Nile Boat Safari

After lunch in the lodge, we met our driver outside and he drove us down to the dock to meet the boat for our boat ride to Murchison Falls. As we parked, we caught a glimpse of a family of baboons jumping into the back of a parked pick up truck and grabbing a bag of trash. We drove up to get a better look - the male baboon sorted through the empty food containers to see if there was anything worth eating. He passed on the empty Heineken can but it was pretty wild to witness his dexterity as he open up crumpled bunches of tin foil and check everything out.

Our driver was great and knew where to place us so that we would be first in line. We got great seats in the shade (so our our fairer skinned companions could be shaded from the equatorial sun) as the boat loaded up with over 40 other passengers. On the ride up the river, we saw tons of hippos and crocodiles, as well as dozens of different species of birds, all beautiful, such as the kingfisher and Ugandan crested crane. We motored past groups of hippos wallowing by the banks and saw a few baby hippos too. Crocodiles basked in the sun with their mouths wide open to cool off...towards the end we pasted a group of at least 10 crocs hanging out together. At the end of the ride, we reached Murchison Falls, where the Nile is forced through a very narrow rock passage, making for a dramatic view. After the boat ride, we got back to the lodge, enjoyed a nice happy hour with mom, dinner and then packed up to head out early the next day for chimp tracking.