Today was simply amazing. This was the second day of our three day safari. We spent the entire day in the safari vehicles, but it was well worth it.
From the lodge we had to travel a bit over 100km to the area in the reserve we were sight seeing in. Our route had us traveling mostly outside the reserve so we could use the real roads (in Uganda that means better packed dirt). That meant no animals for quite a while, however we were blessed about 1km from the lodge by 2 giraffe standing next to the road.
On the way we passed through a couple small villages. These villages were all clay huts with grass roofs. The people were primarily farmers. Though there was no sign of traditional electrical items anywhere I did notice many people using cellphones, and some buildings had solar powered phone charging stations. The tall modern cell towers in fields next to clay huts seemed to present a strange dichotomy of modern affluence and primitive living. All the people looked happy and healthy.
Some guides met us at the reserve entrance to escort and teach us about the local wildlife. We took a boat ride on the Nile river and saw tons of hippos and even an entire family of elephants on the bank drinking. When Peter and I saw a few giraffes close to the road we got out of the safari vehicle and walked to their area. The guide said he had never seen a giraffe let a human so close. I got most of that on video! After searching almost till dark we finally found a group of lions. A mom and a few cubs playing. They were fun to watch, till another safari vehicle sped up without knowing they were there and scared them away accidentally.
Anyways, here is a list of the animals we saw. Not entirely complete, but a good list:
- Impala
- Antelope
- Gazelle
- Vulture
- Wildebeast
- Warthog
- Water Buffalo
- Elephant
- Water Buck
- Monkeys
- Oribi (sp?), which look like a permanent baby Antelope and really cute. Their babies are tiny and even cuter!
- Lions
I will upload a couple of the more fun photos tonight, but with the internet even worse at the lodge the bulk will have to wait till I return home.
