On Safari and Things of That Nature...

After an incredible weekend exploring the wilds of Uganda, I'm back at Rafiki still trying to catch my breath. The exposure to the intense sun for prolonged periods of time has absolutely drained me. Add to that the stresses of souvenir shopping with two girls all day today, and I'm worn out.

Thursday night saw us being driven into the Red Chili Rest Camp in the heart of Kampala by Rafiki's jack-of-all-trades, maintenance guru and native Ugandan, Tobias. In the heart of rush hour it took us an hour to reach our destination, but once there we were suddenly surrounded by many other muzungus (white people). They were from all over: John from Vancouver, Canada, Tom from Birmingham, UK, Stephen, from Ireland...We spent the night at the hostel, in a very primitive "dorm", with 6 beds in our room, adjoined to two other large sleeping rooms sharing a common toilet (whose light happened to shine in my eyes all night as people opened and shut the door). The mosquito nets did their jobs, and no one contracted malaria.

In the morning we paid the remaining balance on our excursion and loaded up the safari van. Seven of us piled in as our driver, a Ugandan named Isaac, was introduced to us. There were the three of us from Rafiki, David and Bryony (a British couple from Scottland), and Sara and Esi (two fourth year med students from Yale doing a six-week rotation at Mulago Hospital in Kampala). After enduring the long, hot, speed-bump infested journey north into the heart of Uganda (for a couple of 5 mile stretches the speed bumps were uniformly distributed about every forty meters or so, making the ride almost unbearable and forcing me to brace myself with my hand against the ceiling as I tried to maintain my sanity in the backseat of the van), we reached Masindi and grabbed lunch at at the local Traveler's Corner restaurant. It was then back to the van and back on the road. After another hour or so of bumpy dirt-road-driving, we finally reached the entrance to Murchison Falls National Park. Entering through the gate, we continued along the same stretch of bumpy road until we encountered our first taste of African wildlife. A troop of baboons was lounging in the middle of the road and finally scattered as our rickety old safari van noisily approached. We were eager to photograph the baboons, being the naive first time safari-ers we were. As we continued on, we spotted what would be the first of very many Jackson's Hartebeests. This member of the impala family have very distinctive curly horns.

Finally, after a prolonged stretch of driving through the southern half of the park, we reached Murchison Falls. After a short hike to the top of the falls, we were blown away by the awesome sight of the two separate falls that briefly divide the river. Such a powerful reminder of God's glory and splendor in creation, Murchison Falls is the world's most powerful naturally occuring surge of water. In awe, we walked around the falls, taking in the beauty of the sight and volume of the sound. Next, we departed for the Red Chili Rest Camp and unloaded for the night. Sleeping in 2-bed bandas (tin-roofed shacks), I was the odd man out and got a banda all to myself (finally some justice...). The food was decent. Dinner was catered obviously to what they assumed Americans would enjoy: hot dogs and spaghetti. Together. During the night a tremendous thunderstorm woke us in the stifling heat of our bandas, the rain mercilessly pounding the tin rooftops overhead, the stray rain drop finding its way in through the windows and splashing me in my bed.

In the morning we headed out on our game drive, leaving camp at 6:30AM in hopes of catching the animals before the heat of the day, when they are most active. For a while we saw almost nothing, as we wound our way through the dirt tracks carved out of the African savannah. Finally we began to see many hartebeests and many other species of impalas. As the diversity increased, we also saw some cape buffalo. Our guide was very knowledgeable and full of interesting information about each species we saw. Finally, sauntering majestically across the road in front of us came a rothschild's giraffe. The sight was incredible, such a big, beautiful creature moving so gracefully in its natural habitat. Indeed that was the hardest part for me, trying to remember that this was indeed the natural habitat of these beautiful animals, and had been so for thousands upon thousands of years. It was like stepping into a time machine and rewinding through history.

As we drove on, the giraffes became more and more common sightings, dotting the gentle hillsides with their spotted hides and long necks reaching for leaves high up in the branches of the accacia trees. We were treated to an extremely rare sighting midway through our drive. Three adult spotted hyenas and one pup came into view. They ran along side our van for a stretch before running ahead of us in the dirt tracks of the trail we were following. Most people on safari never see hyenas and other carnivores because they are nocturnal and do most of their hunting at night.

As the morning pushed on, we began to wonder if we would ever see any elephants. Finally, on our way back, we spotted them a ways off the road. With binoculars and camera lenses that zoomed in, we were able to get a pretty good glimpse of them wandering through the tall grasses.

An afternoon ferry ride up the Nile to the falls itself provided an excellent opportunity to see hundreds of hippos and a few Nile crocodiles in action.

On our way home on Sunday, we stopped at the rhino sanctuary, a breeding program designed to eventually reintroduce white rhinos back into the wild in Uganda; they had been poached out of existence in the country. Only 8 remain in captivity in Uganda- six at the sanctuary and two at the Entebbe zoo. It is estimated that it will take 30 years to increase the numbers enough to introduce the herd into Muchison Falls National Park and the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Once our guide had determined the location of the rhinos, we hopped out of the four vehicles we were in and followed him through the bush. We were actually trecking through the African bush in pursuit of rhinos. On foot! And there they were, gently grazing in the densely wooded thickets we had walked through. We were able to get within about 8 meters from one of them, with nothing in between us and them. So cool!

We finally completed our odyssey and made it back home to Rafiki Sunday night. And took a shower. And slept.