dry season in Mikumi National Park, so everything was shades of brown.
Some of the grass had been burned to help it grow better once the rainy season began.
The scenery was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the Serengeti plains.
Although many travel guides say that you can only see lions occasionally in Mikumi National Park, we were lucky! Our first interesting animal sighting of the day was a full-maned lion hiding in the brush.