DAY 1PREPARATION
On Monday Dec. 28th 2008, we embarked on our first safari trip to Murchison Falls National park. We were a group of 6 people: my 2 siblings(Sue and Jerry), 2 cousins(Maureen and Anita), my gf(Sandra) and I. I was really excited to visit the biggest national park in Uganda and looked forward to seeing various kinds of wild game during the visit.
The plan was to stay at Paraa safari lodge which is roughly 720km (6 hours drive) from Kampala. Since this was going to be a long trip, we packed some light snacks like milk, mineral water, sausages and cookies (note to future Paraa visitors..take lots of food, a meal will run you 45,000 UGX = appx $25).
TRIP THROUGH PAKWACH
The entire road was well tarmacked. It wasn’t surprising to see an occasional school of monkeys playing by the road side. As we drove past Karuma falls, we thought it would be great to take some cool pics of the waterfall. We asked the driver to slow down as we took pics. As we were driving away, we were surprised to get pulled over by two army men carrying assault weapons. They spoke only Swahili and demanded to see our cameras. They promptly let us know that it was illegal to take photos of the damn and we must delete all pics. Furthermore, we were to be fined 20 000 UGX each. The fact that we had a mzungu (white person) in the car didn’t help our cause since foreigners equate dollars. Luckily our driver Kawa spoke Swahili and bargained with the soldiers on our behalf and we managed to part with only 5k UGX.
Our encounter with the army officially marked our entry into KONY territory. The scenery was pasted with dire patches of IDP camps. Suddenly the mood in the car was somber as it dawned on us that we were no longer in civilization and all bets were off!
Enter the Wild
About 3 hrs after we started our trip, we branched off the main tarmac road and started to drive down a dirt road. After about 20 miles, we finally reached the UWA gates that mark the beginning of Murchison Falls National Park. We paid our entrance fees (Sandra was charged mzungu prices while my black Swedish cousins were automatically skin-profiled to be Ugandan..funny aint it).
Note to Safarians: Always travel with your student ID as students get a lot of discounts like free entrance to game reserves.
The drive to Paraa lodge was a bumpy one made bearable by the excitement of the prospects that lay ahead. We were driving for about 10 minutes when alas! We saw our first giraffe! It was as tall and majestic as I’d imagined it would be. We were finally in the game reserve.
We saw many more animals on the way to the lodge like elephants, wild boars, antelopes and buffaloes. We were still anxious to see the main attraction which was the King Lion.
PARAA LODGE
We finally arrived at Paraa lodge at about 4pm and we were very tired, dusty and sweaty. It was only fitting that the lodge welcomed us with a nice cold glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. I must say it was one of the best glasses of orange juice I’ve ever tasted.
The staff was courteous in accommodating our needs. My two cousins (Maureen and Anita) had tagged along last minute so we had not booked them a room. However, we were able to get them an extra bed in each of our rooms for $70 each.
Since meals were rather expense (UGX 45 000 each), we decided to eat on the snacks we’d come with and save our money for dinner instead. Also, we figured that since our package included breakfast, we could fill up during breakfast and last the entire day till dinner time.
We checked into our rooms for a quick shower and run back…wait, the rooms were exquisite. Most of the furniture was made from solid wood and had a tropical feel to it. The view from all the rooms was the amazing River Nile and it made you feel like you were in paradise. There were non-intrusive mosquito nets covering the beds so you never had to worry about bugs at night.
We decided to make the most of our time by immediately going for a game drive at 4pm.
Note to Safarians: Tour guide = $50 / day
Our tour guide was an intelligent looking dark skinned man called Emmanuel. He had a bold head and his eyes relayed the aura of one that had seen all that the wild had to offer. I immediately felt confident that we were going to see great things under Emmanuel’s guidance. I also felt particularly safe when I noticed that Emmanuel carried a machine gun with him for our protection.
Emmanuel took shotgun while the rest of us crammed in the back of the Toyota and off we drove into the wild. After seeing the obligatory Ugandan kobs and water buffalos, we were itching to see the main character, the alpha creature, the King of the Jungle, we were ready to see the lion. Unfortunately we were warned that this was nature and you can never predict what you see. This meant that there was a chance that we would not see any lions on our game drive. However, I was optimistic and amid the bumps of the car, I strained through the bushes to see if anything remotely resembled Simba. After an hour of no real action, we all started to doze off.
“Oh my God, it’s a lion!” I presumed Sandra was pulling another of her pranks but fell for it anyway and with a sleepy gaze, I glanced out the window. And there it was, hidden in the bush thicket right under a thorny tree, a lion munching away on his catch for the day.
We pulled up right next to it and started to observe this grand creature. It was unbelievable to be watching this lion live! In that one moment, my entire Safari was now complete. His mane was not fully grown which led me to believe he was not a full grown male. He didn't even seem to acknowledge our presence. This gave us a false sense of security and we rolled down our windows to get better camera shots of this great beast. Then suddenly he stood up...... (to be continued)
