Safari Junkie

Addictions come in all forms. I think I am addicted to safaris!  I just never get tired of God's creativity seen in the beauty and  abundance of variety in animals and birds of Africa.
In 2003 I took my first safari to Masai Mara, Kenya.  Dec 2011 my son joined me at Amboseli in the foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro and then last weekend I was blessed to go to Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda.

Our little group of 8 lined up just before 7 am, waiting for the car ferry, pictured here to carry across the Nile to the other side of the park where we would take a 4 hour safari through some of the 3,000 odd square kilometers.

Anticipation was high. At this point we had already gotten glimpses of hippos popping up all across the river.  You'll see more about them later.

When you go on safari anywhere on the continent of Africa you hear the term "The Big Five." This refers to five animals that you want desperately to see and check off your so called list.
This beautiful big guy you see here is one of the 5. We nearly missed him as he was hiding in the grasses.
Imagine staring eyeball to eyeball through the binoculars with Simba?
(Swahili for lion)
He posed nicely for us about 20-30 meters from our van.

Another of the 5 is the Cape Buffalo.
These guys just look mean, there's no two ways about it.

Sometimes you see small birds on their backs living in a symbiotic relationship. It's a strange sight watching birds riding around picking stuff of the backs of these massive animals.

The beautifully elegant giraffe is not one of the 5 but they rank high on my list.

I just love to watch them them walk around, awkward yet graceful at the same time.

Note the little antelopes who share grazing land.

We did see one that had it's foot almost torn off, injured by wire. We were happy to see later in the day that a Vet had been called to help.

Sadly poachers are still  a threat here.

Here you have the amazing Jackson's Hartebeest.

We saw large herds,as well as a few loners that sometimes broke out in a run. So fascinating to watch.

Remember the movie "Lion King" ?

These little guys were so cute. I wonder if they have every heard of the song " When I was a young warthog"?

We saw so many that we got a little blasé about them, "Oh there's another warthog!"

Isn't he/she sweet? This is a Bushbuck. They are very shy. It stood quietly, almost motionless while we took our photos.

We saw many in what you would call the antelope family ( of which there are over 90 different species)

The main ones we saw were the Waterbuck, Bushbuck, Kob antelope,( part of Uganda's Coat of Arms, in the national emblem) Orabe antelope and the Hartebeest

Of course no safari would be complete without elephants. They are also one of the Big Five.

This small group didn't seem to want to move out of our way, so our van and the one behind us had to resort to loud clapping to get them to back off.

It's not a nice feeling when these massive creatures just stare and then start moving toward the vehicle.



Well I could go on and on, but you probably don't have all day just to sit and read this blog. if you have been counting you have realized I have only mentioned 3 of the Big Five. The Rhino is also on the list but is not in this park. They became extinct here during Idi Amin's rule of terror. I did manage to see one in 2003. The remaining animal is the Leopard. Unfortunately it again eluded me. I guess the only thing to do is go on another safari! I'm adding Krueger National Park in South Africa to my bucket list.