Alarm on cell went off terribly early at 5:15am to get us up and in our truck for our game safari. We needed to be at the game reserve before dawn and before breakfast. Lions sleep 20 hours a day....especially the males. The females do all the hunting so the males just eat and sleep. So if we wanted to see lions, we needed to see them before dawn. It was a fast exercise to dress for the day in the dark with a headlamp and brush teeth and pack up baggage and load the truck. We were moving by 5:45 .... 15 minutes ahead of schedule. We still had to pick up our armed park ranger to make sure the animals didn't get us into trouble, which cost 40,000 shillings ($20). Money well spent for that peace of mind! Her name was Sarah and she also provided a running commentary on the game reserve and the animals we were seeing while martin, our guide and driver was focusing on keeping our truck on the road...a good division of labour!
The night air was smoky from set bush fires to burn old dry brush and regenerate green grasses for safari animals to feed on. This goes on throughout the national park. but it makes the air thick with smoke and hard to breathe at time. A challenge for Colleen who has severe asthma while I had come down with a head cold the day before. So we cover our noses and mouths with scarves when the air is too thick to breathe.
The smoke created a beautiful haze like a mist or fog as the sun was coming up. We drove for a while before martin spotted a pride of lions. 2 males, 2 cubs and a female. The cubs were chasing dad who would roll over on the ground, totally ignoring us unconcerned and played with them. Very surprising given they had young cubs. They were about 5 or 6 feet from our truck as we watched standing through an opening in the roof. I've never been that close to lions ever and only in a zoo! They were so beautiful in the early dawn light and we watched with tears in our eyes...they were just stunning. It was so emotional and mystical to see them in their own natural environment. The lioness watched us from further away and seemed quite wary. Then a third male with only 3 legs as he was missing a rear leg....hobbles by us. It was sad and raised the question how this lion survived the loss of the leg without bleeding to death and how he feeds. He must have a female who hunts for him or he feeds on leftovers and must compete with the hyenas and vultures. There must be a story there....if only lions could talk!
Then we saw lots of ibis antelope which are the national animal for Uganda and is on their country's coat of arms. They are quite small about the size of our deer I think with 2 tall horns that are striped with dark rings around them. Quite beautiful and they travel in groups.
Then we also saw a lone elephant feeding on a bush but didn't get a good look at it without spooking him. We took great care to speak in soft whispers if we had to speak at all. Bear in mind, the 4 of us are standing on rear seats with our upper bodies through an opening in the roof of the truck while Michael is negotiating a narrow rutted red dirt road filled with huge potholes. At one point, martin hits a pothole sending me forward into Jim standing in front of me and I hit him on the back of his head with my camera. Shortly afterwards....they sent me to the front seat for awhile which ended my picture taking even though the windshield wasn't conducive for pictures.
We also saw a pair of giraffes with 2 babies. They were so graceful and serene in the morning light just as the sun came up. Beautiful! And we saw a lone hyena which was odd since they usually travel in packs not on their own. And lots of wart hogs which always reminds me of the lion king movie.
We left the game park for the ferry back to Paara after about 3 hours on safari. We dropped our ranger off at the ferry and we crossed the Nile to have breakfast at Red Chili rest house. They have a huge grass thatch banda with a restaurant. So we had bacon and eggs, while I had pancakes with bananas and honey with my favourite African tea spiced with chai spice and hot milk. It is my favourite thing next to fresh pineapple here.
I was beginning to feel a bit crappy with my cold and fell asleep in the far rear seat, which I had to myself. So I lay across the seat and wrapped my scarf across my face and fell asleep. The road was pretty bad and I wasn't seat belted in. Next thing I know I'm on the floor with no idea of how I got there. I woke up on my tummy and looking up at Gisele and Colleen in the next seats in front of me. Startled them and they started to laugh because Chris has fallen off the seat again. The day before, Michael hit a pot hole and I'm up in the air with feet up in front of me. Colleen got a picture of me airborne feet first and me laughing so hard tears are streaming down my face. What a good laugh it all was!
Over breakfast at Red Chili, we take pictures of each other and talk about where we will stay that night. We talked about going back to Boomu Co-op from Sunday night. We decided we would first check out the guesthouse at the Budongo forest reserve where we would do a chimp walk there. When we checked out the accommodations we decided to stay because it would be something different. We stayed all in one dorm room with 4 beds (bunk beds with nets). We decided to have some lunch with some COLD drinks which meant beer for Colleen, Gisele and Jim. I'm still on fruit juices.
