S is for Safari

S is for Safari
Rhinos – our first stop was to a rhino reserve. Apparently the reserve is funded by Disney and all eight of the endangered rhinos in Uganda reside there. Apparently many animal populations are still suffering due to the fact that a few decades ago, Idi Amin’s army ate the animals of the land with no reservations or temperance. (This is why, for example, there are no zebras left in the country.) Anyway, after driving for a while on the reserve, and walking a bit on foot, we were led to where we could observe five of the rhinos at extremely close range (the rhinos are under constant surveillance by armed guards with GPS units). One of them, we are told, is from Florida. Ironic that we came all the way to Uganda to see these endangered rhinos, and she was bred in the United States. Ha.

The next morning we loaded in our vans and drove to the Nile at sunrise (I have some awesome pictures, which I unfortunately can’t post yet). We crossed the river on a ferry to the opposite shore where throngs of baboons were waiting to greet us. I’m sure these baboons are pretty accustomed to the arrival of the morning ferry, which they associate with food, because they were pretty fearless. In fact I was trying to get a picture when all of a sudden I heard someone call my name. I turned around to see that a male baboon of considerable size was approaching me. I got nervous. I froze. “It’s okay Bethany, just take a picture.” I’m so sure. The baboon was fixated on me and I was afraid to break eye-contact. He made this barking noise and kinda made this full body hop in my direction. I imagined looking into the view-finder in just enough time to see a blur of baboon fur and fangs hurling at me. We started drawing a crowd of other camera-clad humans. The baboon made another move towards me, and I slowly took some steps backward and managed to slip away from it safely. Whew.

I won’t attempt to convey the grandeur of the sights on the safari—any descriptions that come to mind seem completely cliché and would be far too inadequate a portrayal to merit. We saw lots of giraffes, hippos, crocodiles, warthogs, and water buffalo (which inspired the classic Veggie Tales song, “Oh everyone’s got a water buffalo, yours is fast but mine is slow, oh everyone’s got a water buffalo-ooooo!”). I was maybe most excited to see the elephants, but unfortunately we only got to see their behinds. My favorite part of the trip was the hike up to Murchesin falls, where the huge Nile is forced through this tiny pinch and considerable drop. The falls were a magnificent sight. During the hike up, a light rain was falling and I was inspired to sing Toto’s “Africa”. (Actually, that song is in my head quite frequently around here…and it makes me think of you, Rauna and Jill!) Lauren has a nice description of our weekend: for an account of our adventure, read Lauren’s blog-post about it here. (I tried making a link, but alas, Africa internet strikes again: go to laurenhagee.blogspot.com, or click the link on the right-hand side of the page.)

We came home late on Saturday night, and I think Lauren and I expected that our arrival after a few days’ absence would be a disruption to the family; I imagined they had enjoyed our being gone and would be disappointed to see their time without us was over. On the contrary, we received a huge welcome home. Even Sara came to us with arms outstretched and entered our room to shoot the breeze. The kids were so so happy to see us. We realized later that night that the family really must have missed us while we were gone. I think they must have been bored. We really do provide the entertainment when we’re around.