11/7/2020 0 Comments Sarafi Trips & ElectionSafari Days!!!!!! We left at 7am from Kapchorwa to drive out to the Heritage Safari Lodge where we got to stay in huts and go on two safari rides. We had also planned on taking a boat trip to see more animals, however the water levels have been extremely high and so we couldn’t go on the boat (this reason also cancelled our trip to the source of the Nile sadly). On Saturday we arrived around 10 AM, got to relax for a little bit, have lunch, and prepare for our 3 PM game drive. Our guide was Moses who was a lot of fun, and Sharon drove. The truck was multi-level and completely open (which was not great with the winds and cold at the end of the night). Entering the national park, we first see a little family of monkey walking across the “road”, basically just a dirt path for the cars to safely drive through. Moving on there were tons of antelopes moving about and having a relaxing afternoon. We also saw warthogs, which Lion King did so dirty. We all fell in love with them and how they prance around. Moving further into the park there was a small family of elephants having an afternoon snack right off the road (which Moses said was very rare to get this close). While the elephants were extremely beautiful and the little baby was adorable as it tried hiding behind the mom, we also saw the effects of poachers. Poachers are able to enter the park through canoes in the lake further down and set up traps to try to get the tusks and horns of different animals. The top of the mother elephant’s trunk had been severely sliced from one of the wire traps and Moses said it would soon fall off. It was extremely devasting to see how even in a large environment with few people around, animals are still negatively affected by humans. We continued on for a little bit down the main road, until Sharon stopped the car and said something was wrong with one of the tires. We checked to make sure it was safe, and all had to get out of the van. Turns out, we got a flat tire. One of the girls said this was her worst nightmare, being stuck in the middle of a safari with a broken down truck, not that it was really broken down. (Haha sorry parents I didn’t tell you this at the time cause I didn’t want you to worry). We all stayed close around as they fixed the tire, which did take some time, but got to take some cute pictures and walk around a bit. Once fixed, we were back on the path and ran into a group of buffalo. Now Moses explained to us that there are two distinct groups of them out here. There’s the healthy fun group that moves in large packs, are generally clean, and look out for one another. Then, there are the losers. Theses are the older buffalos that are cast out from the main group and live in mini factions with the other losers. They are all generally very muddy, and don’t have the symbiotic relationship with the birds that the others do. Moses said, sadly, they basically wait for death. Getting out of the larger road we started along a smaller path and got to see so many giraffes up close. They would always stop and pose for us, and Moses said that they looked at us intently to “count the muzungos” (muzungo= white people, not necessarily a negative term). There were rarely giraffes by themselves, they were almost always in small groups/ families. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see any lions/hippos/leopards that night, but we were going back the next morning to try to find them. Heading back that night, it was super late once we got back to the hotel, and right as we pulled in our phones started buzzing that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had won the election. We all forgot about the amazing animals we had just seen and started screaming with joy and relief for our country, burst out into singing about being proud to be American and “Party in the U.S.A.”. Our director made the rare move of giving each of us a small stipend for alcohol to celebrate. I got a Nile beer (oh so amazing) and most of the girls got shots and we celebrated the night away with CNN on reporting the joy. Many of us cried and hugged for hours, the absolute best night of the trip!! That next morning, we got up at 5:45AM to get out early to try to see the lions. The gates opened at 7 AM and we got there right around opening. We moved quickly through the front of the park to get to the area with the lions. After driving around for a little, Moses got a call that there was a spotting of lions in another spot of the park. We sped off and met another van that was stopped and Moses said there were two lions under a tree in the distance. We all got to climb on top of the truck with binoculars and got to see the lions!!! Unfortunately, we didn’t get any pictures because they were too far away, but it was amazing getting to see a free lion in its true habitat. We continued up and found another group of female lions. They were all laying down, apparently pretending to be tired to get the antelope to relax so they could hunt. They were so big and absolutely gorgeous!!! A little further down there was a leopard relaxing up a tree! We were all amazed that Moses could see it since it was so far away. He explained that he’s picked up some of the regular places for the animals, and if you looked hard you could see along the dark branch of the tree, there was a line of whiteish-yellow- the leopard’s leg. We got out our binoculars again and were able to view the beautiful animal. Again, too far away to take pictures, but an absolutely incredible experience!! After awhile we moved onto the lake area where there was a group of the winner buffalo group, and out in the water were 5 hippos!! THUS COMPLETING THE BIG 5!! They didn’t come very far out of the water but they popped their heads up and we got to look at their cute faces. We went out and took pictures in front of the mountains. The ones in the back are in the DRC, which seemed crazy that we were that close to the border. We headed back after the hippos, saw more giraffes, and headed back for lunch. It was an absolute incredible experience getting to see all of the animals in their real habitats. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a major fan of small zoos that take animals out of their real homes in tiny areas to live. These animals all had miles and miles of territory to live. It was beautiful. I loved every second of it and will remember it for the rest of my life.
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