Pokemon Pearl Journal: Safari Zone
October 15, 2007
Now with four badges in hand, I went back to the Pokemon Center to decide where to go next. I stored Quagsire, Mr Mime, and Roselia after thanking them for their hard work. That leaves me with three pokemon: Dustox, Shieldon, and Kricketune. Time to do some exploring and catch myself some new pokemon. Sinnoh's Safari Zone is here in Pastoria, so I headed over to register.
Have I ever mentioned my utter hatred for the Safari Zone? No really, there is no aspect of Pokemon I hate worse. I loved the Johto region because it didn't have a Safari Zone. It's just annoying, you can't even get experience as you search for pokemon, you just search, search, search, and then when you find the elusive pokemon you were after, it runs away time and time again. My worst fear in the world of pokemon is encountering a shiny pokemon in the Safari Zone, and failing to capturing it.
The interesting thing with this Safari Zone is that there is an observatory you can use, for a fee, to see which pokemon are in which area of the safari. I saw an interesting scorpion-like pokemon in the far corner of the zone. I paid my money, got my Safari Pokeballs, and took the tram to the area. After wandering for a while, I finally found one. The pokedex identified it as a Skorupi, a bug/poison-type pokemon.
You know what's worse than a Safari Zone? A Safari Zone with mud. LOTS of mud. WHY?!?!?! Oh, the torture.
Anyway, the Skorupi ran away. As did the handful of others I encountered. As my time was running out, I came upon one more, so I threw some mud at it, then a Safari Ball... but no luck. It didn't run though, so I threw another... click! Caught one just in time! I went back in for another round because I saw Croagunk wandering around one of the areas. I found a few, but failed to capturer any.
85. Skorupi
October 16, 2007
I was out watching the Monday night football game (which the Giants unfortunately won), and when I got home after midnight I decided to take another crack at the Safari Zone. This time, I saw a large grass-pokemon in the area near the entrance. It's called a Carnivine, and I found a few that I failed to capture. I did finally get one to stick around long enough for me to throw mud at before tossing a Safari Ball and capturing it.
86. Carnivine
That morning before work, I went back to the Safari Zone looking for an Azurill. I wasn't finding any at all. Not one. I kept walking. Lots of Marills, but no Azurills. Should I just catch a Marill and breed it? No, wait, I don't have the Sea Incense I would need. So I kept searching, and finally I found one! I had to handle this carefully. Azurill are young and skittish, so if I throw mud it will probably run away. Typically throwing bait would entice a pokemon to stick around, but I'm afraid even that might spook it. So, I went with an old strategy called luck. Safari Ball, go! One....it's not going to work. Two... it's going to tease me. Three... click! Really? Yeah! I got lucky, and caught an Azurill!
87. Azurill
So, that'll make my team of six pokemon to train. I gave Azurill a Soothe Bell to hold while it rests in its pokeball.