Inside the Zoo

We thought we’d let you in on a little adventure we partook in recently. We had a Friday off from work, so decidedly left early Friday morning for Murchison Falls in the more northern part of Uganda. Neither of us had ever been on a safari before and didn’t know exactly what to expect. Truthfully, I was a little worried my expectations were far beyond what the actual experience would be. As we pulled into the campsite where we would be spending the next 2 nights in tents, 2 fat and hairy warthogs amiably wandered past grazing. The guy showing us to our tent walked over to one of them saying, “You’re bad aren’t you!” and slapped it right on the rump. I was surprised, foolishly thinking beforehand that warthogs were somewhat dangerous, but this one leapt in the air even more startled than I with an annoyed grunt.

Driving through the game park the next morning, our vehicle came to a halt next to several other SUV’s on the road. We could see a herd of antelope standing off in the distance, pawing the ground and looking anxiously toward a patch of trees. The guides told us that by the response of the herd, this probably meant there was some sort of predator nearby. We kept waiting, and eventually all of the other vehicles drove off and out of sight. Almost immediately and without a word, our driver yanked the wheel 90 degrees to the right and our vehicle was bumpily speeding across the savanna on no known trail toward the clump of trees with the supposed predator. The adrenaline was pumping pretty good at this point and we had our cameras ready. As we approached the trees, we slung around the far side in u-turn fashion coming to a complete halt. One standing and one stretched out on the grass were 2 male lions. They were both gazing in the direction of the herd and did not seem to be intimidated by us in the least. We were about 10 or 12 feet from where they were and held our gaze with a mild curiosity. We had about 7 or 8 seconds to stare them down from the safety of our vehicle before our driver punched the gas, completing his u-turn, and had us pointed back in the direction of the road we had left. We could hardly believe that we had just gotten to see such powerful creatures up so close. We had a great weekend seeing some of the beauty of Uganda and are grateful for the special experiences that have been granted to us.

-Jamie