The final two locations for our journey around the country were Murchison Falls National Park and Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. The drive from Queen Elizabeth to Murchison started out on nicely paved roads. We made our way to Fort Portal in good time so we decided to stop for some food. This was a mistake since nothing in this country moves quickly, and a quick stop for lunch turned into a two-hour meal. We hit the road again, only this time we were not met with nicely paved roads, instead we were met with hours and hours of some of the worst roads we've ever been on. There were huge dug out gutters on either side of the road, as well as a large one down the center from the heavy rains. Landmines of large rocks were in our path, making it even more difficult to navigate. This portion of the trip alone took us over 6 hours! I was never so happy to see a paved road in my entire life! We've done our fair share of off roading but this was ridiculous.
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| Not even the worst of the seriously bad roads. |
Since it was too late to cross the river inside the park, we decided to stay just outside the park at the Boomu Women's Group. It was a taste of rural African living as we got stayed in little huts and had a home cooked Ugandan meal. The place was quite unique and I would recommend anyone to stay there.
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| This isn't the exact one we stayed in, but they were actually quite spacious and cute inside. |
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| Home cooked Ugandan dinner, quite tasty but lacking meat. |
The next morning we set off to check out the awesome power of Murchison Falls. We arrived at the falls and hired a guide to show us around. He suggested that we start at the bottom then work our way up so that we would appreciate the view and power at the end. The hike wasn’t difficult, but it was an extremely hot day and the heat was bouncing off the mineral rocks on the path making it even hotter. Jumping into the water at the falls seemed like a good idea to help cool off, but I wanted to survive to see the rest of the trip so continued on through the heat. We made it to the top and were greeted with an amazing view of the Nile River getting pushed through a small channel, then down the huge falls. The water fell with such force that it splashed back up and made huge waves before finally coming to rest at the bottom. It was a great sight and created tons of little rainbows. We unfortunately had to be on the move to catch a ferry to the Northern side of the park where we were staying and where most of the animals are.
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| Abyssinian Ground Hornbill. |
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| The mighty Murchison Falls. |
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| At the bottom of the falls, breathtaking. |
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| At the top of the falls, it was a hot one. |
The Northern side of the park is where most of the wildlife is, and we saw a ton! While we see most of the same animals in each park, it is always a different experience when you see them in a new landscape. We did get charged at by elephants again, which for us was becoming a usual occurrence. One thing we had not seen on this trip yet was a giraffe and we saw a lot of them. We also got to see them run which is a really funny sight. Giraffes run as fast as they can, but instead look like they are moving in slow motion as their legs don’t seem to keep up with the rest of their body. Our hotel was on the outside of the park on the Northern end so we made our way there, only to be blocked by a flooded road. Unsure if we could cross, we started driving off the path in hopes of finding a dry spot, but then saw another car make it through the flooded road with little difficulty. We backtracked and drove ever so slowly through the flooded road, praying that we were going to be okay. Once we were out, we were greeted by another flooded road! Since we didn’t see the other car, we figured they made it through so carefully navigated the river again. Finally, we made it to the hotel and relaxed for an early morning.
The next morning we were met with the wonderful surprise of a family of lions. Mom, three babies, and a male were all present! Mom was not too happy with the male and we got to see and hear them roaring at each other. Have I mentioned how much I love the baby animals, plus lions are always a favorite sight!
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| Mama was not too happy. |
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| Family love! |
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| Baby lions, my favorite! |
As always, I took way more pictures than I would like to admit. To see all our wonderful safari pictures from Murchison Falls, check out our SmugMug page.
I may start to sound like a broken record, but the safaris in Murchison were filled with more of the sights and wonders of Africa. One new wonder at the hotel which took us by surprise, although the workers didn’t seem to care at all, was a HUGE, size of your hand, beetle. The three of us stopped and stared wide-eyed. Two workers came over to see if we were okay, so we pointed at the beetle expecting the same reaction. Instead, they looked at us and basically said: "yeah, so?" Apparently, hand-sized beetles are a normal occurrence and nothing to be surprised about. Luckily that was the only beetle we saw of that size for the rest of the trip.
The one animal that cannot be seen on any Ugandan safari is a rhino since they were hunted to extinction here in the 1980's. To see them you have to go to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary which was our next and final stop.
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