Queen Elizabeth National Park

This is the second largest park in Uganda. We reached it driving north through ever-taller hills and mountains and many coffee and tea plantations and small crater lakes. After reading the map wrong and bargaining for petrol when everyone was “finished” in the largest town, we set back on the trail. The verdant lushness of black volcanic soil and the obvious fecundity of rainfall is amazing. Emerging from a mountain pass, we see spread in front of us a vast, table-top-flat rift valley, with a river connecting two large lakes, George and Edward. As we drive into the park, WHOOPS! there are two large bull elephants on one side of the road, grey and huge against the camel-colored grasses with the dark cloud of an approaching rainstorm behind them. Then…WHOOPS WHOOPS…on the other side of the road is a full herd of more than 20 elephants, mammas and many babies, all together feeding after a mud wallow in the channel. These elephants are maybe thirty feet from the car window. We watch for twenty minutes or so and move on. The lodge was bigger and a bit westernized but had great showers. The next morning’s 6:30 AM (when the animals are out and just before the sun hits) game drive was in a land rovler with a pop roof, two hatches where one could pop up to take photos and see the animals. Out driver/guide, Vincent, was superb. First we chased and then sited three young male lions fresh from a kill walking in a line through tall grass down to a crater lake. We saw many topi and bushbucks, and then suddenly saw a hyena (very rare) loping across the road and then the fields. And then we hit gold. We parked and sat twenty feet from a pride of 13 lions, fresh from a kill and lying together, for a half an hour. Cubs to old males. The dominant male was quite a character making all sorts of roars and moans and various male mating rituals, not unlike Saturday Night at the Mt. Washington Tavern. This was a very rare experience everyone tells us. An afternoon launch trip down the channel connecting the lakes ended up with some drama as the boat we were in broke down, and then the boat that came to tow us in broke down. It all ended up well as park rangers escorted us up the hill to the lodge past the hippos and buffalos. It is really hard to describe the physical beauty of this place. (as told by Moo Moo)