Travels With Maria

White Nile

On the Road…And on the Side of the Road

Saturday, we had an early start for a long drive. Ali gave a lift to Matthew, a manager at the lodge who was getting some time off at home, which was Kebale, our destination. He had been at the Murchison lodge for 3 months straight. We had gone maybe 10 miles, quite fast over bumpy dirt roads, when the steering failed again in the predawn darkness. Ali and Matthew got out and started looking under the car. I got out our flashlights and gave to them. They shooed me back into the car, saying "we don't trust this place". It was a tall grass area with potential for predators and…
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Fire and Water

Early start this morning. Ali had the top popped up on the Jeep so we could stand and look out. We spent the morning driving around Murchison National Park looking for animals. We saw elephants, warthogs, lots of birds lots of different kinds of antelopes, a few monkeys, several of the highly endangered Rothschild giraffe and a lion. We also saw miles of grassland, the grass was tall, so we couldn't see many animals. The park has a burning program, where they intentionally set the dry grasslands on fire. There were many stretches where the land had been burnt on one side of the road, with tall dry grass on…
More

Walking with the Rhinos

On our trip to the Serengeti, the only one of the so-called big five that we didn't see was the rhino. Today, we fixed that. Our flight yesterday from Addis Ababa was smooth. We saw the outlet of the White Nile from Lake Victoria, so check, both sources of the two branches of the world's greatest river sighted. Ali, our driver/guide for the Uganda leg of the trip, meet us at the airport and took us to the lodge where we spent the night, 5km north of the equator. 6am start this morning, to beat Kampala traffic. I suppose we mostly beat it, but we did hit some jams. Eventually,…
More

On the Road…And on the Side of the Road

Saturday, we had an early start for a long drive. Ali gave a lift to Matthew, a manager at the lodge who was getting some time off at home, which was Kebale, our destination. He had been at the Murchison lodge for 3 months straight. We had gone maybe 10 miles, quite fast over bumpy dirt roads, when the steering failed again in the predawn darkness. Ali and Matthew got out and started looking under the car. I got out our flashlights and gave to them. They shooed me back into the car, saying "we don't trust this place". It was a tall grass area with potential for predators and…
More

Fire and Water

Early start this morning. Ali had the top popped up on the Jeep so we could stand and look out. We spent the morning driving around Murchison National Park looking for animals. We saw elephants, warthogs, lots of birds lots of different kinds of antelopes, a few monkeys, several of the highly endangered Rothschild giraffe and a lion. We also saw miles of grassland, the grass was tall, so we couldn't see many animals. The park has a burning program, where they intentionally set the dry grasslands on fire. There were many stretches where the land had been burnt on one side of the road, with tall dry grass on…
More

Walking with the Rhinos

On our trip to the Serengeti, the only one of the so-called big five that we didn't see was the rhino. Today, we fixed that. Our flight yesterday from Addis Ababa was smooth. We saw the outlet of the White Nile from Lake Victoria, so check, both sources of the two branches of the world's greatest river sighted. Ali, our driver/guide for the Uganda leg of the trip, meet us at the airport and took us to the lodge where we spent the night, 5km north of the equator. 6am start this morning, to beat Kampala traffic. I suppose we mostly beat it, but we did hit some jams. Eventually,…
More

On the Road…And on the Side of the Road

Saturday, we had an early start for a long drive. Ali gave a lift to Matthew, a manager at the lodge who was getting some time off at home, which was Kebale, our destination. He had been at the Murchison lodge for 3 months straight. We had gone maybe 10 miles, quite fast over bumpy dirt roads, when the steering failed again in the predawn darkness. Ali and Matthew got out and started looking under the car. I got out our flashlights and gave to them. They shooed me back into the car, saying "we don't trust this place". It was a tall grass area with potential for predators and…
More

Fire and Water

Early start this morning. Ali had the top popped up on the Jeep so we could stand and look out. We spent the morning driving around Murchison National Park looking for animals. We saw elephants, warthogs, lots of birds lots of different kinds of antelopes, a few monkeys, several of the highly endangered Rothschild giraffe and a lion. We also saw miles of grassland, the grass was tall, so we couldn't see many animals. The park has a burning program, where they intentionally set the dry grasslands on fire. There were many stretches where the land had been burnt on one side of the road, with tall dry grass on…
More

Walking with the Rhinos

On our trip to the Serengeti, the only one of the so-called big five that we didn't see was the rhino. Today, we fixed that. Our flight yesterday from Addis Ababa was smooth. We saw the outlet of the White Nile from Lake Victoria, so check, both sources of the two branches of the world's greatest river sighted. Ali, our driver/guide for the Uganda leg of the trip, meet us at the airport and took us to the lodge where we spent the night, 5km north of the equator. 6am start this morning, to beat Kampala traffic. I suppose we mostly beat it, but we did hit some jams. Eventually,…
More