I’m going a little bit out of chronological order here, having promised all kinds of exciting photos tonight… so here we go: Our weekend safari to Queen Elizabeth National Park!
We left on Friday with our driver/guide Sula, and drove about 6 hours to the western part of Uganda. The roads weren’t always ideal, but the scenery was beautiful.
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| Photo by Megan Guzman |
Tea fields.
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| Photo by Megan |
The park is located in a valley, and we had a great view as we drove in.
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| Photo by Megan |
About two minutes into the park, we met an elephant. Off to a good start…
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| Photo by Elizabeth Eckel |
We stopped to pick up a guide and put the roof up on the safari van.
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| Photo by Megan |
LET'S GO FIND SOME LIONS!! Not that I have my heart set on just one animal that there's no guarantee we will actually see.
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| Photo by Megan |
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| Photo by Megan |
We saw a lot of water buck (center) and Uganda kob (on the left).
The lions were more elusive….
But I will hunt them down.
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| Photo by Megan |
No lions the first night… but riding around standing on the seats with the roof up, seeing other, inferior animals*, and enjoying the sunset over the savannah was a great end to the day.
*Dear Uganda kob, water buck and cape buffalo: Just kidding, I love all animals equally.
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| Photo by Megan |
The next morning, we were up before 6am to go chimpanzee tracking in the rainforest gorge.
We didn’t get off to the best start with our guide, Bernard. He requested that we all write our passport numbers in a log book. We didn’t all know our passport numbers. He explained that this was so they could identify us, “if you get swallowed up by a hippo.” I laughed. He glared. “The book is not for fun.”
After tucking our pants into our socks (avoiding fire ants is so hot right now) we descended into the gorge, where we could hear all kinds of animals calling, screeching and roaring.
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| Photo by Leigh Bernstein |
Bernard pointed out the sound of the chimps calling from across the river. Naturally, our next step was to cross the murky, crocodile- and hippo-infested water on a wet, slippery log.
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| Photo by Megan |
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| Photo by Leigh |
Yes, this water.
We hiked around looking and listening for signs of chimps. At one point, we heard sudden loud crashing as something huge ran through the forest – turns out we had startled an elephant. After circling back to the river, out guide noticed tracks showing that the sneaky chimps had crossed back to the other side of the river once we had crossed and were out of sight. Back across the log we went…
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| Photo by Megan |
Partially eaten fruit - a sign we were getting closer…
Suddenly, we heard LOUD screeching and hooting noises, and came around a bend in the trail to see a huge group of baboons. The males of the group were fighting, running in the woods all around us and making horrific noises.
Once the baboons had moved on, we kept walking, and just when I was starting to give up hope of seeing the chimps at all, we found a group of them sitting high up in the trees.
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| Photo by Megan |
Chimpanzees don’t really like to hang out and have their picture taken, so the photos we got definitely don't do justice to the whole experience - seeing their faces, watching them swing around in the trees chasing and being chased by other monkeys (which they apparently eat - a fun fact shared by Bernard after he warmed up a bit).
We returned safely from the gorge.
Not even the slowest people in our group got swallowed up by a hippo.
And based on the current internet speed here, I think this is where I have to leave it for the night. Tomorrow, the second half of the trip!
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