Lake Mburo National Park

This weekend we went to Lake Mburo National Park, close to Mbarara in Western Uganda. It's the only place in Uganda where you can find zebras... and I think we saw them all!

After a big night out on Friday night, we set off with a full car (everyone seemed to have relatives, girlfriends... etc that needed a lift to Mbarara... the more the merrier!!) at 8am Saturday morning.

It took about 3.5 hours to get there... it would have been quicker but we had to keep stopping to be sick (not me!!), buy dirty meat from the side of the road (the only true cure for a hangover) and take pictures at the equator (I won't bore you with them here... but I took a tonne!)

The first port-of-call at the park was a boat trip! Again plenty of Hippos and birds, it was really just nice to kick back and be by the water.

There are actually 5 lakes in Lake Mburo National Park, with the namesake being the biggest. It was teeming with fish, and so my friend, Marvin, insisted on leaning out of the boat the whole time with a stick and a hook (his fishing rod!), I was just worried that he might catch a hippo!!

Anyway, Marvin's patience was rewarded and late in the afternoon, he finally made a catch. He threw it back declaring it was far too small to eat!!

We were staying in really basic accomodation (thanks to me! oops!) , but I thought it was quite sweet. There were clean sheets, towels and mosquito nets! what more could you want??

And at least it had heated water!! Yup, that's the watertake with a fire underneath!

On Saturday ight we had a FIERCE game of Ludo. I never knew it could be played with such raw passion! Friendships were made and broken that night.

On Sunday morning we did the 6:30am Hyena walk, but we didn't see any hyenas! So disappointing! I really loved being so close to the animals though. We saw lots of zebra and waterbuck, and without the sound from the car engine, they were much less timid.

There were lots of impala too, and our guide told us about how they lend their name to the country's capital. Apparantly, during the time of colonisation, British "explorers" who were writing reports avbout the country of Uganda back to the Bristish government, refered to the area of the current capital as "Kampala" when they misheard it being called "Ka impala" ("Place where the Impala are" in Luganda)
Anyway, I LOVED being so close to the animals... but it was not so fun when I stood in the way of a trail of African Safari Ant and they all went up my trousers and bit my bum!! I have bites all over! fortunately they're not itchy... pheweeee! Small mercies!!
We headed back to K'la after the nature walk. Marvin decided to buy some fish on the way, and I protested about the smell, but he assured me that he would hang them outside the car... 200kms later, only one dust-covered fish remained!

Last Picture: A zebra crossing!! hehehe!