After the nice training yesterday with some local trainers and their water-type pokémon here in Pastoria City and the battle against some wild pokémon on Route 212 I decided to gave my pokémon a little rest and train on my own in the Great Marsh, the Safari Zone of the Sinnoh region. Alone because, as you probably know, in these zones you have to catch pokémon without the help of your own pokémon. I was sure this will help me to sharpen my view for the gym fight tomorrow and to train my body a little big again after long pause from hiking around.
Early in the morning i made my way to the gates of the zone. At the entrance I did get a bag full of safari Pokéballs, some baits for the wild pokémon and I had to give my Pokéballs to the attendant. After a few instructions, like how long I can stay inside, a few tips about where I can find each pokémon and how the great marsh became what it is today, I stepped through the doors to the train station behind.
Around and through the marsh is a train network to easily get from one part to the other because the marsh itself already is pretty big and walking in the mud will exhaust you faster than walking on a street.
Just a few minutes of riding in the train I reached area 1 which is located at the northern end of the zone, furthest away from the entrance. As soon as I was out of the train I spot a huge field of marsh and mud with bigger rocks poking out of the long grass.
I made my way to the first big rock and climbed up the slippery surface to get an overview of the area.
Far away I saw a group of Shroomish and Gulpin still sleeping under a tree. In fact, it was still really dark, the sun was not yet up.. over my head flew a group of Hoothoot to get to their home where they would sleep the rest of the day.
Right Then I noticed a rustle to my left. underneath the rock I saw some smaller white rocks which were moving! Asking myself if my eyes made fun of me I took out my pokédex which answered my question with a no, under this rock slept an Exeggcute! Knowing that they are pretty rare I took out a bait, knelled down and carefully placed it next to the Exeggcute. The smell of the bait let the pokémon wake up. Firstly it looked around where it came from, finding it right next to it. Again it looked around where it might came from but it did not look up above itself where I was still kneeling, now with a safari ball in my hands. As soon as it munched on the bait I threw my ball down on it and the Exeggcute did disappear into the ball. A little wiggle and a click – I caught it! Happy with this first success I made my way to area 2 ^^
On the way to the next area, the sun slowly rose up over the mountains and some fog formed over the marsh. I could no longer see too far ahead which made me nearly walking into another trainer who was on his way back from a night-trip in the marsh. He gave me a few hints where I could find some rare pokémon and I could show him the easiest way to the train station because he was pretty beaten up from the hard walk in the marsh.
Soon I reached area 2 and also saw some strange shadows move in the fog. I duck down and crawled closer to the shadows, covering my whole outfit in mud… I reached a small bush where I had a good view to two big flowers.. they had something like a big maw on the closed bud.. or wait.. those were not flowers.. those were pokémon too! I never saw them before! They were Carnivine did tell me my pokédex, a grass-type pokémon. Too scared to “fight” against two of them at the same time I did slowly retreat south to a small pond.
Washing away some of the mud I saw a tingle on the surface of the pond. Watching closer I saw another big maw but this time underneath the surface! And the maw did get bigger and bigger! It was a Whiscash, a water-ground-type pokémon which did get attracted by the fresh mud I washed off me in the water! It dashed out of the water, trying to catch my hands and arms! Normally I was the one that catches the pokémon, not the other way around D:
Within a second I did grab a safari ball with my left hand, did hold the right up in the sky to let the Whiscash fly after it and pretty much punched the pokémon with the ball right in its side >_
After all this excitement I had to make a little break. A little intimidated I tried to wash some more mud of me. But in the end I left most of it on me because I would surly get even more dirty here in the great mash.
The fog slowly disappeared with the sun rising up further up the sky.
At the other side of the pond I saw another two water-type pokémon. A Golduck with two pretty small Enton where standing up, rubbing their eyes and gliding into the water to take a fresh morning bath in the still fresh water.
I slowly stood up and made myself on the way south to area 4.
Again I saw a big area with sometimes tall boulders poking out of the mud. different to area one, there was not much vegetation here.
Getting closer to the first rock to climb up it again, I saw that it was already “used” by someone else. An Arbok did lay on the rock, heating itself up in the warm morning sun. I stepped closer carefully, but not careful enough. A dry branch broke underneath my feet waking up the Arbok from his nap. Staring at me angry with his black eyes it slowly erected its body high up to show me his ominous size and pattern on the bigger part of his body just underneath his head. I knew it was only to scare me, and I also was impressed by it, but I did not have to fear that. I walked closer, grabbing another ball from my bag. The Arbok itself noticed that he couldn’t impress me much and bent itself over to jump on me! Right in at the same time of its jump I threw the ball which did strike it at it’s forehead. The Arbok did disappear into the ball which did fall into the mud. But not soon after it opened itself again, letting the Arbok free. It took its chance and did run away. I grabbed the dirty safari ball, cleaned it a little and put it back to the others.
I climbed up the boulder and tot look around. No pokémon were near me, they probably did hear the small fight and ran all away. Only in the far south I saw some Paras fighting with each other for some tasty looking mushrooms.
Around lunchtime i reached area 3 which was kind of in the middle of the great marsh. At the area’s train station I did take a small break, eating a few things. All the walking in the mud really did tear on my endurance more than I thought. But I did not want to give up, there were more pokémon out there to discover and to catch!
Next I went to area 3. Walking along a thin plank I did see a few more Carnivine and at a small river, a group of Bidoof and Bibarel did build on a dam.
Flowing the river south I found myself at a small lake where I met another trainer who was fishing pokémon. I did ask if I could watch a little to see what pokémon he may would catch. I did this in order to see how this water-type pokémon would behave for the gym battle tomorrow.
We did not have to wait long then the rod started to shake! There was something on the hook! The other trainer slowly did real in the line bringing forth a Carvanha! Wow, these are really spiky fellows D: He did have some kind of trouble to calm the Carvanha down. But in the end he could throw a safari ball on it and caught the the Carvanha! 😀
Area 5 was right behind the lake. The sun was already slowly heading down when I reached a bigger field of dry mud. Already for some time I could hear that there was something on this field going on and I did see a cloud of dust already from the other side of the lake in area 3. Now that I was close enough I nearly didn’t believe what I saw.
A Skorupi with a Drapion did fight against a Croagunk with a Toxicroak. The fight was really wild and none of the two groups seemed like they want to give up nor could I say which one of the two groups was stronger or which weaker.
The fight was really serious but suddenly they did stop and gave each other the hands! O.o; This was just a training fight?! Wow…
Happily about this awesome show I could see, I did make my way to the last Area 6. Here was again a little more mud and marsh on the ground. And in the middle of this mud stood a tall Roselia! I just had to catch this!
Laying down into the mud again I slowly made my way to the Roselia from behind its back. When I was only two meter away it suddenly did jump up, turned around int he air and landed right in front of me! So it knew I was here all along!
I jumped up on my feet too although it did not look pretty good.. I did not jump high enough into the air because the sticky mud did hold me back too much. So I landed only on my knees, falling back down forward and hit my head right at the Roselia’s! I started laughing because of this really random accident when I noticed that I also accidentally did knock out the Roselia! Seems like it was not prepared for that “Head Smash Attack” of mine ^^;
I grabbed a safari ball and could see Roselia disappearing in it. Nearly no wiggling and a nice click told me that I did catch it!
Very contend about the awesome day in the Great Marsh I made my way back to the gates to get all my pokémon back. The other pokéballs did get transferred to prof. Elm. which I did call right after to make sure they arrived safely ^^
So then, a gooood wash, and a nice rest for tomorrows gym fight which will start later in the evening.
Cya!