Month: September 2020

*Little bit of a warning, there are some slightly graphic videos of lions eating- nothing too bad, but if you read this with your kids I want you to have a heads up.

We left off at super sick, up at 6am choked down some breakfast and back in the truck. By this point I had figured out that I had not snapped my achilles tendon, which is what Mark was concerned about based on the noise, because it didn’t look like what Dr. Google says a torn tendon looks like and I could still walk on it- kind of. It had already started bruising and honestly it was a pretty solid bruise from the back of my knee to my ankle. I had figured out how to shuffle along without picking it up which made it better, and I had even figured out how to pull myself into the truck (which I’m sure was as graceful and delicate as you’re picturing and not at all like my little panda friend below)

I was ready to go, at least as ready as I was going to be. I took all the boxes of tissues out of my room, and I think the roll of toilet paper too- I was sneezing pretty much constantly. I’m surprised I didn’t scare any animals off!

We popped the roof on the truck so I could have standing room and to take better pictures when we got to animals, the first thing I saw was this butterfly who landed on the safety bar. It seemed surreal to see a butterfly on safari in Africa that looked the same as butterflies back at home… I was also really tired and maybe a little loopy.

I wanted to stop and see the family of elephants that was right outside the hotel (those grey blurs in the picture) but Eddie was on a mission – he had heard from another group that they had seen lions and we had to get there right away.

We raced as fast as we could down some pretty scary little dirt roads to get to the point where the lions had been sighted. In the reserve there are somewhere around 40 lions if I remember correctly, but this was a small juvenile pack of 3. I missed them taking down the impala (which I don’t really mind) but we got there while they were still eating. To give you a better picture (other than the beautiful pictures below) it was like something out of a movie, it was a little misty and so early that the sun hadn’t come all the way up yet, it was very quiet and only two other trucks were there with us-so it was pretty quiet. I was no more than 20 feet away from the lions and it was magical.

Not to wax too poetic on this, but there was something truly special about being this close to these animals- I never in my life thought that was something I would get to do. I made eye contact with this one a few times- she just seemed so nonplussed by all of us watching. We stayed there for about 45 minutes watching them, I could have stayed all day but there was so much more to see.

Water buffalo, we saw quite a few of these in biggish herds, kind of just big cows.

More giraffes! I think Eddie was a little surprised by how much time I wanted to spend with them.

Sometimes you can see what the animators of the Lion King were thinking, water buffalo, giraffes, warthogs, all in the same area just hanging out.

Because I was in no shape to hike to the top of the falls, when we were done looking at animals, Eddie drove me to the top of the falls to see them. The falls narrow to a width of about 20 feet, and an enormous amount of water flows through there everyday.

Even managed to get a shot of the rainbow, for luck!

My Guide Eddie, looking cool as a cucumber on a hot hot day! Honestly, Eddie was great, I’d book with his tour group again any day- and if you’re ever headed that way and want any advice about this trip or a guide, send me a message, I’ll give you all the details.

We had a 5 or 6 hour drive back to Kampala, and honestly, I was just trying not to die on the way back. The sneezing and coughing were worse, and I felt just absolutely drained, like sitting was exhausting. Along the way back, we had to stop for something and Eddie bought a couple of pineapples. We stopped at a school and asked if we could borrow their shade and in exchange we gave them a pineapple and Eddie cut one open to share. There were two lovely kids there, their dad runs the school and I think their mom is a teacher there as well. Really beautiful kids, the older boy was Alex’s age and his little sister was just delightful. It was nice to get out of the car and stretch a bit before heading the rest of the way back to the hotel.

I got back to the hotel, took a long shower to get all the dust off and then went to sleep- in the nice cold air conditioning that didn’t shut off at 9pm.

This was the end of my safari- I could have gone for days if it wasn’t for the money, being sick and hurt, work….. well, you know. I thought it was going to be a cool thing I could mark off my bucket list, but it really ended up being one of my favorite trips ever- the one thing I would have changed is that it wasn’t the same without Mark and Alex. I would have loved to see their faces when we saw the lions or the hippos. I don’t know when or how, but I will bring them to Africa with me and we will go on a family safari.