The group tells me I look awful and I should go spend the rest of the afternoon lying down while they went on a guided hike to see the old mahogany forest. So I picked a lower bunk, dug out my Kobo and read before I fell asleep with my reading glasses still on my face. A couple of hours later I got up and went to the restaurant and had another COLD soda and worked on writing in my journal about our game drive earlier.
When the others got back from their hike, we had more cold drinks with beer, ordered our supper for 8pm of beef curry for the girls and roast chicken for Jim who is celiac and can't have wheat or gluten. We talked about plans for the chimp walk the next morning leaving at 7:30 am. I wouldn't be able to go as I was sick and could infect the chimps. I still wasn't feeling well enough to walk 3 hours through jungle anyway. So I enjoyed a later breakfast, chatting with Michael and finishing off my journal. I look forward to seeing the pics from the chimp walk which the group said was amazing. It was well worth the cost and the hike.
Gisele woke during the night with a gecko hitting her on her face in the dark scaring the heck of her pretty good. And the chimps were apparently very vocal during the night. I say apparently because I slept through it all, after taking Gisele’s cold and sinus medication. I heard nothing except Jim getting up from the bunk above me to pee during the night.
We settled our bill and loaded the truck to head back to Masindi for lunch and the drive back to Luweero. Had a lovely lunch at the same New Courtview guest house in Masindi. Bought some post cards and a couple of souvenirs. We drove back to Luweero to our new guest house run by the Catholic Church, arriving there around 3:30 in the afternoon. Time to settle into our single rooms when we were told there was no running water. So we were each given 2 full jerry cans of water to haul back to our rooms for washing and toilet flushing.....yea! My room has 6 spiders in it (I counted them) all of them outside my bed net which is the only reason I could sleep in it. One was at the head of my bed in the corner close to the floor. I made sure my net was carefully tucked in under my mattress to keep those critters out! Did not sleep well with counting spiders in my dreams. I'd rather have had the geckos!
Supper at the guest house was a sad old tough chicken stew with potatoes which we paid 10,000 shillings each for. Very sad! Samuel and Grace were on their way back from Kampala and got in with the rest of our baggage stored at the house. Got some laundry done, hung and new hangers we bought in town with some cold water and then a "top and tail" sponge bath and bed, trying to sleep with various unknown individuals partying around us.
The night air was smoky from set bush fires to burn old dry brush and regenerate green grasses for safari animals to feed on. This goes on throughout the national park. but it makes the air thick with smoke and hard to breathe at time. A challenge for Colleen who has severe asthma while I had come down with a head cold the day before. So we cover our noses and mouths with scarves when the air is too thick to breathe.
The smoke created a beautiful haze like a mist or fog as the sun was coming up. We drove for a while before martin spotted a pride of lions. 2 males, 2 cubs and a female. The cubs were chasing dad who would roll over on the ground, totally ignoring us unconcerned and played with them. Very surprising given they had young cubs. They were about 5 or 6 feet from our truck as we watched standing through an opening in the roof. I've never been that close to lions ever and only in a zoo! They were so beautiful in the early dawn light and we watched with tears in our eyes...they were just stunning. It was so emotional and mystical to see them in their own natural environment. The lioness watched us from further away and seemed quite wary. Then a third male with only 3 legs as he was missing a rear leg....hobbles by us. It was sad and raised the question how this lion survived the loss of the leg without bleeding to death and how he feeds. He must have a female who hunts for him or he feeds on leftovers and must compete with the hyenas and vultures. There must be a story there....if only lions could talk!
Then we saw lots of ibis antelope which are the national animal for Uganda and is on their country's coat of arms. They are quite small about the size of our deer I think with 2 tall horns that are striped with dark rings around them. Quite beautiful and they travel in groups.
Then we also saw a lone elephant feeding on a bush but didn't get a good look at it without spooking him. We took great care to speak in soft whispers if we had to speak at all. Bear in mind, the 4 of us are standing on rear seats with our upper bodies through an opening in the roof of the truck while Michael is negotiating a narrow rutted red dirt road filled with huge potholes. At one point, martin hits a pothole sending me forward into Jim standing in front of me and I hit him on the back of his head with my camera. Shortly afterwards....they sent me to the front seat for awhile which ended my picture taking even though the windshield wasn't conducive for pictures.
