giraffes

Day 165: Small Game Drive

At first, the small game drive through Murchison Falls National Park resembled yesterday’s safari, only… not as exciting without more of the bigger animals. And any animals we did see- they were always on the left side of the car, so I was starting to get a little frustrated that they didn’t seem to care they weren’t on MY side of the safari van. 

That is, until we saw a tower of giraffes crossing the road ahead of us. To MY side of the van! One seemed just as curious about us as we were of them and I could have stayed there all. day. long. Aren’t they beautiful?

Sorry if you’re not into giraffes, I just couldn’t help myself posting all of these. New favorite animal? Maybe! Well, until I spot some zebras in the wild and then I’ll be really torn!

The rest of the small game drive was -comparatively- uneventful. We thought we were heading back to Kampala when we exited the park, but instead, we were driven to another part of the park that had another waterfall. Not before our van broke down in the middle of nowhere though! Luckily we were only stranded for 15 minutes or so before our driver got the vehicle working again. He was a trooper, really, as we actually ran into many minor vehicle problems throughout the safari.

While we were standing in front of the falls, our guides told us that the government had recently decided to use this third waterfall on the Nile for power. The first one (near Jinja) had already been converted into a power plant- the second being THE Murchison Falls we saw the day before was suggested, but then dismissed for power use, and this third set of falls will soon be gone. Sad, really.

After a quick lunch, we climbed back into the van for the long drive back to Kampala. On our way out we were distracted by these guys chillin’ alongside the road.

The malaria meds and sun through the window weren’t doing me any favors. My skin was burning and my emotions were getting the best of me. Seriously, Doxycycline, you are the worst. Andrew keeps telling me it’s better than getting malaria- but after days like this one, I’m not so sure. Arriving back at the Red Chili, I welcomed dinner, a shower, and bed.