Stealing Lindsey's Post...

I truly thought I was going to have time to blog more, but alas, I have not. Solution: stealing someone else's blog post to share with you. Lindsey is our Assistant Teacher Exchange Facilitator this summer and she has written a pretty vivid description of the safari we went on two weekends ago. Enjoy!


Lindsey's Safari Post
Oh Africa! Oh Uganda! How beautiful you are! 

I always love to share with people as we travel slowly on a pontoon boat, then curve around in view of the magestic Murchison Falls - how, one day, Winston Churchill stood at the top of the falls and said, "Uganda really is the Pearl of Africa." And thus, she has become. 

We traveled the dusty, bumpy roads to our safari camp late Saturday afternoon. It was a relaxing night of fellowship and singing songs around a huge bonfire - it felt like home in the summertime, such a familiar feeling! We woke early Sunday morning, always with the attempt at catching lions. We picked up our safari guide at the gate of the national park, and began the long drive in. One of my favorite feelings is that of riding on top of the mutatu, the African savannah spreading as far as I can see and the beautfy of acacia trees, elephants, and giraffes in the distance - and lucky for me, this is how I spent about 6 hours on Sunday morning. Glorious.

We were able to see giraffes, Ugandan Cobbs (deer-like-things or DLTs), Jackson Hartabeasts (DLTs), many elephants, birds, cape buffalo, jackals, hippos, crocodiles, baboons, and many other small creatures.

(a mama and baby giraffe)

(a little warthog action)

(baboon)


(elephant drinking water - why is that so cool? It just is...)

(hippos)

(Nile crocs sharing the water with hippos)
There were a few intense situations throughout the day... for example - our first elephant siting. We saw a huge family of cape buffalo at a water hole, but mixed in (as we got closer), we saw a HUGE elephant. Our guide Simon stopped us short of passing and took stock of the situation. He said it was a female elephant in her gestation period (she was pregnant). Therefore, she may charge - this is when they are most aggressive. Aggressive elephants do not like loud noises - aka 4 mutatus full of crazy white people taking flash photos. 

(Our mutatus, all in a line.... crazy mzungus!)
So, he gave directions to all of our drivers to step on the gas and not stop whether she charges or not. I don't know if it was good or bad, but our car was the first in the line of cars - therefore, we went first past her. Simon (the guide) wanted to see how she would react to our car passing before he decided to send the other vehicles.

My thoughts? Great - let us be the guinea pig for the charging elephant. Then, if it's dangerous, let us be the car on the other side of her ALL ALONE! Oh my. But, we held onto the rack on top of our mutatu, bracing for the speed at which we'd be driving. My heart was literally beating through my chest, and we DROOOOOVEEEE! As we began to pass the elephant, she started trumpeting and making a low rumbling noise, she turned her body towards our car and followed us with her head, rumbling at us the entire time. We made it past, no charging by an elephant - but still had 3 mutatus to make it. We caught our breath, and watched the other vehicles kick up dust as they took off. Little did we know, but the guide (who had gotten into the final car) cocked his gun and yelled, "DRIVE NOW!" to the final vehicle, worried that we wouldn't make it past the elephant without her charging. He apparently thought the last car would annoy her enough. His plan with the gun? To shoot it into the air to distract or scare her away from us. He laughed, telling us, there's no way we could protect ourselves if she actually charged - just prevent her from charging. 

(This is the elephant, turning to face us - looks like she was ready to charge, right?)

PHEW. I'm glad I didn't know that then. STRESS. 

The other stressful situation occurred when we were driving home (already about an hour behind schedule) and our car ran out of gas. OUT.OF.GAS. In the middle of a dusty African country road. At night. No gas. So, we sat on the side of the road. (At this point 2 mutatus and a landrover, one vehicle had taken a guy home who is very sick with eBoli... a whole other story). As we were waiting (again, no gas. nightime. dark.)I attempted to see this as a lesson in patience. A lesson in not always having to follow a timeline. A lesson in just going with "it."

We arrived home after a LOOOOONNNGGG day, slept, woke up, showered (which is practically a luxury here) and felt like a whole new person. After cleaning the red dust out of my ears (ew! Gross!), I took photos from other people's cameras (sadly, my wasn't working - but lucky for me, I'm on a trip with great photographers!) and now I can share them with you!

Another great safari, another great year...
... here's to the journey!