safari

A few days after we got back to Uganda, my friend Leya came for a visit. To show her around Uganda—and because it’s fun—and because then it feels like we’re really in Africa—she, Christian and I went on a three-day safari to Murchison Falls National Park. Christian and I had been there before, but it was so nice and there is so much to see we still chose this safari over some of the other options in the country. Plus, last time we never saw the leopard. This time we were going to see the leopard. 

The way we do safaris here is that you hire a guide who comes with a safari bus (a big van with a top that pops up so you can see out) and they organize the whole program for us. Our driver, Fred, picked us up from Noah’s Ark on a Monday morning and we were off for our own private safari tour. 

Contrary to what some of you may have thought, the wild animals don’t roam around the compound. Aside from monkeys on the roof and snakes in the trees, most of the typical African animals steer clear of people. Therefore, safaris require a lot of driving. 

We headed west to Kampala and then north for a few hours until we reached our first activity: rhino trekking. This was the one part of the trip we got to walk around to see the animals. The park ranger prefaced our trek with a safety talk about if a rhino charges you, either climb a tree or hide in a thicket because they don’t like those. Hide behind a few sticks to fend off a five-ton wild animal? Sounds safe enough. 

Turns out wild animals are pretty smart and spend most of their day napping, so that was how we stumbled upon our first group of rhinos. The white rhinos are extinct in Uganda, so they have started breeding them in a reserve with hopes of releasing them into the wild again when numbers have increased. Funnily enough, some of the rhinos came from America. When a rhino from America and a rhino from Kenya had a baby, they named the new one Obama. 

The next rhinos we found were a mother and baby, and we got to see the baby nurse, which was neat. (The coolest part about the first group was that we heard one fart.) 

After the rhinos, it was back in the bus to drive another few hours to our accommodations for the night. We stayed in a humble little “resort” run by a local women’s group. They prepared local foods for supper, so we had the chance to introduce Leya to matooke (mashed banana) right off the bat. 

The next morning we started off with a boat tour up the Nile. I had forgotten how much I enjoy being on water! Plus, the boat tour is the best because that’s when we got to see hippos! 

Being on the river is the best way to see animals not sleeping because at some point during the day most of them venture to the water for a drink and to cool off. I had the hippo song stuck in my head the whole time—until we saw a water buffalo, after which I had that song stuck in my head…

It took us two hours of travel upriver before we were in sight of Murchison Falls. Because of how powerful the falls are and how small our boat was, the point where we could first see the waterfall was also the point where we had to turn around and go back, but not before hopping off the boat for a few photos. 

You can access the falls by hiking or driving. Last year when Christian’s cousins came to visit, we drove to the top of the falls, but this time we never made it up there. It is possibly the most beautiful place I have seen in Uganda. We went first thing in the morning, when the light was bouncing off the water… but don’t be deceived: Murchison Falls is also quite dangerous. The surrounding tribes used to throw their enemies off the top of the falls as a death punishment. (Don’t worry Mom, we stayed far away from the edge.)

That afternoon we went on our game drive, where we spent five hours driving around the national park looking for animals. We were fortunate enough to see elephants, giraffes, several types of antelopes, warthogs, and now I can’t even remember what else. 

This is the part of Uganda that actually looks like The Lion King. Oh, speaking of, we also saw lions! We did a short off-road stint (sshhh) and got really close! The cubs were playing and one of the females followed the bus for awhile; that’s how we knew it was time to go back to the road. It’s a good thing we had a guide with good eyes because with their color I never would have picked them out of the grass from a distance. 

We stayed at a different resort that night, quickly drove through the park again the next morning, and then spent most of Wednesday driving home. 

We did not see the leopard. I am still looking.