In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

Well...we just got back from our supposedly 2 day safari. I guess it could be 3 days if you count the drive there and the drive back. I only say this because we hit around 464 speed bumps (not including pot holes, which are very prevalent here). Now if you're not a math major....haha....that's 232 speed bumps there and 232 back. Let's just say I had a bit of a headache the past few days because of it. And it probably didn't help that I sat in the very back where the bouncing is the worst. And because of that I not only had a headache, but also a sore bum. It took over 6 hours to get to Murchison Falls (spelling??) because we had to drop off the rest of the school supplies with Jimmy at Building Tomorrow. Then we had to go back to Kampala to pick up our tour guide for the safari, and we were finally on our way. We stopped for lunch at some hotel and I ordered some delicious, fried talapia and chips (known to us as french fries). I had to wait for everyone else to finish up there meals because I eat so fast so I went to look for an adventure. Little did I know that I would run into something so beautiful. I saw this amazing looking black and orange lizard. But the thing was so fast I couldn't ever get a good picture of it.

Once everyone finished up we went on towards our campsite for the next few nights. The drive into the park was beautiful, for the most part. They do controlled burnings of the park so that it can't catch fire as easily in other situations, so there was a lot of ashed plants and trees. Nonetheless, I grew accustomed to that site and soaked in the rest of the park. On our drive in, we saw many different types of birds, all with brilliant colors, more baboons than I ever need to see again, Ugandan kobs, and a pack of water buffalo. Oh yeah, and some ugly warthogs. We saw all of this and hadn't even really entered the park yet!! What more could there be in store for the night?!? Well, funny I should ask, because right as we got off the bus at the campsite, Remy wandered off and was petting 2 or 3 warthogs when I saw him again. And yes I do mean petting. Anyway, we got settled in our tents and got ready for dinner shortly after only to realize that we would be seeing a lot of animals up by our tents. Apparently warthogs have a great sense of smell. Well we soon found out as we were running to our tents trying to get all of our food on the bus so they wouldn't be torn to shreds by the hogs. Well, we made it in time but just barely because there were 3 warthogs just walking past my tent as I headed out there.

I thought this would've been the best opportunity to take a picture of the sunset since in the city we really couldn't see the sun with the buildings around us. However, there were trees and the bathrooms in our way so we couldn't really get a good shot unless we walked a little bit. And since the warthogs had just came walking past and baboons yelling, I decided to try and get the best picture of it that I could without walking too far, but it's not real great. At dinner, the warthogs just kept following us looking for some food, but they later passed on and continued back to the "jungle." We did however get a nice surprise from a large-spotted genet, but told everyone we saw a baby cheetah. It's amazing how gullible some people truly can be. After learning a new card game, I retired to my tent and called it a night. And I must have been tired because I don't even remember getting into bed or falling asleep. And we had to get up at 6:30 to start our game drive in the morning.

