Uganda 2014: Day 7

Day 7
Today we left around 4am to head to the hotel we are staying in the first night before the safari. We took 4 different vans. Mine had Ahmed (driver), Alvina, Algena, Yelena, Irena, Caroline, and Kim. For the first couple hours we just tried to sleep some more. Not long after our first bathroom stop we, well those of us still awake, got to see the sunrise. It was as beautiful as the first sunrise we saw in Uganda. The drive was sooooo long, but fun.

When we arrived at the gate that took us to the hotel, Ahmed, told us how to open the top of the van. We got to stand up and look out while driving. It was cool! We saw cob and different birds. As we pulled up to our hotel, there was an elephant standing by the building eating leaves off a tree! Ahmed let us walk and take pictures, but not to close. It was eating tree pieces that had inch long or longer thorns.

After checking in and eating a three course lunch, we got to look out at the view of the Nile River. Also, we got to go swimming, but not in the Nile with the hippos we were watching, they had a pool. We were almost the only people there. After getting out of the pool Caroline and I went to try to take pictures of the hippos. They did not want to come up out of the water while we were there. When we walked away they did though. Joanne and Judy said there were a ton of hippos, down a trail they walked, that were playing in the water. As well as, a bunch of warthogs that also had babies. JB and Sarah went ahead of Ben, Caroline and I. They started running back because the warthogs had started running at them. The three of us did not get to see them because it started to downpour. From our room I saw one of the warthogs kneeling to eat the grass.

During dinner on the deck we saw three hippos come out of the water. We were able to watch them for a bit when Katie came to dinner. She just finished getting a massage. When she walked out of the building there was a driver waiting to take her to the main building. He asked her if she was alone and she said yes. Then he pointed behind her at the hippos out of the water. He told her they are very dangerous to people. She said they were about 20 feet away. Other than walking around the store there, nothing else happened that night.