DAY 9 - Friday July 14th - Queen Elizabeth Park

Tonight I am writing from a hostel at the heart of Queen Elizabeth – Uganda’s proud national park in the far most western part of the country. It is a spectacular landscape, with both Lake George and the Rwezori Mountains completely surrounding us. We are hear for a three day excursion – our first real African “safari.” Queen Elizabeth has had a recent surge in tourism and you could tell they are trying very hard to attract visitors. Joseph, our bus driver, has been here countless times dating back to the 60s, and he said that when he used to come it was a small structure on the hill and nothing but a sea of animals. “So many animals, now they are gone,” he said. It was sad. Idi Amin and Obote’s regimes decimated the environment, the landscape, and especially the animals. How could someone allow such horrible damage to a place they were sworn to protect? No zebras, no giraffes, hundreds – instead of thousands – of lions, and not that many hippos were left. The land had been burned to the ground, and the animals had been slaughtered to feed the millions of starving people. I was, however, very proud of the country’s resurgence in designating the vast area a national park and for trying to cultivate the environment once again. It will take a while, but as the people of Uganda continue to respect their lands and share it proudly with others, they will continue earning the respect of the international community.

We got up about 10am for the 2+ hour drive south. It wasn’t a pleasant drive, but most of the road was paved and not near as bad as our usual route to the Kirinda Center and to the school we’ve been going to. We brought along Betty, our cook, so she could see the animals for the first time in her life even though she’s lived in the area her whole life. It’s only $2 for Ugandan citizens to visit, while about $35 for foreign visitors. Taking time off of work, bringing her son, and paying for the bus and food is out of the question, and so we were all so happy that she could join the trip after all she’s done for us. She almost didn’t come because she “didn’t have anything to wear,” so Sara made a subtle gesture the other day and gave her a couple of garments without mentioning she could use them for this trip. We also brought along two graduate students from Notre Dame who are working with the Holy Cross auspices in Ft. Portal, and they were very nice.

Along the way we crossed the Equator, which is amazing if you think about it. We stopped at the tiny signs and took pictures. It was definitely hot. “No, on the Equator, really?” someone said to me.

I slept most of the way until we got closer to the mountains and into the park area. It is humungous – spanning about 700 km south, right on the Ugandan side of the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are staying in the north of the park, which is the safe and touristy part, and definitely the classiest.
We stopped at the visitors’ center, and there we saw the breathtaking view of Lake George. We were also greeted by warthogs, who were eating grass and actually completely ignoring us. They are definitely some of the ugliest creatures in the world, but when you associate them with Pumba from the Lion King, I guess they can be kind of cute. When they run they do so with their tails sticking almost straight up. That’s hot.

So we roll up to the Mweya Safari Lounge for lunch, and oh man did our jaws drop. The hotel is situated atop the highest point in the area with a magnificent panoramic view of the lake and most of the park. We walked around in amazement. Beach chairs and cabana huts surrounded the lodge every corner you could turn, and the view got better with every footstep. There was a full bar and a ridiculously nice restaurant. Can you say Ugandan VIP? In 1954 Queen Elizabeth visited the park and had such a pleasant stay, they named it after her. We definitely felt like royalty.

Sara had said the lodge was nice and had a great view, but we had no idea. I sure as hell wasn’t expecting it, but I’ll definitely take it. I’m glad this is the only time on the trip we are going to be treated to such high class hospitality – it kind of makes you forget for a moment how we are really living (which is still even high standards) and more importantly what we see and how the people of Uganda live everyday. I’m glad for the relaxation and going to soak up every minute of it.

We had lunch on the edge of the cliff overlooking the lake, where if you looked through binoculars you could see herds of elephants along the shore where we are going on a boat ride tomorrow. Our first taste of American-ish, grease filled food in Africa. It wasn’t the best, but it the salt sure tasted good. All I wanted was mayonnaise on a chicken sandwich, and by God I ate every bite.

I had a Tusker Beer (the best, from Kenya) and chilled in the bar for a bit before and after we ate. By this time the group was starting to annoy me as well as Rachael and Whitney, my partners in crime on the trip. Everyone was very anxious and needy on the bus ride, and so when we got to the lodge, we just wanted to layout by the pool (oh yes, there was a pool too), read, write and relax. I think we’re going to do a little of that tomorrow.

We had made it in time for the last guide-led tour of the park in our own bus and took off about 4:30pm. Our guide was a cool guy named “Kule” – which actually just means “the fourth child” in Swahili. “How creative” Whitney laughed. He was great though.

The drive turned out to be long, dusty and anticlimactic for the most part. We saw countless African antelope, which are similar to antelope in the States but prettier, with brown bodies and cooler shaped antlers. We saw batches of both males and females. We also saw lots of warthogs again, and water buffalo. The buffalo look just like cows, but with (_) shaped horns. They stood there with that dumb look on their face, chewing their cud and snapped flies with their tales just like cows do back home. There was a pretty good amount of them, and one of them actually started to chase the bus a bit, and I taunted him as much as I could, but they only run up about 5 feet and then just give up.

