*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.
Traveling Expat Family 