A Safari Christmas - Part 1

For Christmas this year, we took the girls on a safari. We brought one gift from the US (the new Aladdin movie) and bought each girl one small gift from here. On December 23, we started the trip to Murchison Falls. We spent the night in Kampala. Kampala is the capitol of Uganda. There are 4 million people in this city. I have decided that most people in Uganda never seem to sleep, but things do wind down early morning. The best driving time in Kampala is between the hours of 5:00 AM - 7:00 AM and you want to be out of the city by 7:00 AM, well 7:30 AM at the latest!

Our safari guide/driver picked us about 6:15 Christmas Eve morning.That van was so clean!

I actually tapped the glass on the window to see whether it was opened or closed. We drove 6 more hours to Murchison Falls National Park. We broke the trip up a bit by going on a Rhino Trek. I wasn't really sure what this was about and the girls were a little freaked out about it. This part turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip! 

You have a guide at the Rhino park and he introduces you to all the rhino's in the park by using the picture wall on side of the building. Each rhino has a picture, their name, parents, birthday and a little bit about the history and the character of the rhino on report. Also sometimes people can pay to name the rhino and you can learn how the rhino got it's name. You jump back in your car and drive down some dirt roads and then he walks you out in these fields where rhinos just walk around doing whatever rhino's want do. It. is. so. fun.  

We saw three mama rhinos and their babies. The first mom and babe were out walking around and eating. We were "hiding" under a large tree, but the baby rhino knew we were there and started walking towards us. He stopped a little bit away. I was so disappointed. He was so cute, I was on the verge of kneeling down in the grass and calling to him! I wanted him to come so we could pet him, but touching the rhinos is frowned upon by way of your not supposed to touch them, so I refrained from calling the rhino. Plus the closer he got, the further the girls went away! 

At this point, mama rhino kept walking by and baby rhino got a little curious and actually came closer,
but I stopped taking photos so I could just enjoy the moment. The we had to back away in case mama decided to interrupt her baby's curious nature and come find us!

The other mom and their babies were sleeping under another tree. But mama rhino was awake enough to blow loudly at us as we approached, her sweet baby was only 2 months old! She did not want company, but we hung out at a distance and watched. 

We headed out after that. We needed to keep driving. 

Rhino Fact: a rhino horn sells for a one million USD on the black market.

We made it to the beginning of the park. The park is huge and once you enter, there is still a good hour or more drive to the river and to the many camps where you can spend the night. The Chinese have a contract with Uganda to fix and pave all the roads. So there was a lot of road construction going on, but that did not scare the baboons away! The park is covered in them!

Park Entrance

Waiting to get on the ferry 

Putting up the top of the van for the safari!

 We decide to check in later and go ahead and hit up the evening safari! The park is beautiful! I took a million photos and I will post more on FB just to have a place to keep them, but here are some for you. I wanted to edit them some - you know zoom in or make the photo brighter or a little darker, but there so many. So enjoy the raw photos. 

water buffalo herd

Well that concludes our evening safari! Really, it was more like a giraffe and elephant sanctuary! 

Tons of animals! I realize these photos are mostly of single animals, but these were just ones who wandered away from the herd that was much, much further in the grasses. 

Ta-ta for now!