It did feel like National Geographic – we were entrapped by nature, with trees, grass, mountains and the lake the only things you could see. I enjoyed the wide open spaces and the view, but got bored of it after the scenery started to remind me just a bit of northern Arizona (or diet New Mexico as I like to call it). We really wanted to see a lot of exotic animals, and pronto. But Whitney and I decided by now the animals knew the road brought big clouds of dust and silly people with loud machines, so we figured they wouldn’t just be laying in the middle of the road waiting for an audience.

Then we got our one special treat. The car in front of us had pulled over and their guide was pointing to a small patch of brush to the left. We looked and looked and finally saw a white paw flailing about. I thought the animal was hurt, but the guide told us the scoop. “It is a lion – they are very proud animals, who like the lay in the grass alone and pretend not to be bothered by anyone else.” I smiled, because I am a Leo (lion), and that’s definitely us. We waited and waited and he just kept lying on his back, flickering his tail in the air a few times, probably mocking us. We drove up the road just a bit to the other side of the brush, and finally he got up to see what all the commotion was. He was beautiful. We got some ok pictures and a really good mini video of him getting up, laying back down, rolling over a few times, getting back up again, and walking back into the brush. Not the most exciting thing in the world, but come on, we had waited almost 2 hours and it was a lion in the wilderness for the love of God.

On the way back we also saw the national bird of Uganda, which was pretty cool. You see the bird on a lot of signs, money and the like. The bird was walking around on the left side of the road making a mating call, and we looked to the right and there was his partner, walking the opposite direction. We wanted them to oneify but we were in the way. So we trekked on.

We got back to main area and checked in. Although we are going to eat three meals a day at the lodge, we aren’t classy enough to pay the $100 per-room per-night cost. There were 12 of us, and no need to splurge. So we stayed at the hostel about 100 feet from the lodge at $10 per-person, per-night. It wasn’t the typical “hostel” lodging like you find in Europe, but it wasn’t a hotel either. It was kind of a like a quaint little cottage cabin I guess you could say, although it was definitely backwoods and full of insects. It had mosquito nets, a shower, running water and electricity – pretty much all we needed. A young staff member led us to our rooms. “So you saw lions and a few animals today, right?” “Yes.” “Well tonight you might see them hear as well – sometimes they come eat in the bushes right here. Just shine the light on them and they won’t bother you.” “Right,” we thought. There are really going to be lions, hippos, warthogs, and other creatures surrounding a bunch of large houses full of light. We seriously thought he was pulling our leg. When I came back from the bus I heard the girls scream. Sure enough they had spotted two hippos not 20 feet from us and our little cottage. They were just standing there, and I didn’t think anything of it. The girls were really scared though. I just laughed. It was Africa.

We washed up and headed to dinner about 9pm. Our table wasn’t ready so naturally we started with a drink like white folks. Naturally, there were a lot of foreigners, and we overhead conversations in countless languages and met a few fellow visitors. We surrounded the open-air bar, ate peanuts out of African-style bowls and drank like we were kings and queens. There’s a classy picture of us. It was quite nice I’d have to say. We had seen the menu earlier and were pretty excited about getting to order things like lasagna, curry and hamburgers, but it was unexpectedly self-service, or buffet-style. It was definitely more than what we had planned for in the budget, but our adviser was good to us – we were hungry and “when in Rome” she said. Man was it delish. All kinds of salad, bread, appetizers and other delicacies, as well as five main courses to choose from and an awesome little dessert bar. I was so pumped to have Indian chicken curry – I had been craving it for so long, and I can’t believe I had to go all the way to Africa to eat it. There was even chocolate and raspberry sauce, and literally icing on the cake. Loves it.

After dinner we decided that we wanted to hang out at the bar until closing, especially since a fire was going right near the bar and right near the cliff. We all got our drink of choice and cleared out the rest of the visitors and took over the fire, even after the lodge had been completely shut down. We had a nice little bonding time with everyone. We weren’t so cranky with everyone anymore – I mean they are really a great, diverse group of people, but spending that much time with anyone and their personalities and mannerisms will drive anyone crazy.

We gave up at midnight, and I landed back in the cottage, always the last to go to sleep. Luckily for me there was an open space/living-type room, empty except for one table, two chairs, a dim light bulb and an electrical outlet. All I needed. I did have a quick scare when I heard a commotion in the bushes right outside. I thought for sure the hippos had come for me and my electronics. But it was a false alarm. Nothing but insects, lizards and animals howling in the distance. It was definitely their land, and I was happy we were welcome for a little while. I looked at my pictures, wrote a little, and just smiled knowing I am in Africa completely surrounded by nature and random wildlife in one of the most beautiful spots in the world.