I spent my birthday in Uganda without the boys, but they celebrated in Shanghai for me, and Christine and I had cake to celebrate in Kampala.

My birthday gift to myself was a safari, I had a weekend during the trip that was unaccounted for- no one wants to meet on a weekend and work, so safari it is! I researched a bunch of places, and even more options at those places- chimpanzee treks, gorilla treks (not for the faint of heart or out of shape– otherwise I would have been on that, I’m hoping to bring the boys with me next time and we could go together), rhino preserve, and then truck safaris. I signed up for a two-day truck safari to Murchinson Falls, I got picked up at 6am by Eddie, my guide. And buckle up folks because this is going to be another Caitlin adventure.

Christine is so worried about me going on this safari by myself and that I need to text her a picture of the driver and the license plate, so if I’m kidnapped, they can find me. Eddie was the nicest guy, no threat of kidnapping at all, besides, let’s face it, I’d be a little hard to kidnap. So, picture taken and sent, I go to climb in the truck and as I’m stepping up, I hear this really loud snap and my whole leg feels like I’ve been stabbed. But you know me, I got in the truck anyway because I figured I had 5 hours of sitting in the car and surely it would feel better by then right? And I wasn’t going to give up my opportunity for a safari. I put my foot up on the ledge and tried not to move it.

Turns out it was just me and Eddie, no one else had signed up for the weekend- so I had an 8-person truck all to myself. Around an hour and a half outside Kampala the truck breaks down… now one aspect of this safari is that we have to be up at the park by a certain time to get to do a Nile River Cruise- so Eddie gets on a motorbike with a local mechanic and heads back to find the piece that fell off the truck to see if it can be fixed. And I sit in the truck by myself on the side of the road at someone’s house, and panic because that’s what I do.

This cat belongs to the house we stopped at, he was hunting bugs in the grass, and was very cute- he reminded me of our cat Jack- and just watching him was calming.

This was part of the house that we were stopped at, there were pigs and chickens running around, and a small boy who was intrigued by me in the car. I felt like it was a nice little slice of Uganda life that I got to steal a peak at.

My safari truck, with the local mechanic and Eddie working on whatever belt was broken. It was neat to see them working on it, I’ve never seen an engine under the seats before.

Luckily for me, all the tour guides know each other, and another truck stopped to check out the trouble, and Eddie worked it out with the other guide (Alex) to take me with him up to the Falls so I wouldn’t miss the cruise. The bad part was climbing out of the truck and up into the other truck on my jacked-up leg. My calf was as hard as a rock and hurt with every step or even while sitting, but I’m nothing if not stubborn.

I was so thrilled to see a monkey, it’s not the best shot as it was taken from a moving vehicle, but man was it exciting! We accidentally ran over a really beautiful snake crossing the road, but we saw lots of birds and monkeys on the way.

This was my view at lunch, it is a camp site inside the park with a little restaurant that most if not all the tour guides stop at. There are also some resort hotels on this side of the Nile at all price points ( although the campsite is cheapest).

I don’t remember what I ate there, I remember it being good though- chili and rice maybe? But the most important thing was the beautiful ice-cold coke! After 4 hours on the road in a not super cooled car, it was perfect.

After lunch, it was off to the Ferry and the Nile Cruise. The boat was mostly full, but we still had some room to move around and change seats to avoid the sun a bit.

To get onto the boat, I had to step up and one giant long step from the land to the boat… I was not sure I was going to make it with my leg, I made it but just barely and only really with the help of the captain. I wasn’t really sure how I was going to get off the boat on the other side- but why borrow trouble?

Just a bird sitting on the fence by the ferry- I will warn you that a few of the cruise photos are a little blurry because we were moving, if I had a better version of the picture I would use it, but I want you to see as much as you can!

