Saturday, June 30th

We woke up about 5:30am on Saturday, June 30th to finish packing our bedding and mosquito nets. Some of the girls in our dorm woke up early to help us and to see us one last time before we went. The safari vans were there bright and early to load up our luggage and away we went. We drove a couple of hours west to the equator. Here, we stopped to take pictures with one foot in the North and one foot in the South. The equator had a line marked across the entire road. It was so cool! We stopped at a couple shops and bought small souvenirs before getting back on the bus to go to the lodge. It was another couple of hours on the road but along the way we saw so much wildlife and it wasn’t even the start of the official safari tour yet! We saw crusted cranes that are on the Ugandan flag and huge spoonbill storks (yuck!). There were tons of ankole cows with huge horns. We had seen them all the communities surrounding Ndejje as well, but here the cows lived in harmony amongst impalas, grevy’s zebras, and water bucks which we also saw plenty of. Water bucks look like deer that we have in the US but these are much larger and chunkier with horns instead of antlers! We eventually arrived at the Rwakobo Rock lodge. It was on top of HUGE rocks overlooking the savanna. It was breathtaking! The room was just as beautiful. I think the most exciting part was seeing the solar panel above the gravity-fed water tank. This means I would be able to take my first hot shower! I had not taken a hot shower in four weeks. We ate lunch at the lodge and really knew we were staying in an upscale place when they served cheese and so many fresh fruits and vegetables. It wasn’t all carbohydrates/starches at lunch. The open-air dining patio was a huge attraction for little vervet monkeys. One of them sat in a tree across from our table posing for pictures. As soon as he got the chance, he jumped across our table and stole a piece of bread someone had on their plates. He quickly went back to his tree and enjoyed the bread. We decided to name that monkey Swiper (Swiper, no swiping! #DoraTheExplorer). We run a tight schedule so right after check-in and lunch we got back in the buses. We drove another hour and a half through Nshaara National Park until we reached Lake Mburo. Through the park we saw a lot more game! There were many more zebras, water bucks, cows, vervet monkeys and impalas but in addition, we also saw warthogs, baboons, water buffalo, giraffes and bush back antelopes. I didn’t think I would see nearly the amount of game that we had and this was only half a day into the safari! It wasn’t even an official “game drive” yet. When we finally reached the lake, we boarded a double-decker boat. We had a lovely tour guide on the boat who pointed out the natural salt lakes and papyrus plants surrounding the lakes in addition to many more animals for us. We saw a lot of birds including malachite and woodline king fishers. These are bright blue! We saw African fish eagles that look like bald eagles with white heads and black/brown bodies. There was a huge, black buffalo that was spotted drinking from the lake. The guide said that buffalos are normally never seen estranged from the group. If they are alone, it means that they are old and sick and these are often very angry and aggressive. We saw crocodiles both juvenile and mature. Some of the crocodiles in this lake weigh up to ninety to one-hundred kilograms (convert to pounds). We learned that a crocodile will lay fifty to eighty eggs at a time but only ten or so of those eggs will survive. The baby crocodiles have so many predators that the mother croc will swallow her babies to teach them how to swim before allowing them to go into the waters where the predators are. Of course, saving the best for last… we saw tons of hippos in the water! This was my favorite part. The hippos like to spend a lot of time in the lake when they are not grazing. Some of them were playing with other hippos by splashing water around, others were teaching their babies to swim while having the baby on their back, and others were just enjoying their time going above and under the water. Some of them can stay under water for up to ten minutes, so we tried not to concentrate on just one hippo coming back up to the surface. You might have been waiting for a while and missing out of seeing something else. At one point we felt a jolt while we are on the boat. It was a hippo coming out from underneath! The hippos make cute pig-like noises but it sounds like they are laughing pigs. The tour guide told us that if a mother has a male baby, she will hide the baby until it’s grown and can survive on its own. If the dominant male hippo finds the small male baby, it will kill it to assert its dominance. The boat ride was very relaxing and so worth-while. When we were done, we took the scenic route back to the lodge. This was our first official game drive. We sat on top of the van on the luggage racks while we rode through the savanna. At first, I was so scared being up there but that fear quickly went away when we started seeing more zebras, bucks, antelope, etc. At one point, I was so focused on the game that I didn’t duck my head for the branch overhead. That one hurt, but I survived! When we got back, our faces were all black from so much dust being stirred up while we were driving. It took longer than expected to get back to the hotel but we finally made it. My night ended in another delicious meal and that hot shower that I had been looking forward to all day! It so was nice.