Safari (9/15)

Uganda Sunrise

Well Uganda, you have done it again, provided me with yet another indescribable experience.  But as always, I will try and describe it for you.  Today we went to Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is located in the Kasese district.  We were picked up at about 6:30 and headed to the park, which is about a half hour away.  The drive alone was beautiful, as we were able to see our first Ugandan sunrise.  Once we arrived at the park we picked up our safari guide, Eddie.

Water Buffalo

We first drove around the park to view the animals.  Right away we saw hundreds of kob.  We also saw hundreds of water buffalo.  As we got a little further into the park we saw elephants.  We were in awe.  They were so close to us, and it was incredible being able to see them in their natural environment.  We probably spent much more time than we needed to looking at the elephants, but we didn’t realize we would be having several more encounters with them as the day went on.  Eddie was finally able to convince us that we would see more and that we should move on.  And it was a good thing we did, because we were able to witness a python suffocating a kob.  It was in the distance and low to the ground so we don’t have pictures of this, but it was pretty neat to see.  Next we saw the lions.  There were three female lions, two male lions, and about four cubs.  The cubs mainly slept while we were watching them, the males wandered around, and the females were doing some hunting.  One of the female lions was lying in the grass, and Eddie told us she was hiding from the kob and was going to attack when one wasn’t paying attention.  We waited and waited, but never saw this happen.  It was really interesting watching the behavior of the kob in the presence of the lions.  The kob would all face in the direction of the lions, and the males would stand close so that they could warn the females when the lions began hunting.  It was quite noisy with the kob calling to each other in what was almost like a whistle.  Some other animals we saw in no particular order were one lonely hippo (and many, many more later), a monkey, a lizard, eagles, and the Crested Crane (the national bird). 

Lizard

Kob

More kob

Elephants

Male Lion

Crested Crane

Katie ad I with the hippos in the fishing community

After our safari tour in the car, Eddie showed us the salt lake that is located within the park.  He then took us to a fishing community that also was in the park.  We got there after the fishermen had already come in from the morning fishing, and were able to see them preparing the nets for the next time they go out, as well as emptying some of the fish into basins that were then being carried away by the women.  The fish that they catch and that everyone eats here are tilapia.  I couldn’t help but think how scary it must be living among the lions, elephants, buffalo, and so on! There were hippos swimming right out in front of their fishing boats.

Salt Lake

We then went on a boat cruise safari.  We heard it was something we should do, but didn’t realize how amazing it would actually be.  We were on a pontoon-type boat for two hours and we were able to get super close to a ton of animals.  It was not only cool to be able to see the animals up so close, but it was also just a completely relaxing couple of hours.  We were able to sit back, kick our feet up, and just enjoy the beautiful day, scenery, and animals.  We were on cloud nine.  We saw a lot of the same animals as we did in the car, but we were also able to see more hippos, a crocodile, and tons of birds.  There are over 612 species of birds, which is probably why there were birds in every direction that we looked!

Cute little baby!

Elephants we saw on the boat cruise

Hippo

Crocodile

So many birds!

Water buffalo

And then after the boat ride our happiness and excitement continued when we went to eat at Moya Lodge.  The lodge is situated on the top of a hill that overlooks the beautiful lakes that we had just been on for our cruise.  What’s more, we ordered a cheeseburger and pizza for lunch! This was our first encounter with American food since being here, so you can imagine how clean our plates were.  Following lunch, we spent an hour shopping in the hotel gift shop.  This was also our first time shopping, so we may have gone a little crazy, but we were just too excited to start buying gifts for our friends and family. 

Our view from Moya Lodge

It seemed as though we were leaving at the perfect time, as it started to rain pretty hard as soon as we got back in the car.  We were making the drive out of the park when we were stopped by a herd of elephants.  They were crossing the road right in front of us.  We were so excited!  But then we all became a little nervous because we overheard a man talking at lunch about elephants almost charging his car.  Our driver, Samson, waited it out while the elephants passed, and we were able to grab a few last pictures of my now favorite animal.

Elephants passing in front of us

We made one more stop on the way home and that was to a few craft shops.  They have about six of them conveniently located right outside the park.  So Katie and I did a little more shopping and we felt good knowing that our money would be going to the women in the shops who made them.

To bring us back to reality when we got home, there were a few cockroaches and a lizard all waiting for us in our room!  So naturally, Katie and I were talking to, yelling at, and maybe even barking at the lizard to try and get it out of our room.  Well we didn’t realize our window was open and Doreen, who was in the back with some of her family, heard us.  She came in to check on us and she told us she heard us and said, “I have to go check on my babies!” And sure enough she came in and said, “My daughters, what is it?!”  She is such a good mother!