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From Murchison Falls National Park, Northeastern Uganda
Febrary 27th
The soil and air are damp from the recent rain - which cooled the scorching afternoon. The birds are purring in the moist shrubs - announcing the sun's departure. Glenn is off photographing a family of warthogs (one male and 3 females) who inhabit red chillis campsite, where we are sleeping.
We woke this morning at 6, when the stars still blinked brightly above us, and set out for a very early morning game drive. The land here changes as rapidly as the weather - from rain forest to grassy savanna in just moments. As you make your way into the grasslands, the land become speckled with red sand castles - built by industrious but invisible termites. I can see the silhouettes of giraffes, like leafless trees, bobbing on the horizon. We see Uganda cob (tiny elegant grazers - or lion macnugguts), spotted bush back, heartbeats, water buck, powerful water buffalo and temperamental elephants roaming the savanna. We also stumbled upon a pride on eleven lion, all females and youth. We stayed snapping photos and admiring their large paws and sharp teeth for about a half an hour. Then, while turning around we got stuck in the deep sand along the road!! Not more than 50 feet from the lions! Their interest definitely perked while the braver members in our group (myself not included) got out to push. Luckily we escaped before the lioness decided to investigate.
The "roads" feel as in you are literally driving on a washboard. I was sure that our van would crumble apart from the endless rattling and shaking. I too felt close to breakdown. "This'" our guide Steven jokes, "is an African massage." By the time we reached the falls my body was numb from the shaking and my mind baffled both from the rattling drive and the magnificence before us. Murchison falls is not the tallest waterfall in the world but it is one of the most powerful. The mighty Nile river is forced into a s meter slot between basalt cliffs - the roaring could deafen. After the squeeze, the water boils in temperamental heaping waves inside what is accurately named the Devil's Cauldron. No life can survive these falls.
On the walk back, our guide broke open a termite mound. The angry soldiers, withe swollen red heads, marched to defend their mound. The local people here actually use these soldier ants as sutures to stitch deep woulds. You need only catch a few, place their fangs on the wound and break their bodies off once they have clamped on. The heads also make a tasty snack, as long as the pinching fangs are clamped. I tried one on the crunchy termites, it wasn't too bad!
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