Rest & Relaxation: Lions and Tigers and Bears...oh my!

OK…there were no tigers or bears, but there were lions. Two of them!

Most people come to the lodge either with a tour group or with their own vehicle. I of course came with neither, so I booked my game ride with the lodge. A lodge vehicle, driver and guide. And I was all by myself, which was pretty cool. My guide/driver was Eric and he was fantastic. There was a hole in the roof of the landcruiser and I stood with my head sticking out the whole time. There were tons of giraffe, which are my favorite animal. They are so gentle and majestic. I learned that the older the giraffe gets the darker his spots and more pronounced the small horns on his head are. I also say lots and lots of Oribe, Jackson Hartebeest and Uganda Kob (the national animal of Uganda). It was in a field of Oribe, that we saw the male lion. We had stopped and Eric jumped out of the vehicle and climbed on the roof and said there was a lion. He could tell by the behaviour of the Oribe that the predator was there. He jumped back into the vehicle and drove off the road into the field with the Oribe and sure enough there was the lion. OH MY GOODNESS. A wild African male lion! Eric said it is very rare to see a male lion. We drove right beside it and it walked right on by. Incredible.

We left and went down the road a bit and saw one of the other tour trucks up ahead on a different path. Again there was a field with Oribe. The other driver called us over and sure enough, there was a lioness approaching the Oribe. She was injured in the back left hind leg and was limping. She could only walk for a bit then stop and lie down. I felt so bad for here. Eric said they would report it and that sometimes a vet comes from Kampala to check on animals the rangers are able to capture. Unfortunately, it doesn’t bode well for the lioness as she can’t hunt. If she can get to her pride, maybe she can eat their kills. Otherwise….

We kept going and saw a group of three elephants. The one kept looking straight at me. Another was pulling leaves from a tree; the whole tree shook with the force of it. We also saw a pack of elephants down near a watering hole. Two of the males were play fighting until the big mama elephant broke it up. The last thing we went looking for was the elusive spotted leopard. They are hard to find. Eric says some weeks they don’t even find one. Sure enough, we didn’t find one. But since I had seen lions, elephants, giraffe, buffalo, water buck, osibe, Ugandan kob and warthogs I felt I could let go of seeing the leopard.

The landscape is so varied in the park. There is forest, savannah grassland and savannah woodland. Everywhere you look the land looks a little different. And it is extraordinary when you see the Nile majestically winding its way through the land. At one point we were at the Nile delta where several rivers meet together at the end of lake Albert and transition from the Albert Nile to the Victoria Nile.

I am glad I took my dad’s advice and went on the game drive. This land is beautiful. Even without the animals I could drive through the park just to see the beauty and variety of the land.