We also saw a pair of giraffes with 2 babies. They were so graceful and serene in the morning light just as the sun came up. Beautiful! And we saw a lone hyena which was odd since they usually travel in packs not on their own. And lots of wart hogs which always reminds me of the lion king movie.
We left the game park for the ferry back to Paara after about 3 hours on safari. We dropped our ranger off at the ferry and we crossed the Nile to have breakfast at Red Chili rest house. They have a huge grass thatch banda with a restaurant. So we had bacon and eggs, while I had pancakes with bananas and honey with my favourite African tea spiced with chai spice and hot milk. It is my favourite thing next to fresh pineapple here.
I was beginning to feel a bit crappy with my cold and fell asleep in the far rear seat, which I had to myself. So I lay across the seat and wrapped my scarf across my face and fell asleep. The road was pretty bad and I wasn't seat belted in. Next thing I know I'm on the floor with no idea of how I got there. I woke up on my tummy and looking up at Gisele and Colleen in the next seats in front of me. Startled them and they started to laugh because Chris has fallen off the seat again. The day before, Michael hit a pot hole and I'm up in the air with feet up in front of me. Colleen got a picture of me airborne feet first and me laughing so hard tears are streaming down my face. What a good laugh it all was!
Over breakfast at Red Chili, we take pictures of each other and talk about where we will stay that night. We talked about going back to Boomu Co-op from Sunday night. We decided we would first check out the guesthouse at the Budongo forest reserve where we would do a chimp walk there. When we checked out the accommodations we decided to stay because it would be something different. We stayed all in one dorm room with 4 beds (bunk beds with nets). We decided to have some lunch with some COLD drinks which meant beer for Colleen, Gisele and Jim. I'm still on fruit juices.
The group tells me I look awful and I should go spend the rest of the afternoon lying down while they went on a guided hike to see the old mahogany forest. So I picked a lower bunk, dug out my Kobo and read before I fell asleep with my reading glasses still on my face. A couple of hours later I got up and went to the restaurant and had another COLD soda and worked on writing in my journal about our game drive earlier.
When the others got back from their hike, we had more cold drinks with beer, ordered our supper for 8pm of beef curry for the girls and roast chicken for Jim who is celiac and can't have wheat or gluten. We talked about plans for the chimp walk the next morning leaving at 7:30 am. I wouldn't be able to go as I was sick and could infect the chimps. I still wasn't feeling well enough to walk 3 hours through jungle anyway. So I enjoyed a later breakfast, chatting with Michael and finishing off my journal. I look forward to seeing the pics from the chimp walk which the group said was amazing. It was well worth the cost and the hike.
Gisele woke during the night with a gecko hitting her on her face in the dark scaring the heck of her pretty good. And the chimps were apparently very vocal during the night. I say apparently because I slept through it all, after taking Gisele’s cold and sinus medication. I heard nothing except Jim getting up from the bunk above me to pee during the night.
We settled our bill and loaded the truck to head back to Masindi for lunch and the drive back to Luweero. Had a lovely lunch at the same New Courtview guest house in Masindi. Bought some post cards and a couple of souvenirs. We drove back to Luweero to our new guest house run by the Catholic Church, arriving there around 3:30 in the afternoon. Time to settle into our single rooms when we were told there was no running water. So we were each given 2 full jerry cans of water to haul back to our rooms for washing and toilet flushing.....yea! My room has 6 spiders in it (I counted them) all of them outside my bed net which is the only reason I could sleep in it. One was at the head of my bed in the corner close to the floor. I made sure my net was carefully tucked in under my mattress to keep those critters out! Did not sleep well with counting spiders in my dreams. I'd rather have had the geckos!
Supper at the guest house was a sad old tough chicken stew with potatoes which we paid 10,000 shillings each for. Very sad! Samuel and Grace were on their way back from Kampala and got in with the rest of our baggage stored at the house. Got some laundry done, hung and new hangers we bought in town with some cold water and then a "top and tail" sponge bath and bed, trying to sleep with various unknown individuals partying around us.
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