Life with MK: Crazy day at Murchinson Falls (6/10/2013)

This morning we woke up around 8:30 and had breakfast at the lodge at Ziwa before heading out towards Murchinson Falls, which is a national park here in Uganda. I had to get up to pee about three times last night, which sucked because there were so many bugs and frogs at night in there! Anyways, we got on the road and started driving out of the park, and on the way out we spotted a little monkey in a tree! It was my first ever wild monkey and it was so cute. I got a picture of it, but I was just a second too late for the perfect picture that I should have gotten. We stopped to look at it for a few minutes and then headed on our way. We had to take a quick stop at the park gate because one of my classmates left her Visa card at the lodge, but someone drove it out to us so we didn't have to turn around.

The drive to Murchinson was pretty nice, and some parts were a bit rough, but it was a great time. We stopped in a town called Masindi on the way to have some sodas, and there was an awesome quilt shop next door. If I had had room I totally would have purchased a quilt. I got their card to check out their website when I get some Internet. After Masindi we continued on and got to the entrance to the national park where we got out to pay our entrance fees. When we got there there were a ton of baboons wandering around! We actually saw a ton of baboons today! When we drove into the park we came across a few packs and they were pretty cool to see. We even saw two babies! Our driver threw them a half of a banana and they seemed quite pleased.

We eventually arrived at our lodge for the next two nights, called Red Chilli Camp. It's cute and no frills, but good. There were warthogs here when got here just chilling and we got so close. We ordered some lunch right when we arrived, I had a grilled ham and cheese and it was yummy, and then drove the couple minutes down to the Nile river for a river safari! It was just like the African Jungle Safari ride at Disneyland, only real! We immediately saw a few hippos, and boy are there a TON of hippos here. We saw them everywhere. No lack of hippo sightings for us. We also saw a lot of birds, more baboons and watthogs, some crocodiles, buffalo, two lions (they were slightly far away), and a bunch of elephants including baby elephants (!!!). We also saw Murchinson Falls which is quite powerful and pretty cool. We didn't get too close to it, but it was awesome. I got a ton of great pictures and I can't wait to share them!

After the river safari we went back to camp and took showers and then had dinner. I had a beef goulash over pasta and then dessert banana fritters with a little honey. Omg the dessert bananas were amazing! We hung out in the restaurant bar area for a while and then Dr. Giordani came and told us to be careful because there was a hippo. It was crazy! When we went back to our rooms there was literally a giant hippo grazing through the camp ground. I came right up to my classmates little Banda and all seven of us were in my two person room because the hippo was too close to their doors. We watched him for a while and he eventually moved on. It was so freaking cool! Literally a giant hippo was so close, just munching (loudly) and doing his thing.

All in all today was really awesome! We saw a ton of cool animals, had some great food, and some great times. Tomorrow we are getting up early to do a game drive through Murchinson, so hopefully we will see some giraffes! Good times in Uganda :)