Sunday 19th July
Had to be up by 4am this morning to be on our safari bus. We headed off in the dark to the Murchison Falls National Park. I have to confess to sleeping most of the way, surprising given the state of the road.
We had to take a small car ferry across the Nile. It was a reverse on and drive off effort that only took about 4 or 5 cars at a time. We had our first animal sighting of hippos from the river.
We set off in three vehicles for a game drive around the park and were completely blown away by the amount of wildlife we saw. Apparently there are about 76 different mammals and 450 different species of birds in the park. We were quickly rewarded with a sighting of the first giraffe followed by a variety of antelope, buffalo and then loads of giraffe.
We were treated to a very special close up view of a lioness and her (quite large) cub. They were so close it was amazing they stayed still as long as they did.
We then saw three male elephants of which one was around 5 tons! We were told that they can drink around 100 litres of water and eat about 400kg (4 -5% of it’s weight) of vegetation a day, incredible!
As the rangers were checking the landscape before our bush walk we witnessed a lion chasing some oribi (a variety of antelope). It was slightly unsettling to walk across the grassland where moments before there had been a lion stalking it’s prey.
One of the most incredible things to see was the dung beetle rolling an enormous piece of elephant dung and the termites working away in their mounds. It is amazing to consider the interdependence of creatures on each other as we looked at the termites and thought about the vegetation that was enriched by their work.
The day was a wonderful variety of game drive, walking safari, boat trip up the Nile (passing hippos, crocodiles, elephants, birds etc) to the walk up to Murchison Falls itself. The Falls have an enormous volume of water passing through a narrow gorge which produces a spectacular display. It was worth walking through the tremendous heat to reach the top of the water fall although I think some of us felt a little melted by the end!
After 15 hours on the go we arrived back at the Masindi Hotel ready for good curry!
This will now be my last blog for a few days until I return home and reconnect. Thanks to everyone who has read it so far!
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