Emhoff Family Adventures: Uganda Week 2: Safari

Uganda Week 2: Safari

Monday, August 2:

This morning Peter came out to the orphanage to pick us up. He said he wasn’t feeling the best, so Allan would be our driver for the week. We left around 10:00am.

Leaving the orphanage

Becky and Benard with fresh eggs

Nelson

It took awhile to drive, since you have to go through lots of small towns. We crossed over the Nile River at Karuma. The river was raging with huge rapids. For the last hour or so of the drive the road got really rough and filled with giant potholes. When we finally arrived at the turnoff for our lodge, we discovered the dirt road in was really rough, but we made it. We arrived at Parkside Lodge around 5:00pm, had a great dinner and then relaxed. There are no other guests at the lodge, so we had everything to ourselves.

Crossing the Nile River at Karuma

Our room at Parkside Safari Lodge

Dinner at the safari lodge (we had the place to ourselves)

Our rooms at Parkside Safari Lodge

Tuesday, August 3:

Entering Murchison Falls National Park

It was still dark when we ate our breakfast by candlelight. After a 15-minute drive we arrived at the Tangi Gate for Murchison Falls National Park around 7:30am. At the gate we pick up our guide, whose name is Savior. I thought we would just see a few animals here and there, probably far off in the distance. That was definitely not the case! There were animals everywhere, some very close to our van. Our guide Savior was amazing! He had a great sense of humor and had an eagle eye for spotting animals in the distance. Early on he took us over to two female lions and a cub. We got within 30 feet of them (we were in the van). During the day we saw giraffes, elephants, hippos, water buffalos, antelopes, lots of birds, warthogs, and many other species. Around noon we drove back to our lodge for lunch and a quick nap.

Our van

Warthog

Elephants

Lion and cub

Our guide Savior

Giraffe

Antelope

Water Buffalo

Red Bishop

Watching elephants

Spotting animals

Bull, cow, and baby elephant

Around 4pm we went out for evening safari. Toward the end we finally saw leopard up in tree. We stuck around and watched it stalk an antelope (it didn’t get the kill though). A few minutes later the leopard crossed the road right in front of our van. Our guide said that was one of his best leopard experiences. We didn't get back to our lodge until almost 8pm and were hungry for dinner.

Monkey

Hippo

Giraffes

Warthog

Leopard

Watching the leopard in the tree

Leopard walking right in front of our van

Wednesday, August 4:

A lightning storm passed through last night and we had little rain before breakfast. It started pouring again during our morning game drive, so we didn't see as many animals due to the rain. We then drove to the top of Murchison Falls and walked out to the edge. The Nile goes from several hundred meters across to about 12 meters across right before the falls, so there is a lot of water coming through one narrow part of the river. We got very wet from the mist. After that we drove back down to the boat dock and had our "sack" lunches that the lodge made for us.

Water Buffalo

Top of Murchison Falls

Murchison Falls

We then boarded our double-decker boat for a ride up the Victoria Nile to the base of the falls. On our way up the river we hugged the banks and saw lots of hippos and crocodiles. The river was running higher than normal with the rains, so we couldn't go as far up to the base of the falls as the boats usually go. The boat definitely struggled against the current to keep its position. After some time to take pictures, the boat turned around and headed back to the dock. On the way back to the lodge we stopped a few times in the park to look at the animals at sunset. When we arrived back at the lodge, they had set up a table outside for us so we could have an outdoor candlelight dinner. The bugs and mosquitos started coming out, so we had to eat quickly or be eaten.

Hippo

Crocodile

Red throated bee-eater

Murchison Falls

Watching the Water Buffalo

Water Buffalo

Outdoor candlelight dinner

Thursday, August 5:

Baboons

Today was an early start. We were on the road by 6am, since we needed to be at the boat dock for our Nile Delta boat tour at 7:30am. It was just us and one other guy on the small boat with us. The guide on our boat took us to several islands and marshes where we spotted almost 25 bird species. We made it all the way to Lake Albert, where we watched some of the locals fish from their boats. From there we turned around and made our way back upriver to the dock. We drove back to our lodge for lunch and a nap.

