First, I would like to say that the title of this post is for the enjoyment of my mother, who is quite the Wizard of Oz fan. That being said, last week we all went on a safari for three days in Queen Elizabeth Park in Western Uganda. We saw so many animals and it was so much fun. We didn't even need to leave the hostel we were staying in to see mongoose, wart hogs, monitor lizards, and a wide variety of birds. At dinner one night a mongoose tried climbing up my chair to beg for food! One of the wart hogs in our yard seemed especially friendly so my friend Meghan and I pet it. Pumba from the Lion King may give an adorable portrayal of wart hogs but they are really pretty ugly animals. Their skin is so rough and their hair is like wire. They are the sort of animal that is so ugly that it's endearing.
At dawn and dusk we went on game drives, where we piled into a bus and looked at all the animals. We saw Ugandan cobs (which are like antelope), waterbuck, elephants, buffalo, spider monkeys, baboons, wart hogs, hippos, and lions. We saw a whole family of elephants at one point and they were pretty close up. One day we saw three lionesses with four cubs and the next day we saw a lioness eating a cob. We also saw some male lions and they were the most beautiful animals I have ever seen.
We also went on a boat ride through a channel connecting two lakes and saw hippos, water buffalo, crocodiles, monitor lizards, and lots of birds. We got soooo close to the hippos! It was kind of scary because hippos kill more humans than any other animal does. I really like the hippos though. I think they were my favorite. They live harmoniously with the water buffalo, which I thought was very sweet.
We had some interesting, and maybe a little scary, run ins with the animals. A couple of us decided to go for a walk one day. We were walking like ten minutes into the park and saw a herd of buffalo. We were enjoying looking at them at first but then they started acting threatened and came toward us. We walked very briskly in the other direction. Buffalo apparently are very territorial animals and we were in their territory. It was pretty intimidating.
One night all of us were in the hostel watching a movie. We kept hearing something moving outside the window but decided it was just the wart hogs. Eventually one of us stood up and looked out the window, to see a whole family of elephants just five feet from the house! We had been watching our movie while all along, elephants were traveling right past our house to go get water. It was one of the coolest things that I've ever experienced. Unfortunately, the story ends with some of my friends getting charged at by a mother elephant because they went onto the porch to see them closer. Everyone was fine but the moral of the story is to stay inside when your house is surrounded by elephants.
Our last night on safari, we went out to eat dinner at the fancy lodge in the park. It was sooo nice and I felt sooo spoiled. The place was gorgeous, complete with a terrace outside and a private bungalow. We had a buffet, with a dessert bar! I know it can't sound too exciting from home but let me tell you how exciting it was to see so many pastas and sauces and seven dessert options after spending a month in the middle of nowhere.
We left for Rwanda on Tuesday morning. It was quite a long drive but the view was breathtaking. Rwanda's green, rolling hills are gorgeous. Tuesday night we arrived at the next stop in our journey--Kigali, Rwanda.
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