Searching for lions in Uganda

Uganda is a country with a troubled past, it still suffers under the cloud of the Idi Amin years and for many of us the movie The Last King of Scotland is our enduring image of this country.

But Uganda was once known as the ‘pearl of Africa’ and for those willing to overlook its mottled history it offers a diverse and beautiful landscape and some of the friendliest people on earth.

Our first encounter with the locals was at Entebbe during a quick overnight stay the night we arrived. We ventured out to the local weekly market– two white women in the heart of Uganda during their Presidential elections.

I’m not sure what I expected, but we were left alone to wander past the stalls, take photos and generally just shop. No one hassled us, no one stared. Everyone just continued to go about their own business. 

We’ve been in other parts of Africa where our skin colour has marked us as ‘other’ where people have stopped and stared or sought us out to practice their English language skills. But not here, the people we met were friendly, but overall they had a relaxed indifference toward us.

The following morning we were up early and ready for our first safari. We made our way to Murchison Falls, the largest National Park in Uganda.

We were surprised how green the landscape was, but as we soon discovered it’s not that green everywhere. Despite being a relatively small country, the landscape in Uganda changes frequently, one minute dry savannah, the next lush green forests.

Our first safari was a walking trek to see the rhinos in the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was established to reintroduce the white rhino into Uganda. They have about 17 rhinos in the park. We trekked for about 40 minutes and found four sleeping under a tree.

Rhino have an acute hearing sense but can’t see very well. Our guide assured us we would get three warnings if any of the rhinos were going to charge, we didn’t need to worry, it was so hot the rhinos barely even woke up and certainly weren’t moving from the shade of the tree.

Read about the time Adrian and I were charged by a rhino in Kenya  here.

Another four hours and we were in Murchison Falls National Park. Like the rest of Uganda the landscape within the park changed frequently – open savannah, dense forest, huge estuaries and swamp areas, all divided by the River Nile.

It’s an eight-hour trip from Entebbe to Murchison Falls and with a stop for lunch and the visit to the rhinos, time was against us, but as we made our way to the lodge we saw many warthogs, antelope, hartebeest and even an elephant or two; not to mention the most amazing sunset. I’m not sure what it is about Africa but the sun always seems bigger and more orange.

The next morning we were up early again to spot as many animals as we could. It was a successful morning, as well as more antelope, buffalo and warthogs we saw some very curious giraffes – I’m sure they found us just as interesting as we found them – elephants and not one, not two but three lions resting under a tree. 

There is something quite magical about seeing wild animals in their natural environment. The thrill of travelling through great open spaces in search of these majestic creatures is an unreal experience.

In the afternoon we took a boat ride out to see Murchison Falls. Apparently you can’t say you’ve been to Murchison Falls without actually taking a boat ride out to see the falls!  We opted not to do the walk to the falls but in hindsight, we both wished we had. 

The boat ride was excellent, very informative, but you don’t get as close to the falls as we would have liked. The Falls are said to be the most powerful Falls in the world – a massive volume of water squeezing through quite a narrow space.

It was named after Sir Roderick Murchison, then President of the Royal Geographical Society. The Falls sit on the White Nile and it was quite a thrill to get our first look at the Nile River.

We only had one full day at Murchison Falls, but it was long enough to see all the wildlife we wanted to see and to check out the waterfalls. 

Read more of our adventures in Uganda here. 

Fast facts

We travelled to Uganda in 2016.

We stayed at Boma Lodge in Entebbe and at Fort Murchison in Murchison Falls.

We spent one night in Entebbe and two nights at Murchison Falls.

Was it long enough? You can spend as long or as little time as you like on Safari, we saw everything we wanted to and more on our Safari, it was a good amount of time. But next time we would do the walk to the falls.

We travelled with Matoke Tours, our tour guide, Richard was excellent.

Highlights: Seeing lions in the wild, the boat ride to the Falls (look out for the bubbles in the river – they look like soap suds and are formed by the strength of the waterfall hitting the river) and the curious giraffes.

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