My first wildlife safari ever

I got up very early. I hadn’t slept well because the bed was really uncomfortable. Way too many people had slept in the bed before. We set off after breakfast at about half past seven. There were six of us – me, an American Katie and a German family of four. 

We went by a green van and the journey was incredibly long. At noon we arrived in Masindi, a larger town close to the Murchison Falls National Park, where we had a break. As we were having a snack, there was a heavy downpour. Fortunately, it did not last long and we could continue the journey.

We arrived in the national park in the afternoon. We saw a couple of frightened baboons, a buffalo and a lot of tsetse flies on the way.We had to close the windows so that they could not fly in and bite us. It was funny to watch a swarm of tsetse fly chase our car. They were fast and relentless. Tsetse flies are attracted to moving objects. We reached Murchison falls shortly before four o’clock. The falls are located on the Victoria Nile which has its source in lake Victoria. They were breathtaking. We went on a very short hike with a guide whose name was Simon. The views of the river and the falls were stunning. The width of the falls is barely seven metres and the river flows in with enormous power. Water splashes very high like from a huge cauldron and sprays all over the place and people.

After an hour we left for the camp called Red Chilli Rest Camp. It started raining again, but lucking we were sitting in the van. We were going to sleep in tents with beds which were much more confortable than in the hostel in Kampala. The highlight of the evening was a hippo which was grazing around our tent.

I was going to lie down when I heard people saying there was a hippo in the camp. I had no idea it was next to our tent. When I finally noticed it, I froze. Hippos are dangerous animals and one has to be careful so as not to be attacked. We were told to wear a head torch in the camp at night so that we were safe. After a while, I plucked up the courage and went closer to the tent. It was amazing to watch it graze so close to people without paying any attention to them.

I got up at six the following day. After breakfast we got in the van and took a ferry to the other bank of the Nile river. There was more wildlife north of the river as poaches were not able to easily access that area in the past. I could see heads of hippos which were submerging themselves in water. On the other side we were joined by a guide Janet, an employee of the park, who told us a lot of information about the animals we saw. We saw many kinds of antelope, some of them even from as close as ten metres. We saw giraffes and a lion maybe from a twenty-metre distance. And elephants from a distance of thirty or fifty metres. We also saw buffalo, hippos and other animals. We came back to the camp at about eleven to have lunch. There were unexpected visitors in the camp – warthogs and a baboon. They seemed to like feasting on leftovers.

We spent the afternoon on a boat. We went on a boat trip to see Murchison Falls. The boat had two decks and there were plenty of people from other camps and lodges. On our way back we saw groups of hippos again who were spending the day submerged in water. Only their heads were popping out. There were tens of groups of hippos. My binoculars came in handy and I could watch a lot of colourful bird species such as African fish eagle, herons and storks. A few crocodiles were nearby but I could see many more of them on the bank with the binoculars. There were buffalo, elephants, warthogs and antelope on the bank. We reached the falls after two and a half hours. It wasn’t possible to get very close so the views of the falls weren’t nearly as beautiful as the day before. We came back to the camp at around six in the evening. And again a hippo dropped by. And again it was grazing around our tent makingh really loud sounds. And it didn’t take any notice of people and tents at all. It spend more than half an hour grazing without stopping. It was exciting and hilarious at the same time.

We got up at six on the last day, too. We went on a short safari in the morning and saw giraffes, antelope, elephants and warthogs. We even saw baby giraffes. They run really funny. I also noticed a hyena in the high grass. We also saw vultures. We left the park at nine and continued to Karuma waterfalls. We came there in a hour and took a short walk to see them. They are also located on the Nile and are powerful but they looked more like rapids.

After visiting the falls we spent 5 hours driving to the capital city Kampala. I wasn’t able to get to Fort Port directly from the national park, so I decided to go back to Kampala and take a bus to Fort Portal the following day.