lions, zebras, and elephants...oh my

Hi all!
So we have returned from safari and had an awesome time! I put the itinerary up before we left so I will try to spare you exhausting details and just go through the highlights. The pictures really tell the story the best, but I will have to wait to scho you those until I get back in the states.

On Saturday we met our driver and guide, Joseph and Mike who took care of us for the next 5 days. We had an awesome land cruiser to travel in, with a roof that pops up so you can stand during the game drives and get the panoramic view. I am not going to lie, we felt cool standing there with the wind blowing, hehe.

In Lake Mburo, we saw more zebras and impalas than we ever expected!! Both of these are not seen in other parks in Uganda. We also got to hike here, of course we were with an armed gaurd...but we got to see all the animals including the zebras on foot! Our banda where we stayed had a pit latrine about 30 meters outback, but the path was closely gaurded by warthogs, and after they started chasing each other and almost ran into me during the day, I did not venture out at night. As we sat reading our books by carosene lantern at night, we were lulled to bed by the howel of the hyenas. All day long, Mike and Joseph had been slowing down, pointing out and naming animals and birds. So on of the highlights of the day was when Lisa and I had our heads out the roof and the car started to slow as we approached a tree, at which time Mike shouted up to us “mindurface”...my reaction was “where where..i don't know that bird” well its not as funny on paper, but it was in real time!

Sunday afternoon, we drove off to Bwindi Impenatrable Forest National Park to get ready for gorilla tracking the next day. It was a long bumpy drive on dirt roads that left the red dirt of africa plastered to our skin and clothes. We got to do a little craft shopping and see the local orphans preform songs and dances typical of different tribes throughout uganda. Of course they had really cute pictures and crafts to sell afterwards! It is amazing how the community absorbs the orphans, and they all live in foster homes in the local villages.

Monday was an early morning to get off and see the Gorillas. There are about 700 mountain gorillas in the whole world, 350 of which are in Uganda, the remainder in the bordering DRC and Rwanda. In Bwindi, where we left from there are 2 families that are habituated, and 8 people can go each day (for a pretty large fee!) We got to see the Habinyaja family, which has 23 members, 2 of which are the male silverback gorillas. Each on has a name based on there features such as the local word for lazyeyed, playful, ect. There were 6 of us total, and we had a 1 hour drive up the mountains, at which point we started in on our trek through the “impenatrable” forest. Honestly, the thickest jungle I could even imagine. We were led through the forest with rangers carrying machetes to cut the way. The trackers were a few hours in front of us and guided us where to go, so the hike in was only about 1 hour. When we got to the gorillas, we got to spend 1 full hour with them, but it flew by! Because of how close we are genetically to the gorillas, they were really strict about how close we can get, sneezing/coughing/letting sick people come, and no eating/drinking near them. They truly are gentle giants! We estimate we saw about 17, including 1 silverback, many blackbacks, females, juvenilles, and babies! The young ones were the best to watch, they would restle like 10 feet from us! We didn't even seem to phase them. I have so many pictures and videos that I will share when I get back.

After seeing the gorillas, we took a short hike to see some of the pygmies, the traditional forest people that are known for their light skin and short stature in comparison with most african tribes. We were actually a bit dissappointed by this, they built a mock house, and about 6 came to sing and dance, but they wouldn't let us go to there village. They were much taller and darker than we expected. We were told that during Uganda's conservation effort in the 90's, the pygmies were given land outside the forest, and since then their nutrition has improved so they have become taller and darker as a result of being out of the forest. Insteresting... Well they did some singing/dancing which was a cool way to end our stay at Bwindi. Next was off to the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park.

In Ishasha we stayed at the bandas, which we were the only people there, we even had our very own 2 armed gaurds camped outside our banda. Since we were the only people there, we moved our table out under the stars and had an awsome star and moon lit dinner to the sound of hyenas and hippos near by. We even got to see a hyena run across the grounds about 30 meters away at dusk!! We couldn't see the details, but you could see that it was a hyena...something that isn't commonly seen because it is nocturnal. Immediately when lisa and I walked into the banda we knew we were in for an interesting night. The banda was very nice and clean, but we had become familiar with the smell of bat droppings, and this was definitely that. I think I slept a total of 1 hr as I could hear bats and mice or rats above our heads between the ceiling and the roof. Not the highlight of the trip.

That next morning though we got to leave to do a game drive in the Ishasha section of QENP. We had heard how hard it was to see the tree climbing lions, but we got lucky@!! Only like 15 meters from the car, up in a fig tree was a male and a female, just relaxing, presumably after a night of hunting. Apparently this is the same lion species as in other parts of the park, but they have just culturally adapted to climbing the trees.

Then in the afternoon we headed to the north of QENP where we saw more animals than I could have hoped for! When we came around a corner, we almost ran into an elephant eating in the middle of the road...after backing up to a safe distance, we got to watch the heard of elephants, 17 total with 8 baby elephants, cross and eat. We also got to get incrediably close with a boat ride up the kazinga channel. At our hostel, there where mongoose families all around. At one point I had stepped out and left our door open, at which time one of the adults decided to explore our room. I went in to try to get it out, and could not origanally find it, until it jumped out at me with its long claws. The whole lawn and bar laughed at my girly scream...I was pretty embarressed. Some of our friends from the UK got to see some lion cubs and a python that night, but we missed them.

Finally Wednesday morning was a game drive in QENP before heading back to Kampala. Our guides had heard 2 lions fighting, so within minutes we found a huge male lion with the huge tufts of hair. It was clear he was injured from the fight as he was limping and breathing very fast. After this, we had a nice long game drive that the best part was finding 2 other male lions right next to the road, the car was within 5 meters! So cool!

Final Animal List: Warthog, bush buck, water buck, impala, kob, oribi, topi, zebra, elephants, lions, tree climbing lions, hippos, crocodiles, african buffalo, mongoose. ALOT of birds that I can't even name them all. I don't think I missed any mammals.

So in conclusion, amazing trip, at a very resonable price, besides the gorilla trekking permit of course. We have today, thursday to tie up loose ends in Kampala (buy presents) and then off on Friday, long layover in London where we are going to go to the tate modern and drink strongbow, and then back on Saturday. Probably no more posts until I am back in the states! Thanks everyone for staying tuned, it means a lot to me! Miss you all.

Crystal