Denis’ lodge provided a comforting place to sleep after the tents of the previous night, especially the part where toads, bats and creepy-crawlies decided to join us in the bedrooms. We woke up bright and breezy at the ripe old hour of (too early 5:30am) to go on an early morning game drive, during which Denis told us how the river hippos had come out of the river during the night and approached our lodge and how hyenas had come within 10 metres of Giles’ hut. They left after their friends cried out to signal that they had found food, but posed no danger as they are scavenger animals and the guards were armed.
Within half an hour of leaving our huts, we were staring avidly at two lions: The first was the same as yesterday, given that it was at the same location; this time however with his paw over his din-dins (a juicy kob), and the second supposedly his son or brother (a younger male). Having been the first ones there, five other cars rapidly arrived and we decided to leave.
Back at the bed and breakfast we were about to break our fast when Denis yet again proved he truly is “the man” by spotting an elephant behind a tree about 1km away. We all hopped into the cars and off-roaded towards them. Once there, we realised it wasn’t just a singular elephant but a whole herd of them. What truly endeared us to them were the many babies that accompanied them, dwarfed by the others weighing multiple tons. We didn’t see anything else, so returned to our temporary home for brunch, which we ate as elephants played in the river just a hundred-ish meters from us, a truly exceptional experience.
After lunch, we set back off to the school. We stopped off at a salt lake, where a guide taught us how they harvest the salt and how different pans were passed through generations. We realized how very hard some people work, under the scorching sun, just to make a mere living. They often suffer health complications due to the sulphur, as well as the risk of being attacked by wild animal attacks on the way home.
After the stop-off at the lake we got back in the cars and continued on our way. The hot springs was our next stop, where the water comes up through the ground at a naturally boiling temperature, which surprised many of us, as we nearly burned ourselves. Back at the lodge, we undertook an urgent clothes-washing operation.
The rest of the evening was taken up by dinner, as well as helping the kids with their homework: Social Sciences and History, which also taught us many things, like their single snow-capped mountain, the only normal mountain, whilst the others are all volcanic. We ended the day on a great note, as Jack had been inspired from the hot springs and decided to create his own makeshift version, by breaking off the shower knob, so hot water continuously poured out and the rest of us had to endure a refreshing cold shower!
We do apologise for the tardiness of this day 7 blog and hope you understand that we are trying our best, but the lack of plug sockets and internet doesn’t help!
Lots of Love from the Uganda team – we definitely won’t forget this life changing experience.