This is a sausage tree, when I first saw them along the Nile, I thought that they were sandbags from boats that someone had thrown in the trees (kind of like being in the US and seeing sneakers thrown over the telephone lines). These are big fruits, they can grow to 3 feet long and up to 30 pounds, people can and do eat them as well as the leaves of the tree.

Baboon by the river, I just got more and more excited with every animal we saw. I know that animals don’t care if you’re on a once in a lifetime Nile cruise, so my expectations were low so that I wouldn’t be disappointed if I didn’t see anything.

I have a soft spot for hippos, partially because I relate to their soft cute exterior but secretly are one of the most deadly animals around … that’s goals, also because one time when I was sad, Mark made hippo noises and pretend hippo ears- still makes me laugh today.

So needless to say, I was super excited to see all the hippos, along the whole river I probably saw 150 hippos, maybe even more.

There were even some baby hippos floating around, but they were very hard to get on film.

First elephant sighting! I missed seeing him in the water so I could only get pictures of him walking away.

Because of the reputation of Nile crocodiles, I thought we would see tons of them, but unfortunately there were only two- one I missed while I was taking the land hippo pictures, the other one was this guy sleeping on the bank. There was no better shot than this, and it doesn’t capture his size, this was a large crocodile.

This family of elephants was a sight to see, they were all enjoying some time in the sun by the river- they were not too happy to see our boat though.

The lead elephant pushed the little ones off in the direction of the trees and turned to give us an impressive stance and flappy ears. It was cool to get to see baby elephants in the wild though.

This is the Murchinson Falls as seen from the boat.

A decent number of people got off the boat here to climb to the top of the falls, I was not going to do that before I hurt myself, so I certainly wasn’t going to do it now.

I do have to share with you my nerd story. In the pictures above and below is a tent looking thing, with blue and black sides, this is a tsetse fly trap. It’s used to eliminate the flies that cause sleeping sickness- which is why I was on this trip in the first place, to meet with the group working on sleeping sickness and make connections for my work. I was just stupid excited to see the traps in use, less so when I talked to my guide who told me that sleeping sickness isn’t an issue anymore because of vaccines (there is no vaccine for sleeping sickness and it is still an issue, especially for rangers who work around animals).

After the cruise was over it was back to the dock, where my original guide Eddie was back with a fixed truck ready to take me for a ride to the hotel through the park.

Eddie was hoping I’d get to see a lion that first night, I was just so thrilled that I was seeing any animals, I was fine. Above is a hyde, kind of like a big cow, not so fast.

Giraffe! I absolutely love giraffes and couldn’t get enough of them- sometimes there was just one, but often they were in groups of at least three.

I was trying for the Lion King shot, the sunset over the acacia tree, it didn’t turn out quite like that but I was still pretty happy with it.

We got to the hotel, I ate some dinner, I don’t remember that much about it actually- I got some water and a coke and went back to my room. It was so far out there that I could see more stars than I ever have in my whole life, it looked like a painting- absolutely fantastic. We were told not to go out of our rooms at night because being in the middle of the reserve sometimes animals come up onto the hotel grounds and I did hear commotion at one point early in the evening, so I think there may have been something around outside.

So fun facts about a hotel in a nature reserve in the middle of Africa- the power goes out after a certain point (roughly 9pm) which means the cell phone you’ve been charging, the air conditioning and ceiling fan all stop working. Now, I don’t know if this happens every night or if I was just so lucky to be there on a night when the generator wasn’t working right.

So it is pitch black in my room, my leg is just screaming with pain and now I’m hot, not just hot but like alarmingly hot… and then I realized I had a fever. I couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing, I got up and took 3 cold showers in the dark trying to cool down enough to go to sleep. It was a rough night.

It seems like forever ago, but this was in Jan of 2020… and I had come from China, I was so concerned that I had picked up corona virus in the airport and brought it to Uganda with me. I hadn’t on either account, but in the dark , alone in that hotel room, I was pretty convinced.

I woke up with the worst of the fever over with, but still sneezing and coughing pretty bad. Stubborn as I am, nothing was stopping me from this safari…. not a janky leg and certainly not some chest cold thing. We ate breakfast, got a packed lunch for the road later and we were off to find some more animals.

