Sooo, it's been a while since either of us published anything, but now I have some exciting photos to put up! I went to Murchison Falls National Park at the end of April and it was SPECTACULAR! I saw giraffes!!! This may be my favorite large animal. I think they remind me of the magic in life. Seeing them makes me feel as though life is fantastic without needing special effects in movies. Surreal! Speaking of them, here's a couple of photos of these magnificent long-necked beauties:
Unfortunately, this was a trip I took without Julie because she's making up for lost time having been sick for nearly a month. She's all better now though! Our safari group was into the giraffes, which made me happy that I wouldn't be the only one obsessing over them. This place was incredibly beautiful. It's located in northern Uganda but not so far as to be near Sudan (though it did have Congolese guerrillas living in it in the '90s). It's between the Victoria and Albert Niles, on Lake Albert. The southside of the western flowing Victoria Nile is mostly semi-scrub forest, but the north side is primarily savanna ecosystem with lots of Acacia ssp. and palm trees. Definitely cool! Here's a picture of me near the delta region of the Victoria Nile flowing into Lake Albert. The Albert Nile flows north (right in the picture) out of the lake.
I got to see a couple of ungulates that I'd never seen before. There were lots of Uganda Kob (much like the Impala from Lake Mburo), many Oribi (little ungulates) that I never got a good picture of, and Jackson's Hartebeest, which seemed to be out of a movie (or at least that's what others said). Here are the Kob and Hartebeest:
Jackson's Hartebeest:
And then, what seemed to get even the driver and ranger excited, lions! We spotted two females lounging in the shade because two groups of Kob were staring at each other across the open plain. What were they staring at? Certainly not each other! Our guides deduced that lions must be nearby, and viola!
We also saw some savanna monkeys, called Patas Monkeys:
After lunch, we took a boat ride up the Nile to the base of Murchison Falls. Along the way we saw elephants, hippos, crocodiles, and many many birds. Here are some pictures from the boat.
Elephants with a Goliath Heron taking off:
Hippos out of water (these guys ran for the water everytime the boat approached):
Now some fun bird pictures. It was a bit difficult being the birder and photographer, as I wanted to see the bird with my binoculars first, then photograph it. This is harder than you'd think in a moving boat with live animals.
African Jacana:
Yellow-billed Stork:
Abdim's Stork:
Sacred Ibis:
Rock Pratincole:
My friend and fellow Kasiisi Project volunteer, Chris Mayo-Smith:
And finally, Murchison Falls in the background:
Dean
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