African Massage

I was able to catch up on the missed sleep of the last few nights in Fort Portal and slept until about 8 o'clock in the morning.

After breakfast, Emma and I headed to my next destination, Queen Elizabeth National Park. Emma will also be my driver for the next few days and will take me to Bwindi National Park as well.

The nearly 2-hour drive from Fort Portal to Queen Elizabeth National Park led through the hilly and pothole-ridden roads of southern Uganda. Emma jokingly called it the 'African Massage'. Due to the swirling dust from the dry roads, visibility was sometimes limited to less than a meter. The headlights of huge trucks would appear out of nowhere, sometimes driving on the wrong side of the road to avoid the many potholes. The once green plants on both sides of the road were completely covered in red dust. Breathing was very difficult due to the dusty and oppressive air, it's hard to imagine what it would be like in extreme heat.

On the approach road to my camp for the next 2 nights, we spotted an elephant crossing the road about 100 meters away from us.
Wow, what a feeling to see the first elephant in the wild.
Emma stops the van and we climb onto the roof, from where we spot at least 8 more elephants. Their large gray backs emerge from the jungle. I hold my breath for a moment, an overwhelming feeling. All of this is happening less than 300 meters from my camp, where I am also advised not to walk through the camp alone in the dark. Lions, elephants, crocodiles, and other animals occasionally cross the same path.

After settling into my tent with a view of the Kazinga Channel, having lunch, and changing clothes, we start the first game drive.
'You can sit on the top if you want,' Emma suggests to me as we drive along the bumpy sand roads in the national park. I happily accept the suggestion and sit on the roof rack, letting my legs dangle inside the vehicle. It feels a bit like bull-riding, as I hold on to the bars of the rack with both hands. I'm still surprised that I didn't fall off.

Christian, our guide, is now sitting next to Emma and tells me some things about the park through his dark, scratched sunglasses.

We drive past hippos, buffaloes, antelopes, and warthogs into the African sunset.

Back at camp, dinner is served. By now, many other tourists have arrived at the camp and are sitting at tables circled around the campfire. However, each guest, group, or other entity is led to a separate table, so there is no opportunity to interact with other travelers. Overall, the audience looks more like package tourism, complete with Africa-starter pack clothing. Since I don't quite feel like I belong here, I quickly retreat to my tent. The alarm clock is set for 5:30 am anyway.
With the sounds of frogs, crickets, and a not-so-distant hippo, I eventually fall asleep relatively early.

In addition to my alarm clock, the call to prayer of the muezzin also sounds, bringing life to the camp at this early hour.
So, with Emma and Christian, we set off on the morning game drive through Queen Elizabeth National Park, and it is said to be well worth it afterwards.
We drive for about half an hour when Emma turns around and says, 'Ready to see some lions? Look at the animals.' And indeed, the buffaloes and antelopes seem to be observing something. Everyone looks in the same direction with anticipation. We continue driving slowly and discover about 5 lionesses and at least as many young lions on a small hill. 2 more lions cross the road in front of us, just a few meters away. Wow, I never thought I would be so close to the animals. We are the first and only ones who have discovered the lions, so we can calmly observe the behavior of the animals. The two lions that crossed the road in front of us lie in wait in the tall grass and are hardly visible anymore.

All of this happens under the watchful eyes of individual antelopes, which follow every step and repeatedly warn their herd with loud calls.
Emma tells me that warthogs are the easiest prey for lions. 'They run away and after a few meters they stop, because they have forgotten why to run away.' In that moment, I think of Pumbaa from The Lion King and burst into laughter.
Actually, only a short time later, two warthogs approach the hiding lions. Suddenly, the big cats pounce and start hunting the two Pumbaa. But the Pumbaa are faster, escape, stop, turn towards the lions, and flee again. This repeats until the scene disappears from our field of view.

So we continue driving and have another stroke of luck after a few minutes. A huge elephant emerges from behind a bush and crosses the road about 10 meters in front of us. What a magnificent animal. It strolls leisurely across the road and disappears into the bushes again.

We continue driving through the park and finally return to the spot where we spotted the lions in the morning. By now, about 10 vehicles have arrived here, lucky to have been the first to be at the site this morning.

Tomorrow we will head towards Bwindi National Park, where I hope to encounter the gorillas on Sunday.