Hippos and Warthogs and Crocs... OH MY!!!

SAFARI TIME!

We just got back from our safari to Murchison Falls yesterday. It was awesome! Murchison Falls is a national park up in North Western Uganda. It is an amazing waterfall in the Nile River and a huge game park full of giraffes, elephants, antelope, water buffalo, hippos, crocs, and more.

We had quite the drive to get up there, but it was worth every minute of it. On our way to the camp on Saturday, we took a short hike up to the top of the falls. The road to the falls was a narrow, bumpy, dirt road lined with trees and jungle life. We had to stop the vehicle multiple times to let the baboons cross the road. Haha, can you imagine a baboon crossing sign back home instead of deer crossing?! There are these devilish little flies called Teetsee Flies that swarm into the car through open windows and bite. They bite really hard! We had a pretty entertaining ride constantly rolling the windows up and down and up and down. Every time the van slowed down to go over a bump flies would come in so we had to hurry and shut the windows, but if they were closed for more than a minute we all suffocated from heat and lack of air, so in was a constant open, close, open, close, shoo the flies out... adventure.
"Teetse Attack! Close the windows! Can't breathe, open them! Attack! Close them, close them, close them!" Haha, we got some good laughs out of it!

The water falls were beautiful! It amazed me to see so much water cascading down such a small space. It had so much power, force, and beauty. I seriously love nature!



Back at the camp:

Our camp was in the middle of no where, but we ate some great food and actually had real toilets and running water. We slept in safari tents with two beds per tent. They were really nice, but not very noise proof when it poured during the night. At least they didn't leak! Our campsite was the home to about 30 warthogs. "They pretend to be domestic, but they're not!" -our guide. They warned us not to keep any food in our tents or else the warthogs and even hippos might try to steal it. Yikes! I don't want a hippo coming after me in the dark, or the light for that matter.



Day 2 of the Safari:

Wake up bright and early for the game drive. We set out before the sun was up to get out and see the animals. The sunrise this morning was probably the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. We watched it rise, reflecting off the Nile, as we took a ferry across the river and over to the park. Majestic!

The game drive was so cool! We rode in a fun little 10 passenger van with a pop-up roof. We stood up pretty much the whole 4 hours, peeking our heads out of the top to see all the way around us. We saw antelope, Ugandan cob, bush buck, water buffalo, elephants, giraffes, warthogs, birds... My favorite was probably coming withing 15 feet of two elephants. They were huge! The giraffes were really fun to see too! I didn't expect to see so many of them. Unfortunately we missed the lions, the first van saw two of them, but we were just a little bit too late. There weren't any zebras or gazelles in Murchison Falls either, but other than those, we saw just about everything.

That afternoon, we went on a boat ride out to the base of the Falls. We saw hundreds of hippos and a few crocadiles along the way. They're both kind of creepy because they lurk right below the surface of the water and then pop up and scare you. One hippo popped up right next to our boat and sprayed us. Another, thankfully a little ways away, snapped his teeth at us. Other than that, they were pretty lazy animals and just sat around in the water all day.



Day 3 of the Safari:

Today was the last day of the safari. Most of the day was spent driving back home, but we made a little stop at the Rhino reserve park to track the rhinos. This part was a little different because we actually got out of the van and went looking after the animals on foot. Sweet! There are 9 rhinos in the reserve park. There used to be tons of rhinos in Uganda, but they have been poached to extinction for their horns. We found two of the rhinos in the park, one of which is named Obama. Yes, Ugandans are obsessed with Obama.

After the rhinos, we continued our nice, lengthy drive back home. Pretty stellar weekend!

I read Tuesdays with Morrie on the drive. Highly recommend it! It was such an inspirational book! What is the purpose of life and how can we live it to the fullest? Find out for yourself!



Now we're back to another great week of work! Trying to make the most of every minute!