My Hippo Encounter

One thing that was really cool about Murchison were all the giraffes, we saw herds of over 70 scattered over the landscape.
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Being a Support Intern apparently has it’s perks. My program director, Peter, took me to Murchison Falls for a game drive on our way to Kampala for the weekend.

I have to admit that it couldn’t compare to the Serengeti and I had to work hard not to say “when I was in Tanzania I saw…” every few minutes but it really was great to see wildlife like I did so close to where I’m living and we had a great time.

On the first day when we got there we got on a ferry that took us down the Nile to the falls. Along the way we saw elephants, hippos and huge Nile crocodiles, the largest crocs in the world according to our guide. We were also told that hippos are in fact the most aggressive animals in the park especially out on land where they become very defensive, however, when we got off the boat and saw a hippo on the shore our little group of four couldn’t resist trying to get a little closer to snap a shot of the 2 ton 2 year old male. Peter and I thought we were pretty daring when we estimated that we were about 50ft away from the hippo and turned towards the car feeling rather satisfied with our encounter. As we began climbing into the car we saw that the hippo had made it’s way grazing towards us and was pretty close to the park warden’s building, so the two of us made a rush into the building to see him through the window. It doesn’t sound like much but to see this monster covered in scars and open wounds from hippo fights at only 2-3ft away from us was amazing! I had grabbed Louyse’s camera, who we were traveling with and can’t wait to get those pics when I’m back home!