Murchison Falls

The national park is named after Murchison Falls.  Murchison Falls is where the mighty Nile gets squeezed through a 7 meter gap in the rocks, tumbles 43 meters down, and pushes through a 10 meter wide gorge before flowing back to it's normal width and eventually into Lake Albert. 

The local tribe had a legend that if a man were to successfully jump across it then he could be king.  For many years it was a yearly tradition for a man to try and obviously fail.

The worship in heaven will be like the sound of many rushing waters...and even more beautiful. 

Not the best picture, but here we are! :)

Elephants, giraffes, warthogs and more

Elephants...

On our game drive we never got super close to these magnificent beasts, but they sure were fun to watch.

Our best peek of them came during lunches at the lodge where we camped.  The eating pavilion was right across the Nile from the park and we enjoyed watching them then...mostly because we were looking down on them now, not just across the high grass at them.

Giraffes...

are truly glorious animals.  To watch their graceful walking is quite surreal.  We also thought the colors of the giraffes here were so much more vibrant than the ones in the zoo.

Time for tea?

Warthogs...

have to be one of the most ugly and hilariously funny looking animal ever...

...especially when they run with their tails up...

Deer...

so many varieties...so strong and beautiful...

Water buffalo...

Not quite sure how many times we sang, "Everybody's got a water buffalo..."

That's all for now.  :)

In Anticipation of the New Earth...

The game park made us imagine what the new earth will look like.  There were so many animals in the area and so many large animals!  It also was not hard to imagine what the earth was like with dinosaurs roaming around...it must have been so beautiful.  

This post is mainly a some-what feeble attempt to show the expanse and beauty of the park.  Tomorrow, I'll post some more animal pictures.

More from Murchison Falls

I wasn't quite sure where to begin with pictures, so I decided to start with the answers to the two questions that I'm sure are burning in your mind...what was in the tree and how did you handle the hippos?  Okay, actually I'm sure you've moved on with your life after my last few posts and actually really don't care that much, but since you are here to visit, I may as well tell you, right?

Question 1:  What was in the tree?

A leopard...or as our guide said quite phonetically...a "Lee-oh-pard"

We saw two...and we were amazed that the guide was able to find them.  That's right, twice we were flying along, bouncing down the dirt roads, sitting on the roof, holding on for dear life and singing in a not-so-quiet tone "Our God is so BIG! so STRONG and so MIGHTY there's nothing my God cannot DO!"  when we came to a screeching halt.  The guide jumped out and said, "SHHHH!!! A Lee-oh-pard!" And we would look at the tree waaaaaay far away and say, "Where?" and "That's an animal not a branch??" And I zoomed my camera way in and sure enough!  It was!

These pictures are a bit fuzzy because of how zoomed in they are...but when we saw them on the computer (in real life we actually couldn't see them that well), we were quite amazed.

I especially loved this guy's tail sticking out the other side.

Question two:  So how did we handle the hippos?

The hippos left us to sleep in peace during our week at Murchison Falls.  And while it was mildly terrifying to  make the almost half kilometer trek in the dark while listening to the beasts munching grass not far enough away for my comfort, all for an early morning cup of coffee, the smooth Ugandan coffee and a chance to read God's word while watching the sun rise over the Nile was worth it.

When we drove up to the hippo pool on our game drive (all the dark humps in the water are hippos), Christi and I continued to enjoy the scenery from the roof.  The next day when we went back, I did manage to get down and take a few pictures.

And apparently one hippo was quite happy to see us!  He even smiled for the picture! :)

The kids weren't scared though...they stood together like a Stonewall...or maybe they were playing Red-Rover?  "Red Rover, Red Rover send the Hippo right over..."  Thankfully, the hippos weren't too keen on playing with us.

Picture Preview from our First Week of Vacation

We are just wrapping up a week at Murchison Falls National Park and I'm happy to report that while we saw (and heard!) many, many hippos, we did not become their midnight snack.  On the contrary, we had a lovely and very refreshing time.  We were able to do two game drives through the park and I have lots of pictures, but here are just a few tonight to get started.  Tonight we are at a guest house in Masindi and tomorrow we will drive to our next camping destination...the Hairy Lemon...an island in the Nile, where once again we will enjoy another "tech free" week.  :)  

Crested Cranes...Uganda's National Symbol

This is how we drove through the park: so.much.fun!

My favorite shot of my new favorite animal.  Giraffes are so amazing!

And here is something to keep you occupied while you wait for more pictures...you can play "spot the animal" with extra points if you can tell me what kind it is.  :)

Keeping it real in a bullet post update...

::Vacation time is here!  We will be camping for a week at Murchison Falls National Park and for a week at Hairy Lemon Island...and island in the Nile.  The best part?  It's full-board so I won't have to cook.  The crazy part?  Apparently guards have to stay away at night to make sure the Hippos keep eating the grass outside your tent and not the people inside your tent.  There have been no end to Hippo jokes this week...if you are friends with us on face book, you might have even seen pictures...

::Correspondence...I stink at it.  I may have written something to this effect on the white board this week while prompting my children to write some long overdue letters...

::Immediately following our vacation, Christi will be flying home for a month to visit her family.  Our kids and the neighbors wanted to throw her a good-bye party.  They did the whole thing with out a bit of involvement from me...in fact I was blissfully taking my Sunday afternoon nap (just distinguishing that from my Monday-Saturday afternoon naps, as if it's any different) while they set up.  They made the cookies and everything...and I guess the fact that it made it to the blog shows just how impressed we were.

 ::And what do you do to entertain energetic children while waiting for food at the local Mt. Elgon Hotel?  Have them race with chairs on their heads of course...

We probably won't be spending too much time on line over the next couple weeks (although I'm sure that we'll check in from time to time to update you on the hippo situation), but I'm sure there will be an onslaught of pictures when we return.

Thanks for praying for us!