Today marks the reason for this trip to Uganda– my birthday! And not just any birthday–this one is a monumental birthday–my Jubilee year. And, every decade deserves an incomparable trip to far flung parts of the planet. Uganda certainly fills all the necessary requirements.

So, it wasn’t a trekking day, but it was a safari day! Have I mentioned how much I love safari? You just never know what you might see. Today was no exception. The game drive started out a bit slow, but then our guide stopped to chat with another safari driver for all the good safari gossip. Before we knew it, we were making a 17-point turn and heading back in the direction we came from. Herbert pulled on his seat belt and took off in hot pursuit of the other safari vehicle. We were speeding along–on the wrong side of the road, mind you–chasing after 2 safari vehicles. We were zooming past elephants, warthogs, and buffalo. Zoom, zoom, zooming. Finally, after about 20 minutes, I had to ask, Herbert, where are we going?! Oh, these guys heard about a lion in a tree. I should have known–only lions and leopard cause that kind of excitement.

And, well, was this maniacal, mad-cap adventure worth it? You bet your britches! There were 4, count them 4, lionesses in a tree! A Euphobia cactus tree! Quite frankly, I think this tree would be very uncomfortable to sleep in, but what do I know? I’m not a big cat. At least there are plenty of branches so you can spread out. Lions sleep in trees to get a better view and to avoid the flies, but mostly, they do it for the Instagram photos.  What a great start to the day! Lions in a tree make any birthday a Great Birthday!

Once you’ve seen lions in an Euphobia Cactus tree, there’s not much else to see. Especially since those lions weren’t showing any interest in hunting a buffalo or a Ugandan Kob. We decided to visit the craft village and do a bit of souvenir shopping. Shopping makes any birthday a Great Birthday!

After that, it was back to the lodge for lunch. Shout out to Elephant Hab Lodge for the towel art cake and Happy Birthday written in flower petals on our beds.  Towel Art makes any birthday a Great Birthday!

Just like those safari ants we mentioned previously, we were very quickly on the go again. This time, we headed to the Kazinga Channel for a boat ride. Yes, the Kazinga Channel! I was not familiar with it either, I just like saying Kazinga. It’s a nice word, isn’t it? Kazinga! The Kazinga Channel makes any birthday a Great Birthday!

We set off down the coastline looking at Kingfisher (birds for you non-ornithologist people out there) and hippopotamus. Then the boat guide, named Innocent, said there was plenty of time later for hippos, and we needed to get to the elephants before the other boats got there and scared them away. So we were off to the favorite spot of the pachyderms. For those of you wondering, we did beat all of the other boats to the elephants. There were tons (I stopped counting at 20) of them just standing around and drinking water and doing elephant things. It was the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. To see the elephants from the water is indescribable. It’s like one of those emotional, life-changing moments. It’s so peaceful just watching elephants be elephants.

Innocent said anyone with a hat could climb up on the roof of the boat for a better view. Luckily, we were both wearing our safari hats which Aldi marketed as gardening hats in theirs Aisle of Shame this Spring–one of our best AOS purchases ever, besides that pink ceramic Christmas tree, but the ceramic Christmas tree doesn’t travel as well as the safari/gardening hat.  AOS makes any birthday a Great Birthday. Oh wait.

I digress, obviously, my sister and I climbed to the roof (probably as complicated as it sounds) to check out the view. My sister was seated at the front, which was probably the safer way to ascend, but I was seated in the back of the boat so I just climbed up from the side of the boat right over the water. Luckily, the German guy was up there to grab my camera for me when I got to the top. Unfortunately, photography gear frequently gets in the way of strenuous athletic endeavors. The German guy went back down below after a few minutes (probably because I crawled in front of him and made him take our picture. We had the whole roof to ourselves with an unimpeded view of my elephants. It was glorious! It was like we were the only people in the world (except for the 9 people below that kept talking) and we had just discovered a new species and decided to call it elephant. Rooftop views of elephants make any birthday a Great Birthday!

After probably 30 minutes, we gracefully descended the roof at the safer spot at the front of the boat and headed off to see the hippos. Innocent was correct. There were plenty of hippos around for our photographic pleasure. We also saw more birds, a monitor lizard, and crocodiles (Supposedly. Sometimes you just lie and pretend to see the crocodile, so they quit asking if you see it?) We saw so much on that 2 hour safari cruise. Highly recommend! 10 stars. Safari cruises make any birthday a Great Birthday!

We had a few extra hours in between the safari cruise and dinner, so we took full advantage of the beautiful infinity pool at the lodge. It’s not 90 degrees like my cousin’s pool, but it was still refreshing. A swim makes any birthday a Great Birthday!

Then, at dinner, as soon as I had finished my dessert, the staff busts out of the kitchen, singing happy birthday and carrying a cake! They kindly verified they had spelled our names correctly in frosting. (Not sure what they would have done if it was wrong, though.) It was good cake. Evidently, the chef is the father of twins, so it made him very happy to make a cake for our birthday. Cake makes any birthday a Great Birthday! (even if it isn’t served with ice cream.)

The next day, we were on the road again! We drove through Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is huge, even if it is only the second largest park in Uganda. Or maybe it’s the African Massage that makes it seem like such a big park.  African Massage is how you refer to bumpy roads, but honestly, the Ugandan version of the African Massage is quite tame.

It was a very slow safari morning. The highlight of the morning was a hyena, and that was before we put the top up. This was the first one we’ve seen in Uganda! It was just running down the road. Herbert was giddy with excitement. He even tried to put his phone on the dash like a dashcam to film it while we were driving. That’s how you know it’s something special. If your guide who does safari all the time is excited, it’s a good thing! Anyways, we were trying to get to the far side of the park called the Ishasha Sector because that’s where the tree climbing lions are most prevalent. It’s a good thing we saw them in the cactus for our birthday because there were no lions to be found anywhere. Herbert stopped every passing safari vehicle and confirmed it,  no tree climbing lions anywhere to be found. They don’t have CB radios here–they just call their friends for the inside scoop or ask the other drivers if there’s anything “good.” We didn’t see any lions, but Herbert’s friend confirmed the lions in the cactus from yesterday were still there today. Makes you wonder if they got stuck on the cactus spines. Like, do we need to call the fire department because there’s cats stuck in a tree?

It is worth pointing out that in the more forested areas of our drive, we saw exactly 5,687,384 baboons. Every single one of them was sitting in the middle of the road. I’m not sure why, but they sit on the paved roads and the dirt roads. They just like sitting in the road regardless of its material. 

Finally, we made it to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest! That means GORILLAS are up next!

Goodbye for now!

Love,

thetwinsontour

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