Murchison Falls
Having been to African Lion Safari (a zoo just north of Hamilton, Ontario for our non-Ontarian readers) only once as a toddler, I have little-to-no experience observing equatorial wildlife. With that in mind, I wasn’t prepared for the sensory overload provided by Uganda’s flora and fauna this weekend.
The weekend started on early Saturday morning when Jeoffrey, our driver for the weekend, picked us up in Gulu for the two-and-a-half hour drive to Murchison Falls National Park. Keep in mind that it takes only about an hour and a bit to get to the park gate but due to the park’s vastness, it takes another hour to drive to where everything is staged and hosted. Once arriving at a dock on the Victoria Nile, we hopped on a Ugandan Wildlife Association (UWA) boat headed for the mouth of Murchison Falls. On board were a bunch of drunk nurses and doctors from an American medical mission, German backpackers and Indian tourists. Interesting sightseeing fellows. During the two hour ride to the actual falls, we were able to see a few schools of hippopotami, a group of elephants, birds that nest in hollowed out beehives, crocodiles (lazier than expected) and a far off group of baboons. The falls, while somewhat underwhelming in our pictures, were actually awe-inspiring in person. Think about it; all the water that provides food to literally millions of Africans needs to flow through this natural narrowing that is only ten metres across. Pretty awesome.
Upon getting back to the dock, Sarah and I walked to Red Chili, our rest spot for the night. Along the way we saw what were definitely lion paw prints and a disgruntled baboon that I’m pretty certain gave me the middle finger and a death glare. Maybe the tourists aren’t too nice around here to the wildlife. After getting a reservation snafu under order (Jeoffrey accidentally booked us a room at the Red Chili Kampala 300 kilometres away) we ate, drank and slept in our, wait for it, CANVAS TENT! The staff provided us with kerosene torches so it definitely felt like we were on the closest thing to a safari without breaking UWA restrictions.
At the crack of dawn, we headed across the Nile to Jeoffrey and our game drive guide, George, for our three hour long expedition across the park in our pick-up truck. George has been working for UWA for over 30 years so we were definitely in excellent hands. About thirty minutes in, after zipping by slower cars, we were able to catch a pair of lions named Peter and Andrew, who happen to be brothers. According to George, Andrew lost one of his hind legs to a poacher’s snare trap six months ago. After veterinary care and feeding him some human-killed antelope, the UWA was able to set him free into the care of his brother. The altruism that Peter displayed hunting antelope for the two of them was by far the highlight for the trip for me. An honourable mention has to go out to the experience of cruising through savannah while standing in the flatbed of a pick up truck going 80 km/h.
Random trivia: The darker the giraffe, the older they are. Also, giraffes are awesome.
Moral of this blog post: Go to Uganda.
Casey