Colobus monkeys

Cormorants

Pie Kingfisher

Goliath Heron

Open-billed Stork

Enjoying the early-morning boat ride

Weaver bird with nests

Fishermen on Lake Albert

Another bird watching group

Saddle-billed Stork

Around 5:00pm we had a delicious dinner of potatoes and barbequed goat (it was very tasty). At 6:30pm we met our guide, Savior, and our rented-out extended Toyota Landcruiser for our night safari (we needed to rent the Landcruiser since many of the spots on the night safari were off the main tracks). Savior saw a lion tail around 200m off in the bush to the left, so we off-roaded over there. We ended up seeing 12 lions! As dusk came, Savior got out his spotlight so we could spot animals in the dark. There was a lightning storm off in the distance, which made the whole scene very magical. We drove around the park and saw lots of animals, many of which are nocturnal and only hunt in the night. Some of these were the Janet Cat, a Jackal, and mongoose. There were lots of hippos in the bushes that had made their way up from the water. Up in the grassy areas there were tons of antelope. Where ever Savior shined his light all you could see were glowing eyes. We saw a leopard briefly cross the road before it disappeared. The whole night safari was a great experience. All of the kids were tired though, and almost all of them fell asleep by the end. We didn't get back to our lodge until almost 11:30pm at night.

Ankole cattle near our lodge

Landcruiser like the one we rented for the night safari

Giraffe

Young lion

Lion cub

We saw 12 lions in one spot!

Our guide, Savior, on the night safari

Shining the spot light on a lion

Janet Cat

The animals were everywhere at night

Worn out from night safari

Friday, August 6:

We packed up all of our stuff, had breakfast, and hit the road around 8am. When we stopped for gas around 11am both our driver Allan and I heard a weird popping sound coming from around the front right wheel. The gas station also had some mechanics on duty, so they took a look at it. It was either a CV joint, bearings or something going bad. After about 2 hours they were able to swap a couple of tires, and like our driver Allan tried to explain, make the van 2-wheel drive instead of 4 wheel. While they were working on the car we hung out at a restaurant next door and had some great rice and beans for lunch. There was a refugee camp just down the road, so there were quite a few UN vehicles that came through the gas station.

Two of the nice employees at Parkside Safari Lodge

Working on the van

Once the van was at least drivable, we were on our way to the Ziwa white rhino sanctuary. The sanctuary has 33 rhinos, which were basically hunted to extinction in Uganda in the 1980s. It rained on the way there, which made the roads in the sanctuary very muddy, which in turn made for difficult driving in our now two-wheel drive van. We checked in and met our two ranger guides who would be walking us to the rhinos. We had a quick safety briefing (i.e. if the rhinos charge, don't run; instead hide behind a thicket or climb a tree) and then started our hike through the bushes with rubber boots on. We finally found the rhinos all laying down in the grass. We stayed for a bit and watched them. When the sun came out they all got up and moved under some trees for shade and laid back down. Our guides took us on a full circle around the rhinos, staying about 30 feet from them. The guides told us about the history of the sanctuary and how they began to breed the rhinos, with the hope of transferring some of these rhinos to the national parks throughout Uganda. Allan our driver came with us on the tour, since he had never been to the sanctuary.

We then hit the road again to make our way to Kampala. On the way we stopped in an area that had tons of people selling pineapples along the road. Allan said this area has good pineapples. A boy approached the van with an armful of pineapples. Becky asked how much and Allan said 5,000 (about $1.50). Becky said "for one?" and Allan replied, "No, for all of them". So we bought about six pineapples for $1.50. The closer we got to Kampala the more the traffic picked up and got more hectic. Once we arrived in Kampala, traffic started coming to a standstill. It took us almost an hour to go the last couple of kilometers. Around 8:30pm we arrived at the apartments where we met Becky's parents.