Oct. 18 - The trip home starts

Our last morning in Africa.  Got up early again for a morning bird walk in a botanical garden just down the road from the hostel we stayed at.  Got a few more species to add to our bird list including the pygmy kingfisher and white-throated bee eater, more of God’s creative handiwork.  Now we are off for 2 days of flying to get back to the US.  We once again have a 24 hour layover in Houston, TX, where we get to visit our good friends the Przybyszewskis again.

Oct. 17 - Hipomower

We were “lulled” to sleep last night by the sounds of the Red Chilli Rest Camp ‘lawnmower’, one of the hippopotamus’ that relished the nice grass around our banda.  Amazing how much noise that 2 foot wide mouth makes!

Woke up early again to fairly clear skies and set off for the top of Murchison Falls.  The falls cascade over a 40 foot drop with a huge volume of water.  Quite spectacular especially with a full rainbow in the spray!  Next stop was the ZIWA rhino sanctuary, a 70 square kilometer area set up to breed the white rhino for reintroduction to the wild.  Uganda had a large white and black rhino population that was decimated by poachers during the reign of Idi Amin.  The horns are valued in oriental countries for supposed health and aphrodisiac properties.  By 1986 only 5 white rhino were left in Uganda and those too were poached.  We met a lady on the plane to Nairobi who told us her husband liked to hand out bumper stickers that read “save a rhino, take Viagra”.  The sanctuary started with 4 white rhino from Kenya and was given 2 more by the US.  Since 1993 those 6 rhino have produced 6 offspring.  We were lucky enough to get to see one of the females with her 8 month old, 300 pound calf.  The white rhino are very docile and not a threat to humans.  They are hoping eventually to breed and reintroduce the black rhino but that will have to be done on the game reserves as black rhino are very aggressive and would kill people if they escaped near human habitation.  Next was the not quite as long drive back to Kampala, about 4 hours.

Oct. 16 - Sprecken Zi (sp) LORD!

Woke up to clear skies!  Had a 5 hour game and bird drive.  Saw about 15 new species of birds plus giraffes, hartebeast, jackals and a small antelope called an oribi.  Also saw all the ‘usual’ animals: elephants, Ugandan Kob, waterbuck, warthogs, etc.  Took a boat trip on the Nile in the afternoon to the base of Murchison Falls – pretty spectacular.  Over dinner we met several German youth who were here on a 1 to 3 month mission trip working with children and orphans.  Great to meet young people from other countries serving the Lord.

Oct. 15 - Surprise by Hippo

A long drive today from Queen Elizabeth National Park to Murchison Falls National Park.  A long, long drive – 10 hours to be exact.  Got in after dark at 7:30pm and it was pouring with rain!  Took late showers.  The rain had actually stopped as we were walking from the shower to our “banda” (cabin).  We rounded a tent to come and Andy came within two feet face to face with a startled hippo.  Not sure who was more startled but he sure made us jump when he snorted a hippo sized snort.  We provided a lot of entertainment for the people around us when we jumped and yelled in surprise.

Oct. 14 - Lions and Wart Hogs and Kob Oh My!

Got up at 5:30 for an early morning game drive.  Saw a lot more of God’s amazing animal creation: lions, elephants, hippopotamus, crocodiles, monitor lizards, and lots more waterbuck, water buffalo, warthogs, African kob, baboons, monkeys.  We took a boat ride on the Kazinga canal which joins Lake George to Lake Edward.  Saw an amazing array and number of birds along the shore intermixed with hippos, elephants and water buffalo.  The cloud formations are spectacular here.  It is still the end of the rainy season so there are clouds every day.  They seem to stand out crisper and more distinct from each other than we have ever seen before.  It must have to do with the equatorial sun and atmosphere.  Andy has lots of cloud pictures as well as birds mammals and scenery.  Still don’t have enough bandwidth to upload photos so you may have to wait till we get home.

Oct. 13 - Loooonnnnggg Ride!

Forgot to mention that the last night we spent in Karamoja we saw the most amazing shooting star.  It was the brightest one we’ve ever seen, you could actually see the meteor, and it went across at least half the sky.  Another demonstration of God’s power and sense of beauty.

This was the first day of our “mini-safari”.  Most of the day was spent driving from Kampala to Queen Elizabeth Park.  The principal lakes in Queen Elizabeth are Albert and George.  Farther north is Lake Albert.  Gee – wonder where they got the names?  Saw some cool stuff along way: African Kob, an antelope and the national mammal of Uganda; Grey Crowned Crane, the national bird of Uganda; Water Buck; Water Buffalo; Warthog; Baboons and a variety of birds.  Had the nicest shower we’ve had since leaving Val’s house in Soroti – a hot solar shower at Simba Safari Camp.  After dinner we are ready to retire to our tent for the night.

Oct. 12 - Back in Kampala

Today is the last day of our mission portion of the trip.  We fly to Kampala later today in preparation for our 5 day Safari starting tomorrow.  More dogs and cats arrived for treatments this morning so we spent part of the morning treating and vaccinating.  We saw the little dog that had the eye removed today – it is doing much better.

We are finally able to send the last week of Blog postings today as we are back in Kampala,  There was no internet available in Karamoja.  Most of the prayer request are outdated I am afraid but everything has worked out well.  Do please continue to pray for Val’s vehicle.  She was able to get some of the parts she wanted in Kenya and a mechanic should be arriving today to install them and hopefully get it running.  It has been very inconvenient and expensive hiring a driver.