Africa: Day 5

Saturday April 15

We woke up early for another game drive. We are so glad that we got up so early, because we saw so many animals. The best times to see the animals, we were told, are in the early mornings and in the evening.

It was so early that the sun was still down and there were hovering clouds. There were way way more animals. We saw the crested crane (Uganda National Bird - video featured below), a HUGE hippo bum, a giant steroid Eland, a ton more topi, antelopes, impala, cape buffalo, cows, warthogs, baboons, zebras.

The craziest part about the morning was the track. Since we had such an intense rainstorm the day before, the tracks were huge mud puddles. We were taking a few tracks that hadn't been

taken in a while and they were difficult to navigate through.

Lou did an incredible job driving the truck and getting us through the huge puddles. Down one stretch, there were such deep pools of mud that we didn't know what was beneath them. Lou tried going through drier patches to avoid them, but ended up being a MASSIVE mud bog. We could have been stuck with no way to push out of the bog, but he just kept plowing through.

We almost ran over this poor turtle, and luckily Lou swirved right in time (as you can see the deep tread marks from the tires of the truck). We were happy he didn't, because well, obviously it saved the little guys life, but also, we hadn't seen a turtle and were beginning to wonder if they lived in Africa. And next to the turtle, that may look like a huge divet/stick in the middle of the rode...but it's not. It's a massive entourage of ants. Gross. We still loved the safari though! It was such a blast and incredible to be so close to the animals!! We sat on the door and took pictures out of the window. Love!

So we saw a bunch more animals, clearly, and then we went back to the lodge. We had some breakfast and packed up or bags and parted with the awesome Mihingo Lodge.

This is the awesome zebra gate to enter/exit the park. We didn't take a picture when we went in, but we did when we left. So, here it is! The crew! Lou, Jeri, Me & Collin. On the way back, we stopped at the Equator again and got smoothies, but not like the thick ones from Jamba Juice. They were made of fruit like bananas and pineapple, but they were super thin. The funny thing is I got full way before I even reached halfway. Back in Kampala, it was getting late, so we just stayed inside (it can be kinda dangerous if you're out late at night). We watched a family video and then Collin's sister's wedding video. That helped us relax, so then we went to bed. Even though we thought we got over the jetlag at Mihingo, our sleeping schedule was totally off and were lucky to get a few hours of sleep.