African Safari 2019-Chimps, Gorillas, and the Migration Day 7

Day 7: Queen Elizabeth Park North and Game Boat Ride (photos to follow)

We met Ismail (this is the correct spelling of his name) early this morning at 6 am for coffee with a 4-hour game drive in the northern sector of the park to follow.  We began the game drive with the requisite “African Massage” thanks to the washboard dirt roads.  When we entered the park, I

smail got a tip from one of the rangers about a lion spotting, so off we went in search of big game.  There was a mating pair (this is, after all, the mating season) of lions about 100 yds off the road. 

The male eventually sauntered off leaving the lioness on her own. Suddenly we saw a Uganda Kob walking directly toward the lioness who was now hunkered down in the grass eyeing a potential meal. 

It was quite exciting watching this all play out.  We were all hoping to see a kill, but also rooting for the Kob.  The Kob continue to approach, oblivious to the danger in the grass, until

the lioness charged with the Kob doing an about face and a mad dash anywhere away from its attacker. The lioness must have misjudged the distance and speed of the Kob, because she quickly realized it was too fast for her and she gave up the chase.  It was nice to see the chase without the blood.

We continued our drive in search of leopards, unsuccessfully.  We saw loads of Kobs, Cape Buffalo, Elephants, Warthogs, Waterbucks, and loads of birds. Hopefully we will see leopards in Masai Mara in Kenya later this week. We made it back to the lodge by 10:30, in time for a late breakfast.

Just as Molly and Dave were coming out of their tent to meet us to leave for our afternoon boat ride on the lake, Dave spotted a 6 foot long bright green snake ( we think it was a boom snake) on his deck.  Fortunately, Molly had not yet come out, since this probably would have given her a heart attack.  It was pretty quick and slithered off into the grass.

Walking over to the main lodge, Dave spotted another reptile, a beautiful bright blue and bright green Agamata Lizard.  

Before we left for the boat, Molly and Jeri posed with the lodge’s resident elephant.

The boat ride this afternoon was amazing.  The shores of Lake George were teeming with wildlife, and since we were on a good-sized boat, we were able to approach fairly close.  On hot days like today, Elephants, Hippos, and Cape Buffalos come down to the lake to drink and cool off.  The perennial residents, a slew of birds, baboons, and crocodiles rounded out the game viewing this afternoon.

Mwyemi Lodge

Lake George has the highest concentration of hippos in Africa and today did not disappoint.  We saw somewhere between 50 and 100 hippos lining the shores in many separate “schools”.  We spotted a couple out of the water but not a single yawn.  Just as we were heading back, two hippos started  fighting giving us some interesting photos.

Just as we returned to dock, the sky started getting dark and it began to thunder.  Made it back to the room just before the rain started. This afternoon, I have about 1200 photos to weed through so as not to bore you, my audience.

Tomorrow, we head to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home to the mountain gorillas.