Is it an elephant, is it a hippo, no it is a ....???

Sunday, April 22

After getting into bed too excited with elephants, waterbucks and hippo’s in the very near surroundings, I had a terrible night.  It was much too hot in the room and when the rain and thunder began, sleep was over.  When in the middle of the night, Eveline who I share a room with since the beginning of this trip, needed to go to the toilet, she was a bit confused.  She is used to lie on the right side of the bed so is used to step out on the right side.  Since our beds are close to each other, and she forgot this in her sleep, she almost stepped into my bed.  All of a sudden, we both were awake.  And Eveline kept saying  “sorry” “sorry” “sorry”. 

When the alarm clock went at 5.30 am, I felt I did not have enough sleep.  And when then you also realize there is no electricity and even no water to wash after a warm night, my state of mind was not really positive.  Thank god I brought these wet disposable washcloths of which Eveline and I made good use of.

We started to dress for our morning game drive.  You would think a shirt and shorts, but because of the weather: long trouser, shirt with long sleeves, raincoat and even a poncho…  Grmbl…. ☹

We picked up our packed breakfast (chicken sandwich, watermelon and 2 hard boiled eggs) and our guide, and off we went.  The guide informed us we might not see many animals, because of the bad weather.  But as you know, I was already happy with the elephants we met yesterday.  Every other animal is a bonus. 

Even since it was still raining a bit, we opened the roof of our car and we were all standing in the car, looking for animals.  For some of us, main mission was to meet a lion. We have seen hundreds of impalas, but also buffalo’s, waterbucks,  another family of elephants (still so impressive), monkeys, beautiful birds, ….  The one animal that kept hiding, was the lion.  Unfortunately.

We stopped at the only small crafts market annex coffeeshop in the park and took some time to shop and/or drink/eat. The “rolex*” prepared in Queen Elisabeth National Park will probably remain as one of the best I have ever eaten.   If it is not only for its taste, being blessed to have eaten it IN QENP is amazing and not to forget at all.

On our way back to the UWA-lodges, we were again surprised by Elephants having lunch close to the road.  Our colleagues who went to QENP last year, did only see 1 elephant.  Just to point out how lucky we are… In less than 24 hours, we had seen plenty, and not the same family every time.  Ibs realized lunch was going to take place a bit later as expected, because of the photoshoot of the elephants again.  You would think: once you have a picture, you are fine.  But that does not count for my colleagues and me…

When we were waiting to board at the boat for the afternoon boat trip, there were a number of meerkats (Timon in the Lion King) at the Mweya lodge.  How funny these animals are…  Wendy was again in love and I think she even took more pictures than of the warthogs. 

Conclusion: we met Timon and Pumba from the Lion King.  Too bad “Simba” did not want to show up…

Ibs gave us the good advice to sit on the left side of the boat, as then we would be on the side where we would be close to all animals.  That was such a great idea since we were with a bunch of Chinese people on the boat, all wanting to have the best place for their “clic clic clic clic clic-camera”. 

The first hippo we saw in the water was subject to pictures taken as if he would be the only one we would see.  Did we now we were to see many many many more…  Similar story for the Kingfish birds.  They were all over the place, but much more difficult to make pictures of.  Fortunately, our photographer of the team, Adriaan, succeeded to make some masterpieces.

The guide on the boat told us very interesting information on all of the animals and surroundings.  He spotted crocodiles on the shore from far away.  Man, these were huge!  And what about buffalo’s resting in the water?  We even saw a large lizard lying on a branch. 

Although we saw many animals along the water, we realized it would have been more if temperature would have been higher.  And I was a bit disappointed not to see an elephant along the shore.  They need to drink as well, not?

And then, out of the bushes, there he came…  Massive and calm, being the cool guy – followed by others….  Some of the elephants decided to stay under the tree and one of them was brave enough to go to the water.  Waw, again, waw…  I do not get bored, and I know I was not the only one…  

By the time we reached a small fishing village, we learned that was almost the end of the boat trip which meant the beginning of our “aperitive”.  Always good 😊  Especially when you, unexpected,  get the company of a lizard 😊.

Going back to the UWA-lodges, we all looked forward to have a nice shower before dinner, since in the morning there was no electricity or water.  And what is the definition of a good shower in QENP?  1 stream  of water, not too warm….  Well, better than nothing 😊 

And so we went for our last dinner in QENP, followed by a return to our lodges with only 3 water bucks waiting for us.  Not that we are demanding, but we were spoiled the night before.  So Ibs drove us a bit further in the park, to spot maybe animals.  Since it was very dark and we only had the lights of the car, we saw all kinds of animals.  And then far in the distance, we thought we saw an elephant...  When we got closer, we thought it was a hippo...  and then we came very close and we realised, it was a house....  When having some good imagination, you can see a lot of animals :-)

Thank you again for taking the time to read...  Bye Bye!