Uganda adventure: Day 18 - Lake Mburo Game Reserve

Today is the second of two ‘vacation days’ we have planned for this trip. We are up and leaving by 4:10am to head to Lake Mburo National Park. We have a slightly larger vehicle but still have someone sitting on the floor. The drive there is uneventful as there is little traffic, its dark out and we still half asleep. We have to leave visiting the equator until the return trip because we pass by in the dark. We arrive at the park an hour early (our driver, Alex, has a lead foot). On the way to the park gate we already begin seeing many animals. We find out the prices have gone up since our last information was received. But we proceed anyway.

Alicia's view was obstructed by Jeff,
who was looking through the sunroof - she solved that issue....

Grabbing a snack while waiting to go in.

Impala

Topi

Zebras

After arriving at the park HQ, we decide to pay for a guided walking tour. This brings us closer to the animals – too close to the water buffalo according to the park ranger! We pull back and let them pass and then continue our walk.

Nadine paying for the tour while the local warthogs wander by.

Water Buffalo keeping an eye on us.

More Zebras

Waterbucks

End of our walk with Rebecca, our guide, and our driver, Alex,

Our vehicle for the day.

Back at the park head quarters, Jeff decides to sneak up on a warthog to touch one. He comes rather close - there's video evidence! The park staff suggest we take a boat tour to see hippos (more money), but we decide to look at the lake first. After choosing not to go boating, we have some lunch and then strike off on our own trip to find hippos. However the road we end up on is very grown in (looks like it has been several years since anyone has passed through!). The seemingly endless road scratches every part of the driver’s van and almost removes his side mirror. This is even with frequent stops to break off branches. Alex seems tense about the ride, but oddly, not about the water buffalo that stared us down before stepping in the bush. We finally find a road, which leads to another road, and Matt navigates us back to the man park head quarters.

Baboon

Waterbuck

Waiting for the hippos.

Only a couple of these hippos showed their faces.

This water buffalo stared us down before moving off the raod

Left or right?

We are getting ready to leave when Jeff decides he wants to attempt touching a warthog again. The warthogs disagree - but he is still with us. We are now an hour and a half, or so, behind schedule, and Alex is determined make up time. We pass pretty much every vehicle we see, until he gets a speeding ticket. This slows him down for about five minutes, and the race is back on. Somehow we arrive at the equator during daylight. Pictures are taken, and for a small fee the locals demonstrate how water drains in different directions in the north and south hemispheres. And we’re off again. Although we explained that we were not in a rush, Alex continues his determined effort to make up time. Because traffic in Kampala is so bad in the evenings, he takes a single lane, clay road short cut, for about an hour, in the dark. We have many near misses with dogs, ditches, trucks, men, women, children – this is the Ugandan way.