Uganda 2017 Day 14

Today we did a morning safari before breakfast. We loaded in the vans about 6am. We saw the usual… Cobb, waterbuck, oribi, Jackson hartebeest, elephants (not to many this morning), and giraffe. The first fun animal we saw was a hyena! I have not seen one on safari before! It was not as creepy looking as I expected it to be. Also, I thought it was weird that it was by itself. Not long after that we saw little red monkeys. Our van was in front and the monkeys ran away, so I don’t think the other two vans saw them. We also saw four jackals. One by itself and later three together. I think I only saw one on each trip before and only from a distance. This trip I saw a total of five. The best thing we saw was lions! Maybe the same ones from the day before, but more of them. We originally saw six, but then noticed there were two more. They were together, but spread out a little. The lions were all females or cubs. They were just laying there. Suddenly, one of the cubs decided to practice chasing breakfast. It was so fun to watch! It was funny! The cub just trotted after some Cobb. It was not very sneaky about its hunting technique. Also, it would help if there was more than one lion. The rest just laid there and a couple watched the cub. It actually chased them pretty far. The Cobb looked like they were just taunting the poor cub. They never really ran far away. The Cobb just moved back little by little. The cub finally decided to go back to its family. It would stop every once in awhile and look back. Then we got to watch the lions at work! We saw one on one side of a bush looking like it was going to attack a water buffalo. Then another one snuck around the back. It was so awesome! We were so excited to watch National Geographic live. As the other one snuck around the ack of the bush the front one stayed waiting. Suddenly, we saw the back lion being chased by a different water buffalo. That lion would not run far. Then the buffalo would chase it a little further. Another water buffalo popped out from behind the bush. That means there were the water buffalo at the bush. The lion was bringing the water buffalo to where the rest of the lions were. There were three more water buffalo closing in from behind the lion. This meant that the lions would not attack. Water buffalo are very mean. I learned that a lion killed a baby water buffalo once. Later that water buffalo’s mom found where the lion’s cubs were and killed all three of them. Another time a lion and her three cubs attacked a water buffalo and it killed all three cubs. The mom got away though. We watched our lions for awhile then decided to move on. We headed from there to the hippo pond for a quick leg stretch. Then we had to head back to the hotel for breakfast. It was such a good morning! Even Ssepuuya said he has not seen a lion or water buffalo do that and he is a safari guide. 
After we had a little free time before going to lunch. Cassie and I (as well as a couple other people) took a nap while the others played at the pool or tanned. When we woke up we went to the gift shop really quick before heading to lunch. After lunch we headed to our boat cruise on the river nile. It was such a beautiful day for the boat cruise. Our group took over the top level of the boat and another group of people took the bottom level. We had a good time. We saw hippos, crocodiles, so many different beautiful birds, giraffe, and elephants. A couple of the elephants were just standing in the grass that was also in the water and eating or drinking. When we got close to Murchison Falls, we all took pictures. Sadly (I probably already said this), we could not go on the hike to the top, but that was fine with me. It was so warm, humid and I was so burned that I thought it was better to stay under the cover on the boat anyway. On our way back from the falls to the dock, we played African executioner (aka mofia) again. It was perfect too. We ended right before we docked. After we docked, we went to take pictures by this big globe as we waited for our vans. While waiting, a baboon jumped into another van from the front passenger window. I think the driver (who was out of the van), yelled at it and picked up a couple rocks. He acted like he was going to throw them at the baboon, but the baboon booked it out of the van. About a minute later the baboon jumped on the top of the van. The driver picked up a rock again. The baboon decided to stay away this time and started digging through the trash instead. We probably got a little to close to take pictures and videos. One of the boys walked kinda close and all is girls told him to stop and come back. Then Ssepuuya pulled up. I went to get in the van. The baboon jumped down and was heading for his open window. I stopped right inside the van because I was not getting stuck in there with a baboon. Thankfully, hector (I think it was him) threw a rock at it. The baboon decided to leave after that. Then we got to the hotel, had dinner, and went to bed.