Sunset over Lake Edward.
En route to Queen Elizabeth National Park, we saw a mini-bus with these words decal’d on the back window:
IF GOD SAY YES
WHO CAN SAY NO?
It made me happy. On the way into the park, we saw a pair of lions lounging in the long grass. (Holy crap, we really are in Africa!)
We arrived at Mweya later than anticipated, around nightfall, and some of us (who shall remain nameless) panicked when faced with the prospect of spending the night at a wide open, unguarded campsite. We realized that if the park rangers aren’t expecting anyone—or if you don’t arrive early enough—there won’t be anyone there in the evening to light a fire and keep the animals away. Jill offered to spring for a night at the fancy-pants lodge up the road, but we nixed that idea as soon as we realized how much it would cost. (Take your biggest estimate and double it! Sheesh!) Fortunately there was a good hostel-restaurant nearby, so we had a cute and very reasonably priced little cottage to ourselves for the next two nights. You should have seen the stars.
From Wikipedia: First brewed by Guinness in 1801, it was designed for export, and the extra hops acted as a natural preservative for the long journeys by ship the beer would undertake. It has a more bitter taste than regular Guinness (not that I tried it—Guinness is not vegan, by the way—I just thought “foreign extra” sounded mysterious.)
(If you are wondering if I got enough to eat as a vegan, it was all good. I ate so much hearty tasty food in Uganda and Rwanda that I’m devoting an entire post to it!)
In the morning we got up before dawn, and saw many beautiful animals and landscapes:
Kob.
Savannahhhhhh.
Pretty sure this is a male kob.
There are many more elephant photos (and stories) where this one came from! Did you know they live for 80 to 100 years?
A herd of water buffalo.
A Defasso waterbuck.
They’re standing behind an elephant skull, which is why Kate is sad.
Next time: WE WERE THISCLOSE TO A LEOPARD AND IT WAS GORGEOUS!
I did not realize that Elliot was making that face! I love it!
love seeing these photos!
Your photos are really wonderful! and even more impressive considering that you were sitting on the car window ledge when taking many of them and twisting into new yoga positions in a people-packed car to snap others of them.