We woke up and grabbed our sack breakfasts' and loaded up the bus, only to drive down a hill and wait for 20 minutes. We had to take a ferry across the Nile to get to where most of the "bigger" animals live. We were finally on our way to see some African animals. Most people wanted to see lions, giraffes, zebras (not native to Uganda) and elephants. We we started it out by seeing warthogs, baboons, kob, and oribles (a smaller deer-like critter). I had a prime seat on the bus for this so I was spotting animals most of the time for the guide. We got to see 3 giraffes eating off the trees pretty early in the drive so that was pretty exciting. Shortly after that we saw some monkeys hopping along the ground to the next termite mound. So I'm thinking this is going to be an awesome ride with all these different animals showing up the whole time. Well after seeing tons of kobs, oribles, warthogs, and jackson heartbeasts (there heads are shaped like hearts) for the next two hours, I was starting to get what I would say a little frustrated and probably cranky from not much sleep. Well we stopped to get some MORE pictures of the heartbeasts and our guide called all the other guides to see if anyone has spotted lions yet. Once he got off the phone and pulled out his binoculars, he informed us that there was a pack of elephants just down the hill!!! Needless to say I was pretty stoked since elephants are my favorite animal. So we moved along, down the hill a lot slower than I was really hoping for. So I'm getting impatient and we turn a corner to see about 13 majestic elephants just walking along, trying to get away from the other 2 cars/buses of people snapping photos. I took about 30 pictures in the 3 minutes or so of sitting there. Everyone asked if I was satisfied, but I really wanted them to be a lot closer than they were so we could get some awesome pictures. We drove on and saw the same ole animals, but still no lions. I was starting to fall asleep because we eventually saw no animals for a little bit, just a lot of poop, ELEPHANT POOP!!! Well sure enough we pulled around a bush to about 3 elephants eating from a different brushy areas. They were fairly close this time so we got some good pics, even with the elephants hiding most of the time. So I was pretty happy for the rest of the ride, still looking for those lions and even some more giraffes though. Well as we were on our way to Delta Point (where the Victoria Nile and Albert Nile combine) someone spotted a cat-like figure in the grass. We had to back up because they saw it kind of late but once we got there, we saw a leopard ready to pounce. This leopard was only about 4 years old (or so) so it was pretty small. Our guide said he only will see a leopard once or twice in a year. So it was pretty cool to be able to see one. I'm going to have to steal some other people's pictures because they were just too good and the camera I had didn't really get a great picture. We continued on to the Delta Point all feeling like we accomplished something. After getting out to stretch and use the bush "restroom," we were on our way back towards the camp site for lunch. We saw some silhouette's of giraffes on top of a hill and then passed them for some more good shots. Possibly the funniest part of the day was while we were waiting for the ferry to come get us, our bus was just sitting there with a few people in it and others around taking pictures of the hippos and some birds and others just finding some shade, snacking on some granola. Well a baboon come walking pretty close to those sitting in the shade snacking but continues on its way towards the bus. Well all of a sudden, I look over towards the bus to see the baboon jump up through a window, close to people on the bus, and snatch a bag of peanuts. Then it jumped out the window and sprinted towards the woods. Everyone was shocked at what happened for a little bit, but I couldn't help but laugh at all the people that came off the bus yelling. Anyway, we boarded the ferry and went back to the campsite for lunch.

After lunch we took a boat ride down the Nile towards the falls. We saw tons of hippos and some crocodiles and many birds. It also rained some on us so some of us got wet standing on top of the double decker boat. We then dried off in the breeze and the sun but were fairly disappointed because we never saw any crested cranes (the national bird). After I dried off I went to the bottom of the boat to grab a seat for the rest of the boat ride. We could see a storm approaching and got some good pictures of the clouds and the storm front. We it started pouring just about 5 minutes before we unloaded the boat, and it didn't stop raining for about 30 minutes. We had to run through the rain to the bus and after being in the rain for 10 seconds maximum, I was soaked. Once we arrived to camp, I got out and got my shampoo and showered in the rain. I was just running around the campsite after that just playing in the rain. I saw a huge puddle and told some people that I was going to belly-flop in it. They didn't think I'd do it so I went and belly-flopped. And then some lady who I've never met took a picture of me playing in the water. It slowed up just before dinner and then I ate and played cards until the electricity went off. Oh yeah, a lot of people's tents got flooded (including mine) or messed up from the wind, so we had to do a little rearranging of people for sleeping situations. It all worked out and I had a nice, dry sleep.

Woke up this morning to see the sunrise and it was something else. It was so beautiful and while watching it, I took in a deep breath and just thought to myself. That was my last "clean" breath that I remember in all of Africa. On our way out of the park we finally saw our crested cranes and boy do they have an aesthetic beauty. I'm so glad I finally got to see them. I thought ahead and sat in the middle of the bus to avoid another headache. And I slept or tried to sleep most of the way home. We leave tomorrow around 12 to drive to the airport and our flight takes off at 4:30 PM local time, 8:30 AM Indiana time. So please say some prayers for our safe travels, and I will tell you more about this whole experience when I return. Love you all and can't wait to see some of you. Later