Back from our Safari

First, we want to thank everyone for their comments and keeping tabs on us. This experience is having a huge impact on our lives and it means a lot to us that you are interested in sharing it with us.

Second, we want to apologize for the time that has past since our last posting. We tried to send something from the hotel on the Nile… but no luck. Hopefully this will make up for the absence.

Sunday morning we left Masindi at 6:00am to begin our two day excursion to Murchison Falls National Park. At our first stop we went chimp tracking. I (Christina) am not so good at keeping things short, but I will try to highlight a few of our experiences.

Our guide was a soft spoken woman who led us on a very quiet walk into the jungle. For some time I wondered if we would see anything. Then, we paused on our path and sure enough we saw one chimp, then another, then we called the rest of the groups. The guides led us off the paths till we were right under the chimps. Soon there were about 20 chimpanzees in our area- how cool! We saw mammas with babies and young chimps playing. On our way back to the cabin, a large male chimp came right down the tree in front of us and continued on his way to find a female. We were truly blessed that they allowed us to share that time with them.

After the chimp tracking Nick and I broke our fasting of meat and had some chicken and “chips” for lunch – it was delicious! Then we got back in the vehicles to make the 2:00pm boat ride down the Nile River… yes, the Nile River. I often have to pause on this trip and remind myself 1.) We are in Africa! 2.) We are on the Nile River and 3.) All of the animals we are seeing are in their natural habitat. .. most of the time this feels like a dream.

On our boat ride, to Murchison Falls, we saw: hippos, crocodiles, elephants, a python stuck in a hole in the side of a huge rock formation and many different types of birds. As we got closer to the falls, our guide told us many stories about fishing for perch on the Nile. The largest he has seen was over 140 kg!

The falls were really neat and the stories that went along with them are really cool. I think we will be telling stories for months after we return. We have lots of videos and pictures (including one where we got out of the boat and sat on a rock in the middle of the river) but due to the internet capabilities… we may have to wait on sharing some of those.

After our viewing from the boat we were invited to exit the boat and hike to the top of the falls. Again, we captured many photos and videos along the way. It was breath-taking! After our hike it was getting dark and day one of adventure was coming to an end.

Monday morning we also woke before sunrise. Yemen, our driver wanted to be the first on the ferry across the water and by 7:15 the sun was rising and we were beginning our safari.

Our vehicle allowed us to sit on top of the roof and stand inside of the car to see the animals. We made it within 10 yards of: giraffes, kob, antelopes, oribi, wildebeests, lioness’, many different birds, a leopard and more!! Our guide even let us get out of the vehicle and walk for about an hour. The day trip was about 5 hours and the optional night trip (which only 4 of us took advantage of) was about four hours. On the evening trip we stood in the road while giraffes crossed about 30 feet in front of us, we saw a rainbow and we chased a lioness until she reached the bush for her evening rest! It was exhilarating!

Well… it looks like I didn’t do a very good job of keeping in short, but I hope that you have stayed with me and enjoyed the update. Today Nick and I are trying to post another video to YouTube. We have been here for about an hour and I have a feeling there will be many more hours to come.

Thank you again to those of you who have been checking in on us. We appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.