With Easter giving me an extra two days off of work it meant that I would get to spend another weekend out exploring parts of Uganda I had yet to see. Thus on Good Friday Charles and myself departed for Queen Elizabeth National Park with our driver Steven who we had hired. Our plan was to visit the national park and see as many animals as we could. After almost 11 months in Africa it probably was about time I did see some animals anyway.

The six-hour ride to the park went by relatively quickly, and as we approached the park entrance we got our first taste of animal life as a group of baboons pranced around on the highway. At the park gates we were told that most accommodations were filled due to the long weekend, yet this failed to deter us from entering the park. On our way up to the lodges we passed by an elephant, a group of monkeys and a whole bunch of wart hogs. We went straight to the hostel and checked to see if there was any type of accommodation available. We were told the hostel was full, and that our only other alternatives would be to stay at the lodge (65 USD per night) or at the student center dorm rooms (2.50 USD per night). Oddly enough we opted for the latter of the two choices and found a nice dorm room to accommodate Charles and me. Waiting outside our dorm room was also a big fat hippo gleefully grazing on the high grass. After settling into our room we booked ourselves two game drives and a boat trip to take care of our Saturday and Sunday. That night we had a few beers at the lodge then a few more at a canteen by the dorms. When at the canteen I noticed that a group of people sitting beside us was talking German. Upon closer inspection I noticed that they were playing Douplekopf and Kniffle (Yatzee). How easily this group could have been my own family. Regardless I never found the nerve to go join them and ended the night in my cold dorm room.

The next morning it was early to rise to go on the boat trip. The boat would take us up the Kazinga channel (connects lake Edward with lake George) and hopefully let us see some animals. The two-hour boat ride let us see hippos hippos and more hippos. In addition to the hippo’s we did see a water buffalo, a crocodile, a monitor lizard, some local fishermen, and probably over 20 different species of birds. Another Canadian (from BC) was on this boat trip (actually Charles had met her once before a few weeks back) with us, she stays in Mbarara working with Refuges. Her name was Chinook apparently after the wind NOT the salmon, nor the helicopter. Anyway after the boat trip we had a bit of time to rest up before heading out on our first game drive.

We passed the time between the boat trip and our afternoon game drive by singing lion king songs and by seeing who could ride the hippo the longest. Finally 4pm came around and we drove off to find ourselves some more animals. After seeing a extensive amount of Ugandan Kobe (look like deer to me despite the horns) we finally got to see something exciting, a herd of elephants! Our guide got Steven to drive off the main track right up towards the herd. As we approached you could feel a slight unease come over the elephants, as well as our group. Sitting in the box of a pickup truck with a herd of elephant’s maybe 20 meters away is almost as fearful as climbing off a 100-meter cliff. It was amazing to see the herd however, how the queen dictated when and where they would move. At one point after being a little too loud on the back of the truck the queen was preparing to charge the truck. She flapped out her ears and started to stomp the ground in preparation. This was our cue to continue forward and get out of her way.

We continued on our trek to find animals. We saw a few more deer like animals such as the waterbuck and antelope, and eventually came across an elusive lion. The lion however was enjoying her dinner hiding in a big thicket bush. Although we didn’t have a great view we did get to hear as she crushed bones with her teeth. Eventually after getting tired of the eating noises we left the lioness to her dinner and headed back to the camp. That night we treated ourselves to a grand dinner at the lodge with was grossly overpriced and not overly tasty. While eating I noticed the German group had also opted for an expensive meal at the lodge and even received a gleaming smile from one of the daughters. Later that night we retired to a few beers at the canteen where we met up with the German crew once again who were back at the Doppelkopf and Kniffle. Eventually we headed off to bed as we had an early morning game drive the next day.

Sunday morning, 6:30 am we drove off with our guide in search of one creature, a lion. We returned to the similar area that we scoured the day before, yet this time all we could see were loads of Kobe. We searched and searched and searched until our guide got bored and told us we needed to go back. On our way back we ran into another group who told us where the lion was. The guide however told us we couldn’t go because it was off the track and in a very muddy place. Realizing that we couldn’t make the guide do what he didn’t want to do we headed back to the camp disappointed with the missed lion.

Back at camp we decided that we had had enough of QE and were going to trek back towards Kampala and explore a closer national park called Lake Mburo National Park. It took us a little over 3-hours to get to Lake Mburo and upon arrival we were faced with the same problem we had at the previous park, full accommodations. We entered the park regardless and wished for the best. As it turned out the only full accommodations were the bandas and some lovely student hostels were very vacant for us to stay in.

Lake Mburo provided us with a nice relaxing spot to rest over on our trek back home. It also provided us a chance to see some of its large population of zebras and antelopes. We also got to see a viper chase two crested cranes, definitely an interesting site.

Monday came around quicker than expected which meant it was time to go home. After one last exploration to a lookout in the park we headed home only to be greeted by big storm clouds. Overall a wonderful Easter weekend in which I was able to not only see a bunch of the animals Uganda has to offer but also it gave me a chance to get my mind off work and relax a bit.