Take Nothing But Pictures, Leave Nothing But Footprints

The title of this post is a phrase written on the signs from the Ugandan Wildlife Authority (UWA) at Lake Mburo. This weekend, several of the other KIHEFO interns and I went on a 3 day safari to Lake Mburo and Queen Elizabeth Park. We left Kabale at 6AM on Friday morning, and got back at 4PM this afternoon. Queen Elizabeth Park is about 7 hours from Kabale, and Lake Mburo is on the way. After having breakfast in Mbarara, we did a three hour safari through Lake Mburo National Park We then continued to Queen Elizabeth National Park, where we did a morning game drive on Saturday. then visited the Queen’s Mile, where Queen Elizabeth II had breakfast when she toured what was then Kazinga National Park when she visited Uganda before being crowned queen in 1954.  The park was later renamed in her honor. While we didn’t see any lions or other cats, we saw lots of animals: baboons, vervet monkeys, zebras, impalas, Ugandan kob, hartebeasts, elephants, bushbuck, waterbuck, and several others. In the afternoon we took a boat ride down the Kazinga Channel, which connects Lake George to Lake Edward, which drains into Lake Albert, which ultimately joins with water draining from Lake Victoria to form the Nile River. On the boat ride we saw lots of hippos, buffalo, crocadiles, Monitor lizards, and birds. Another cool thing about this weekend was that Queen Elizabeth Park happens to lie in the part of Uganda that is right on the equator. Because of this, there is a place in the park where you can stand in the north and south hemispheres at the same time. This landmark happened to be right near the lodge we were staying at (the appropriately named Simba Safari Camp—Simba means lion in Swahili) so we crossed the equator several times, and of course stopped on Saturday to take pictures on the equator. For those of you who were wondering, the Coriolis effect is real—water spins in different directions in the Northern and Souhern hemispheres! Below are some pictures of our adventures.

Lauren and me on safari

Zebras at Lake Mburo National Park!

Warthog at Lake Mburo National Park

Safari selfie.

Elephants at Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The Queen's Pavilion

Hippos on the Kazinga Channel

Buffalo and birds on the Kazinga Channel

Me at the equator! (photo credit to Marni Jacobson)

The whole gang divided by hemispheres. (photo credit to Marni Jacobson)

PS, if you are reading this, feel free to leave a comment, send me a facebook message, or an email, keeping in touch with those of you who have been sending me messages has meant a lot while I've been here!