INTO THE WILD - Part I

My totem! Just going about its usual life in the African Savanna, blissfully ignorant of this here blogger spazzing out!

I'm Entebbe born and bred. So like every other person from E town I spent all minor holidays during my formative years either at the beach or at the zoo. So I'm no stranger to wild animals. I think by the time that old lion died it had even learnt my scent!



That's how many cumulative hours I spent walking past, then back again, then stopping at its enclosure and lamenting why a tired old dodger like him was still on display instead of whatever retirement home Alex, Marty, Melman and Gloria went to when they tired of their Madagascan adventures. It was demeaning honestly.  He was king of the jungle.  Not some mangy old dog. But I digress.

Spy the little baby 'phant!

As I was saying, I'm no stranger to wild animals, but seeing them out in the wild as opposed to behind a cage is something else! On Friday my SO and I set off from the city for a weekend getaway to Murchison Falls Game Park. The 3 day, 2 night tour was everything I had hoped for and beyond! I'll just let the pics speak for themselves :)

They really do mind their business, these magnificent creatures.

Why the long face? I'm sure some clan or other out there adores you ;)

Okapis!

Okapis have a distinguishing black spot behind the ear to differentiate them from the young kobs. These are full grown okapi males.

The speckled Okapi is a rarer species and loves hiding under shady foliage. This one made me think of Bambi. Dunno why since it has normal sized eyes...

These gorgeous males over here are the Waterbucks.

The female too, distinguished by the lack of homes is called a waterBUCK too ;/ (thought buck was a term denoting the male? Our guide though was confident of the name and google hasn't been able to tell me otherwise so...)

This right here is the Ugandan Kob - seen on our national court of arms. They are usually two horned of course. So this one clearly has a story to tell how he lost the other horn.

There were a kajillion Kobs allover the park! Our guide told us they give birth every 3 months. Every. Three. Months. THREE!!! Can you imagine being done with your family of 2 in just a year and never having to think about gestating another human ever again?

Melman!

A lone buffalo like this one is usually an old bull chased from the herd by the younger ones. Such is the law of the jungle.

Whatchu lookin' at?

Buffaloes have tiny itty bitty eyes and consequently horrible eyesight. But they can smell for miles! Any foreign scent will have them at attention, nostrils flared, head turned in the general direction of the scent and if you don't know better you'd think they were looking right at you when in truth they can barely see beyond their nose!

Can you make out the baboons playing in these branches? On the 2nd day, one of these buggers was watching and plotting as we settled down to a picnic lunch and the minute our backs were turned it hightailed it over to the car, reached in through the window and made off with a fanta!

I wasn't fooled for one second!

I clearly should have paid more attention during physics class because I can't for the life of me understand how this ginormous, stubby legged, unstreamlined creature can swim as fast as it does and most importantly float so effortlessly!

Took me a minute to spot this guy even with all the pointing that was going on! Gosh!

Catching first glimpse of the water fall! Too far to capture without some mega zoom lens but I definitely got my fill during the hike to the top!

These are just the tip of the iceberg, I took so many pics that I finished 2 fully charged camera batteries and both our phone batteries! These are just from my phone alone. Will put up another post with some more later. How did you spend your Valentine's weekend guys?

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