Lake Mburo & Mbarara (Early July)

So I have a lot to report since I've been inactive in the Internet world as of late....

This little trip took place in early July shortly after my trip up North:

Two of the girls, Jen and Kayla, and I decided that we needed a weekend away, so we thought we would go on a mini-vacation over to Mbarara and stop by Lake Mburo National Park on the way over. Mbarara is about 90km West from where we’re currently staying and Lake Mburo is just a minor detour along the way.

So we hopped a mini-bus to Sanga and ended up hiring a personal driver to take us through the park for the day. It’s not a very big park, but a park nonetheless. As soon as we passed through the gates we had to stop because a zebra was in the middle of the road. We were literally 20 feet from it and it just stood there staring at us and we, back at it, all the while snapping photos of course! These creatures are quite stunning and I would almost compare the sighting to that of a unicorn. You know you see them in pictures, but it just isn’t the same. Along the drive to the main registration sight we saw many more.

When we got to the camp it was decided that we would take the boat tour and then hire a park ranger (geared up with an AK47) to accompany us on a drive through the bush. Both events were pretty sweet as we saw a lot of wildlife including: hippos, crocodiles, impala, zebra, water buffalo, topee (sp? – a sort of deer/elk like animal), vervet monkeys, African river eagles, warthogs, and several other species of birds.

After the day of safari we headed to Mbarara to relax. We met a gang of LDS folks from Montana who had suggested that we stay at the Lake View hotel (running water and all!). So off we went, and boy was this a welcomed respite from the bush! It was definitely the nicest hotel I have seen here yet, and not to badly priced either. So we pampered ourselves, and by this I mean ate pizza and took steaming hot showers and called it a night!

The next day we woke up for breakfast (yeah! A real breakfast) and then proceeded to explore the city/town for a few hours and then back to the bush. Overall a pretty darn good 2 days!