First African Game Drive Completed
Trip Start
Apr 21, 2008
1
20
225
Trip End
Apr 20, 2009
Murchison Falls National Park,
Murchison Falls National Park,
Uganda
Sunday, May 11, 2008
I woke up pretty early on Friday to get ready for my day long drive to Murchsion Falls from Kampala. Unfortunately, I woke up with disgusting bed bug bites on my elbow and knees. I knew this day would come but I wish it didn't come so early. Not surprised as my mattress and pillow were pretty sketchy looking.
There were 8 of us going up to the National Park - 4 Canadians, 2 Brits and 2 Germans. It was such a great group. Everyone was young and fun. We all got along. Two of the Canadians were students from Carleton University. The guy, Stu, has played for the Carleton Basketball team for the last 4 years and even knows a co-worker of mine who played ball with him. Small world.
The first day was uneventful. It took us all day to get to the National Park. SLowly, we would be seeing fewer towns and more country side. Eventually, we hit a dirt road which led to our camp site. Along the way, we would see monkeys on the side of the road. I really liked seeing the monkeys.
When we got to our camp site, we were briefed by an employee about the possibility of seeing wildlife on our camp site - notable hippos. He said it was common to have hippos come from the lake and graze at our camp site. This didn't make me feel too comfortable as hippos kill more human beings than any other animal in Africa. I would keep this in back of my mind the whole time I would find myself on the camp site.
I did see wart hogs by our tents during the evening. These animals didn't really scare me.
Later that night, I met a few other travelers. Some guys are just so adventurous. These 2 guys I met just travel with maps and sometimes use guide books. They wing everything. Most of the time they just hitch hike to get place to place. I admired their sense of adventure. Not sure if I could do it though. While talking to these guys, guess what appears about 30 feet from our table? Yes, a friggin hippo. It was humungous. If I stood up, our eyes would probably meet each other. I had no idea how big these animals could get. None of us were actually nervous. It ate some grass for about 5 minutes and then headed back into the woods. I was so glad I didn't go to bed early. I would have missed that.
I had a decent night sleep although I could hear animals outside my tent. This kept me up for about. The animals were either hippos or wart hogs. Not for a second did I think about going outside to see what it was. I was told it was very unnatural for an animal to try to go into a tent so we should feel very safe in them even if we heard an animal just outside.
When I awoke in the morning, it was still dark. We had to be ready for 6:40 am for our game drive. I slowly lowered the zipper of my tent and flashed my light outside. It was clear. No hippos in sight. I walked quickly to the shower area and got ready for the game drive.
The game drive lasted 4 hours. It was much better than I expected. I saw elephants, giraffes, gazelles, buffalo and even a herd of lions. Seeing the lions was a bonus as we were told they were difficult to find. When we saw them, we followed them for a while. It looked like they were ready to pounce on a giraffe that was nearby but they didn't. It would have been great if we saw a kill.
I will do another safari before I leave Africa. I plan on going to the Serengeti in late June where I hope to witness the great migration of the wildebeest.
In the afternoon, we took a boat took Murchison Falls. People get excited about water falls. I am not one of them. I did like seeing all the hippos and the crocodiles on our way to the falls. AT one point, everyone on the boat (which had other groups besides ours) moved to one side to see the crocodiles. The boat started tipping towards ione side. I was on the deck and could hear someone screaming "Balance the boat!" I quickly went to the other side but you had so many dumb tourists still clicking their camera to get pics of the crocodiles. They had to be yelled at a second time to move over. I definitely did not want to be in the same water as the crocs.
Anyhow, that was my experience visiting Murchison. I am back in Kampala now. I will leave tomorrow. I don't know where yet. I will decide tomorrow morning. I will go to either Ssesse Islands or Lake Bunyoni.
Dino
