Thursday, August 16, 2012
The day started off great with a nice little lie in and a later breakfast at 6:30am. We stopped for lunch at a school/church and then crossed the equator! We headed to Queen Elizabeth National Park and went on the first game drive this tour. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of animals to be seen. We did manage three of the Big Five though, Buffalo, Rhino and Lion. The lion we saw at the very end was enjoying the last of a nice juicy kill. We couldn’t tell what he was eating but it was nice and bloody and looked pretty fresh. He was growling with delight as he finished up. In the afternoon we had a sunset cruise on the river and saw lots more.
We saw Lake George and Lake Edward and took pictures at the Crater Lake. This area is all part of the Great Rift Valley, which is cool. The scenery and landscape is great!
There may not have been many animals to see, but there were certainly a lot of bugs. We were introduced to the tsetse fly in the truck, which freaked everyone out. They are big and hurt when they bite. As if that isn’t bad enough, they transmit the parasite that causes sleeping sickness. I joked that it might be the answer to my sleep issues! Wilson told us they love the colour black and followed up by saying, “No worries, I’ll be the bait!” Too funny!
Jackson had a delish dinner ready for us of Butter Chicken with rice. (Yesterday it was grilled steak with mashed potatoes). It was so tasty. We were late getting back so it was nice that it was all ready for us to eat. I had a good talk with Jackson after dinner and he told me about his family. He has four kids, 17, 16, 7 and 6. I imagine it must be hard on them as he is on the road the whole time with us. He mentioned that sometimes it’s months between contracts though so he is happy when he is working. When he is home, he splits his time between his farm in a village 100km away and the town near Nairobi where his wife and kids live. His wife runs a small village restaurant stand and he grows crops on the farm in the village. I was impressed and intrigued by his story.
WWT: Off to the bar to charge my batteries!
Memoirs of a Wannabe World Traveller 
There really are tsetse flies?! I thought they were tint little things. I imagine they look like my dreaded June bugs?! Ha!
They are like long flies from home. They are even longer than the flies here, that’s how you can tell which are tsetse and which are just house flies. They are nasty little suckers!
The elephant pic is beautiful!!!!!!
Thanks, Penny! 🙂