A Romantic Safari

As a surprise for our anniversary, I booked us a stay at the Mihingo Lodge in Lake Mburo National Park.  Lake Mburo is one of only two parks in Uganda that has zebras, the other being at least a 10-hour drive away on the border with Kenya.  The lodge is super fancy and the room has an amazing view of the park and also a portion of the lake.  You don’t even need to leave your room to see some animals!  Since there aren’t many predators in the park, maybe a few leopards and one lone lion, you are able to walk around the grounds of the lodge to a blind that is next to a salt lick for the antelopes.  While we have already seen all the animals that were at the salt lick (like waterbucks, warthogs, impala), it was cool to see them on foot and outside of a car.  The zebras were plentiful and we even saw some rolling around in the dirt and playing.  We also saw our first snake on safari and I think the first snake in Uganda.  While it wasn’t a large lion eating python, it was still cool to finally see a snake.

Ankole on our drive in, they had some of the biggest horns I think we've seen!

Our first snake!

Bushbucks coming to the salt lick, they're normally very shy.

Waterbucks.

A perk of the Mihingo Lodge is that at night, some thick-tailed Gallagos or bush babies (kind of like nocturnal monkeys) come to a deck on the main building for a treat.  The lodge only feeds them a little fruit so that visitors can see a bush baby (very shy usually), and so that the bush babies will not get too reliant on people and still have to go out and get the rest of the food on their own.  We were expecting small furry guys with big eyes, but instead, the bush babies were decently big and had a weird looking hand with six fingers.  As we walked down to the deck, two of the bush babies were already sitting on the deck waiting for their treats.  They have the routine down because the moment the guide pulled a banana piece out of a bag, the bush babies outstretched their hands and eagerly grabbed at the treat.  After devouring their bananas, they waited for more and walked around the deck hoping to find some pieces that might have fallen or hoping that their cuteness would get them some more.  They did find a few bugs to munch on while looking for more bananas but ultimately left us a little while later.

Thick-tailed Gallagos, aka Bush Baby.

I had one more surprise up my sleeve for Katie, and let her know that our breakfast the next morning would be out in the middle of the park and that we would get to it by doing an early morning horseback ride!  It had been a while since either of us had ridden a horse, but we were excited for the experience of riding through the park and hopefully getting even closer to the animals.  The guides said that the animals sometimes get a bit closer to the horses to check them out, since horses are something new to them, even to the zebras.  I forgot how rough a horse ride can be, especially when your horse seems to want to get off the trail or keeps throwing his head to get rid of the many flies buzzing around him.  I think Katie actually handled her horse better than me as she was all smiles on the ride, while I felt like I was constantly shifting in my saddle, and tapping the horse with my heels to have him move a bit faster and catch up with the group.  We arrived at a small mountaintop where a table was set up overlooking the park.  It was a really romantic breakfast and a nice way to pamper ourselves a bit since we usually go more low key and cheap with our trips.  After breakfast, we hopped onto our horses and rode back to the main lodge.  A breakfast break didn’t make my horse any easier to handle and I think it is safe to say that I am no cowboy.

Sunrise from our bedroom.

They brought us coffee and cookies before our horseback riding.

Breakfast was all set up when we arrived, what a view.

Fresh juice & coffee, fresh fruits, eggs, pancakes, & bacon all out in the bush, what a treat!

While Lake Mburo doesn’t have the wow factor of some of the other parks, it was a nice way to celebrate our anniversary alone and treat ourselves to a fancy trip.

Zebra!  As always, for all our pictures visit our SmugMug.