Uganda 2015: Day 7

Safari day 2!!! Morning boat cruise/ waterfall hike, free time, then another night drive. Many animals during the boat cruise! Tons of hippos and crocodiles! One crocodile was about 6 meters long. We even saw a giraffe this year, but no elephant. A couple fun facts about hippos: first, groups of hippos are called schools. Second, For one to two years, until it is strong enough to fight the dad, the mama of a male baby hippo will hide it. If the mom did not hide the baby, the dad would kill it. Alisha said that reminds her of baby Moses, which is perfect because we are on the Nile river. Moses mama had to hid him so he did not get killed too.

The waterfall hike was so beautiful! Even though I did it last year it still takes my breath away… The beauty and literally. One part of the hike is almost straight up. Even though it was stairs, it was still hard because of the heat and elevation. It is totally worth it though! While we were walking on the top, before seeing the waterfall, I really thought I had a sun burn. Once we got back to the hotel I did not see one. Well, a new one.

At the hotel we had lunch and then about an hour in the pool if we wanted. The water felt so good! It was actually warm, but felt cold on our hot skin. I think all of us at some point said that being in the water was the coldest we had been the whole trip.

Next we had another night drive. We were trying to find more elephants this time. We saw quite a few, but they were not as close as last year. There were a bunch of animals out though! The best part was when we saw the leopard!!! I was so happy! We looked so hard for one last year, but never found one. I told the guide, Sarah, in my car today and the guide, George, from my car yesterday to find one for me. I think George saw it first, but Sarah showed me when I could not see it. The leopard was hiding on the bushes near the road. Our cars scared him away to further bushes. So, we continued on. On our way back to the hippo area where we saw the sunset last night, we saw a male lion! We got to drive so close to him! He just sat there panting and staring at us. Probably wishing that we would go away. We started to head back to the lodge after that because it was getting dark. On our way back we saw a hippo climb out of the mud right next to the van! When I watched him walk, it reminded me of Cassie’s dog Amos!