And from the 565 pictures (3.67 GB) that we took today, I narrowed them down to the following 57 or so:
I got up earlyish and made my way outside to see if I could see the hippos coming back into the water. They had been out eating all night long and were ready to return to the Nile to swim, rest and grunt.
It was really cool to see the hippos out of the water.
Below is a crash of hippos (or bloat..., or herd..., or pod..., or dale).
The view from the fitness center.
This hippo did not want to return to the water that he was nearest, but I was between him and the water that he wanted to get to.
I stood my ground and he was giving me the evil eye and getting a little perturbed.
One of the security guys from the resort had been watching and came and chased the hippo down to the water.
As you can see he still doesn't want to get in. His lucky spot must have been in a different area of the river. I soon let him be. I'm not sure where he ended up.
After hippo chasing it was time for breakfast. As I mentioned, we had the resort all to ourselves. We didn't even see another guest on this day.
Breakfast was decent. Any time they give you a pile of hippo bacon it's going to be a good day.
(Actually it was regular bacon. But I still wonder what could have been).
There were lots of interesting lizards hanging out around the resort.
Because nobody would let me swim in the Nile, we decided to make time for a dip in the pool.
More lizards on the way down to the pool.
A big horse pulling his zebra bride.
Photoshoot with the horse and zebra heads. The workers around the pool were enjoying this spectacle.
The poor horse looks a little stunned.
True love. Next step, making a zorse. Or horbra. Or zorbra.
I couldn't get enough of the view of the pool and the Nile River. I had to pinch myself a couple of times.
Alison chillaxing on the banks of the Nile. In Africa.
Our plan was to shower, then make the drive to the other side of the park, but as is often the case in Africa, the water was turned off and nobody knew when it would really be turned back on. We skipped the shower. loaded up into the truck and were off.
Nearly as soon as we entered the gates at the west end of the park we were spotting animals. We were excited to see this elephant because you never really know if you're going to see any other animals or not. That's about the only reason to take a picture of an elephant's butt.
Another elephant.
Another view of the elephant, as well as the cool African Acacia Tree.
Jackson hardebeests.
Ugandan kob? Or just another antelope type species?
More antelope guys.
Birds getting a ride on an elephant.
This elephant was hiding behind the palm tree. I didn't tell him it wasn't doing a whole lot of good.
Storm was a brewing. It rained quite hard for 10-15 minutes then it was past. I love the palm trees, African Savannah and dark clouds.
Why did the elephant cross the road?
Or this little guy for that matter?
Probably to get to the bog on the other side.
Baby elephant.
A few other smaller elephants huddled with their mama.
Warthog, antelope, giraffes. I love the pictures with multiple animals in one shot. How awesome is that?
I think this antelope-like-creature is a waterbuck.
A sounder of warthogs.
This one was kneeled to pray over his food prior to eating.
We arrived at the resort, the Paraa Safari Lodge and were pleasantly surprised that there were quite a few people at this one. Just outside our room were a few warthogs.
Once again our rooms included food, so we checked in, ate some lunch, had a quick nap and then we hired a guide, George, to take us out on safari. George brought his semiautomatic rifle and sat in the back seat of the truck between me and Alison. He was a funny guy.
Giraffe. We saw lots and lots of giraffes.
Profile pic.
Mama and her 6-7' tall baby.
Majestic giraffe.
Our biggest goal for the safari was to find some lions (check), although we really wanted to spot a male. However, it was pretty cool to come across this mama and her two cubs. We pulled up about 15 yards away from her in the truck and just sat and watched her for a bit.
When we first pulled up she looked over at us, but was bored with us pretty quickly.
I think this picture is crazy. Lion with her cubs in the foreground and two giraffes and an antelope in the background. The other animals were on high alert because of the lion nearby, but they weren't scattered or anything. Queen of the jungle? Ha! Say the other animals.
The sleepy mama.
We continued on our search for a male lion or even a leopard. We know that we were close to a leopard at one time, there were people in another vehicle who had spotted one in the area, but we were never able to put eyes on it. Those sneaky cats. Above are giraffes walking along the horizon.
Hippos getting out of the water to head out for their night feeding.
African cape buffalo.
The buffalo with a couple of hippos at the edge of the Nile River. Across the river and just to the left is the Congo.
On our way back to the lodge we stopped to say hi to the mama lion and her cubs. Apparently it was dinnertime.
We disturbed one of the cubs.
Last animal of the night was a jackal coming out to hunt in the night.
We returned to the resort, ate dinner, tried to connect to the terrible wifi in the sitting area before turning into bed. We had a safari schedule for bright and early the next morning. To find the king of the jungle sacrifices must be made!
