Uganda 2015: Day 6

Safari day!!! Half (plus) of our team is going to safari today! While the other part of the team goes to a village about 10 hours away from our house. The safari crew left at 5 am. On our way there we made about 4 stops, for bathroom, gas, and to put in orders at a restaurant we will eat at when we get back. At the last bathroom stop (at a gas station) we heard a car/boda boda (sp?) accident. Actually, Angela saw it! The guy on the boda boda (like a motorcycle) was hit by someone in a pick up. Instantly, these two were surrounded by people who witnessed or wanted to see what was going on. Thankfully, the guy was able to be helped up and taken to the side of the road. The funny thing is that it was right by the police station. When we drive by we could see the front tire of the boda boda and it was all messed up. I hope that guy was ok.

The first thing we saw when we got to the park was baboons! About 15-20 of them ran in front of the first of our three vehicles. Zach was so happy to see them! He told us he wanted to see monkeys so bad! Sadly the baboons were the only animal we saw on the drive the baboons.
Maybe half way from the safari park entrance one of the vans got a flat tire. We all got out of the car for about 30 minutes while the drivers unhooked the spare from under the van and put the new one on. I had smelled some burning not long before that van pulled over, but thought it might have been our van. It was good that it was fixed fast because all of us felt like we were in a sauna and a couple of us from the back van were so covered in dust that it looked like they put red makeup on half their face while they were sleeping.

The next stop after the flat tire was at the Nile to take a ferry across to our hotel. While we waited we saw hippos and elephants on the other side of the river. It was so fun! I loved watching the people who are here for the first time get so excited! I was also very excited at the same time. When we crossed the river, Martin pulled his van off the ferry and turned it off until we loaded back on. Then he could not turn it back on because he left the lights on. We were able to squeeze the people from there into the other two vans for the last 1/4-1/2 mile to the lodge.

On the evening safari, the first fun thing we saw was a mama elephant and her baby. Our guide guessed that the baby was about 3 weeks old. When we drove by the mama hid baby behind to protect it. We also saw many other animals, but the most impressive was after our vans split up. Our van found the lions. I saw them before our guide, George! I tried to whisper/shout his name to tell him, but he did not hear me. Then he saw them. We were able to watch them for a little bit before the other vans showed up. We saw 6 Cubs, 2 females, and two males! One male was limping. The lions stayed until the other vehicles got there. I think it was our other two vans, a bus, and another van. This was definitely the best sight of the day!!! When our van left the lions (that were scared away), we saw some giraffe. We even got to see them run! They are so graceful! One had sores on its neck. George said that is a fungus from them necking… Rubbing their neck together. Then we headed to the hippo area where we get out to use the bush toilet and take pictures of/with the sunset. It was wonderful!

The day was so full and fun! So far it is probably my second favorite day! The first being seeing my and my grandparents sponsor babies at the orphanage.