Dear readers,
This weekend, we journeyed through the African jungle and grasslands, to see the native species of Uganda. We went with two girls from Sweden that we had met before in lake Bunyonyi, three girls from Great Britain, and one from Canada. The road to Queen Elizabeth wound through luscious hills covered in tea shrubs. As we drove up to the national park, yellow and white clouds of butterflies emerged from the surrounding bushes and enveloped our car.
We sat down for a quick, yet satisfying lunch of vegetables (never before have we craved a salad so much). From there, we took a boat tour of the aquatic life. We spotted hippos, crocodiles, water bucks and buffaloes, elephants, and many different types of African birds. As we drove by a Ugandan town, fully-clothed children ran into the water to swim up to the boat.
After that, on the evening game drive, we strained our eyes to see lions' ears twitch over the tall grasses. Exciting as that was, we were later enthralled to see one of the rarest animals in the game park. As we were driving back for dinner, the car in front of us stopped. We were about to grab our binoculars- one pair shared between the eight of us- when we spotted a leopard, lounging over the branches of a nearby tree.
Although the other girls were sleeping somewhere else that night, we all got together for a delicious buffet dinner at our hotel. Because our food was prepaid, we loaded our plates with pastas, salads, grilled vegetables, and countless desserts. Mmmm...
Not-so-bright, but early, we dragged ourselves to the lodge to enjoy coffee and muffins by the light of the moon. As the sun rose, we drove far off for another safari trip. About seven cars were stopped, usually the sign that there was a lion. However, it turned out that they were all watching the mating of cobs- antelope like animals. Herbert, our driver, took this opportunity to slip the information he knows about mating: lions mate 2.2 times per hour, and male cobs taste the female's urine to see if they're in heat. Interesting.
Some meters down the road, there were people stopped actually to see lions. Yet again, they were far away, and concealed in the brush. Herbert, being awesome, drove around the people where we couldn't be seen, and went off the road, just a few feet from the lions. They were unfazed, we were unseen, and we managed to take some ballin' pictures.
After checking out, we went chimp-tracking. Or, should we say monkey-tracking, since the chimps were nowhere to be found. This was disappointing, but we went on a refreshing four-hour hike through the rain forest, and saw many blue and red-tailed monkeys. As soon as we got back in the car, it started to pour. The rain lulled us to sleep on the car-ride home.
Tomorrow, we are going to Bugoye!
'til then,
Emilia and Mattie
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