So, this was a solo trip for me, the boys did not get to go because this was a work trip- don’t feel too bad for them though, they had a great boys weekend in Shanghai while I was gone. This was also my first trip with my new camera that Mark gave me for Christmas. It’s an absolutely fantastic camera with a terrific zoom, I certainly notice a difference in my pictures, I wonder if you will too.

Because of my studies, and who my advisor has contacts with, I get to do fieldwork in Uganda. This is great for a variety of reasons, one being that my friend Christine is Ugandan and at the time I was there was also in country getting work done.

I’m not a great flyer, I get pretty anxious, and usually I have Mark and Alex to buffer me and keep me on track. This was a super long flight, well really two long flights- Shanghai to Doha and then Doha to Entebbe. When I got to immigration check in, you have to pay in USD$ and I was prepared, except that one of my dollars had an ink mark on it so they wouldn’t accept it. I had to ask to run outside and meet Christine to have her help me get more cash to pay my visa. Luckily for me, she’s amazing and had extra money just in case. It was so good to see a friendly face at the airport!

There are two hotels with the same name, one right by the hotel that my boss would be staying at when she joined us later and one across town…. which one do you think I booked my room at, and which one did I show up at after such a long flight? That’s right, but luckily Christine had booked a room she didn’t need because she would stay with her family that night, so I got to steal her room and then we made a reservation for her to join the next day. The hotel was very nice, and the breakfast in the morning was great.

I took this picture below, and the police in the truck were not thrilled that I had taken it, but I’d never see a police truck like this.

This was traffic in the morning on the way out of Kampala, we were on our way to my first meeting of the trip. There is a group named COCTU, Coordinating Office for the Control of Trypanosomiasis, and they were having their annual training and review session. I had to meet with the man in charge in between sessions because he is going to be essential for me getting any work done in Uganda.

Meeting with COCTU was also what was bringing my advisor to town as she had a big project progress report with them at the end of the week.

Christine’s brother Moses drove us around town, and even helped me get a sim card for my phone so I could use the internet while I was out and about in the country. Moses was a really nice guy and so much fun to be around.

The scenery was amazing, and Moses knew every back road and shortcut to keep us out of traffic!

Unfortunately, the day I arrived in town Christine had lost a mentor and professor from the University that she graduated from, and as a result, we needed to go to some meetings about how he would be honored. While it meant we had to postpone a trip to the source of the Nile, I got to see Makerere University, and Christine got to have some say in memorial arrangements.

Kampala is made up of Seven hills, which make up the different neighborhood areas. It’s a very unique landscape with lots and lots of ups and downs while driving. To get to Makerere we had to leave on hill neighborhood and drive up another hill, it was a good opportunity to see a lot of Kampala on one trip.

At Makerere University, there are tons and tons of Marabou Storks. I was in the parking lot killing time while Christine was in her meeting, and the trees in the complex next to us were full of the storks. It’s hard to judge size by these pictures, but these are some ginormous birds, approximately 5 feet tall.

I spent a lot of time wandering around the surrounding buildings with my camera out, a security guard came to see what I was doing and I asked him about the birds- he told me he didn’t know what they were called and walked away. He came back about 10 minutes later with the name of the bird written down for me, he had gone and found someone who did know to get the information for me, it was very nice of him.

I chased this butterfly for a good 10 minutes to be able to get this shot, every time I would get the camera set up he would fly off or close his wings.

In the area behind the Veterinary school building, there were wild flowers every where, and all this beautiful bright red and orange, butterflies and bees buzzing all around, it couldn’t have been prettier if someone had planned it.

While I was walking back to the main building, I found this bird taking off to fly up to a shed in the wildflower garden. I was so excited because I thought I had found a Ugandan crane, the national bird. Its not one as they are pretty rare now and almost never seen in the cities, but it’s still a pretty cool bird.

This was the end of the second day in Kampala, it was such a neat experience, and I’m looking forward to going back. There are a lot more Uganda pictures to come!