Ein Elefant, der zur Kirche geht... (Tag 7)

In the morning, we had to get up early again as there was another game drive planned in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Our drive was accompanied by a spectacular and, since we are at the equator, extremely short sunrise over the mountains.

Already in a village on the way, we saw an elephant up close, who seemed to be heading straight to the church. During the game drive, we saw lions once again and many 'losers' buffalos, who had lost the fight against other males and were expelled from their herds. Unfortunately, we could not complete the 'Big Five' today as we had no luck finding leopards. Nevertheless, we had very nice animal observations again.

After lunch at our lodge, our destination was the Kazinga Channel. The natural channel connects Lake George with Lake Edward. Here we saw countless animals resting on the moist banks to cool down. Besides numerous bird species, we observed hippos and water buffalos lying peacefully next to each other. We also could observe the large forest pigs. It was also a lot of fun to watch the elephants bathing, even though there were not nearly as many as our guide had predicted.

On the way back to the lodge, this promise was finally fulfilled! Several times we saw smaller herds of elephants very close to the road, making their way from the water back into the bush. The absolute highlight was certainly the family where we discovered 2 small baby elephants. The youngest was said to be about 2 weeks old. And our minutes of waiting were finally rewarded when the herd started moving and we had a fantastic view of the little gray giants.

Exhausted from the many impressions of the day, we finally arrived at the lodge and were all looking forward to a refreshing swim in the pool. But Iwan informed us that we would meet again in half an hour, as he had a surprise for us.

What could that be? We couldn't get any hints from Iwan. An event in the village? Or maybe a picnic at sunset (which was likely, as there was a large cooler on the passenger seat)? In any case, we continued to go higher. And indeed, on a hilltop, a beautiful view opened up - on one side, two crater lakes, and on the other side, the endless expanse of the savannah, where the sun would soon set. While enjoying the views and cool drinks, we listened to the story of the lakes. One female, one male, always united, it is said to promise a long marriage if you get engaged here. In addition, you can pray here for twins, which is why there are supposedly many twin births in the surrounding area.

During dinner, we reviewed the experiences we had before preparing for our departure the next morning.