Murchison Part Deux

Friday evening was so gorgeous-- we sat and had beers, relaxing from the lorg and arduous journey from Kampala. The sky was so clear that you could see the Milky Way galaxy. The only other time I was able to see this was when I was in Zimbabwe. Saturday morning we arose at 6am to get ready for the game drive. The park system turns off the power generators at midnight and on again at 7am, so we had to get ready in pitch darkness. Except of course for the absolutely useless gas lanterns, which had gone out in the middle of the night. We had a packed breakfast that consisted of a boiled egg, cheese and tomato sandwich, and banana (the bananas here are outrageously good), and headed down to the Nile to take a ferry across to the north side of the river where the game are.

As we arrived, a black cloud descended over the park, and we knew we were in for quite a rain. It was one of the fabled 'storms of Africa', and it was stunning. There is nothing as breathtaking as lightening over the Nile and the savanna. It was quite a trek. The dirt (or rather, red clay) roads were rough to start off with-- add cascades of water, and it becomes slippery and eroded. We began to see herds of antelope-- waterbucks, hartebeast, kob, reedbuck, eland. These poor animals just stand perfectly still in the rain, as if they had become so stunned by the water that they turned to statues.

After short time the rain cleared up and we were able to pull the roof back from the minibus and stick our heads outside. What a great experience-- tearing through the savanna with the wind whipping through your hair, animals all around. We began running into these really large families of giraffes, some of my favorites. Also saw a heard of elephants not so gracefully trying to climb up an embankment. Oh, and a nice sized herd of water buffalo, also one of my favorites. The birds were also fantastic-- we saw giant condor and the national bird of Uganda, the crowned crane. On the way back to the river, the baboons came back out. They just sat indignantly in the middle of the road challenging us to pass. They are always so surprised when we do.

We went back to the camp for lunch and rest, then headed of on a boat cruise down the Nile to the bottom of Murchison Falls. More on that later. xoxo...G.