Arrest (Part 4: Thursday)

What's that?! on the horizon?! It's the zoolander...yes, it's still in one piece.
Crazy close!
Those eyes!
Safari sky
girls on the boat
carrie birding
the bee eater ( if you can see them)
croc - who knew they sit with their mouths open for ventilation purposes...not me...but makes for great picture taking :)
beware! The sign in the place where you get off the boat and hike to the falls (we didn't have anyone to drive our car there for us so we did the short-ish hike the next morning)
the falls in the background - the Nile spattered with foam created by the power of the water at the bottom of the falls that spends the rest of the day floating downstream.


Thursday 31 Dec. 2009 – 5:50am – alarm rings and we crawl out of bed. The first thing I hear out of Carrie’s mouth as Anna is crawling out of her mosquito net is (in groggy morning voice) “Anna! Watch out, there were hippos outside on the porch!” I wasn’t quite sure if she was talking in her sleep or if she was actually away, but it turns out she spent most of the night awake due to the crunching of hippos that were right outside the window and apparently on the porch outside our relatively flimsy door! She had just learned the day before that the hippo kills more people than any other animal in Africa...! In any case, we were all in one piece and made it in time to be the 2nd vehicle in line for the ferry, and as the sun came up we ventured across the river and found our guide, beginning our drive with a few more resources at our disposal than the evening before, namely the 3 hours of experience the night before, and more importantly the input of someone who actually knows what they’re doing, imagine that!! It was a spectacular drive, the light of the beginning of the day, the clouds, the blue sky. The highlight? 2 Lioness’ basking in the morning sun, and because we had a guide we could drive right up to them! Such magnificent creatures! Again, arresting beauty! A relaxing lunch, followed by the 2pm boat launch up the Nile to Murchison Falls. It was a great way to spend the afternoon, gazing at the wonders of creation with absolutely NO EFFORT REQUIRED! We had a ranger guide for the ride who has been a ranger for longer than I’ve been alive I’m pretty sure. He spent most of the trip snoozing, Carrie almost reaching for him a few times as he leaned out of the boat, dangerously close to the crocodile infested waters. His name was George and he would occasionally announce particularly exciting wildlife sightings by yelling loudly in an arresting fashion “CROC ON A ROCK!” or other such humorous things. Highlights: crocs for sure, TONS of them, and in one place a monitor lizard waiting strategically to pounce on a croc egg when the time was right (unfortunately my photographic skills are far too slow and I failed to capture it on film), and Carrie’s amazement at the birds of Uganda despite her self proclaimed dislike of birds…the bee eater was particularly brilliant…not too rare I don’t think, but brilliant nonetheless. We didn’t catch a glimpse of the spoonbill which is supposedly Murchison’s pride and joy, but it was a beautiful day and what an afternoon for a boatride! The sun was hot, but the water and breeze as we moved along was cool. So nice. Another relaxing dinner followed by drinks until it was possibly late enough that we could go to bed ☺ Anna managed to turn a pick up move by an Aussie into a conversation about faith and religion – I admire her skills ☺ 2009 closed as we went to bed at 10:30pm, and hoped for a good night of sleep before another early morning and long day of driving.