Mbarara and Lake Mburo: 14th - 17th December

When Mum and Dad arrived in Uganda, we thought it would be nice to bring them to Mbarara for a few days before we started travelling properly so that they could settle in to Africa a bit and also see where we live.

Mum and Dad at the Equator on the way to Mbarara

It was fantastic to see them again, and we were very grateful for all the gifts they brought us - there was so much chocolate that we nearly couldn't fit it all in the fridge!
We spent the first day showing them all the interesting sights in Mbarara, like the university, the market, the high street....and that's about it really. We had dinner with a few friends and colleagues in the evening at the Agip Motel (about the best restaurant in town), which was really nice.

Arriving at Lake Mburo National Park

The following day we set off early in the morning for a trip to Lake Mburo, which is a couple of hours drive from Mbarara. We had planned to have a guided walk with a ranger when we got there, but it was raining really hard, so Andrew the ranger came on a game drive with us instead, getting out to walk if we came across anything interesting. We saw a huge hippo wallowing in a mud pool and Andrew took us to within about 10 metres of it; I was a bit scared that it might start charging at us or something, but luckily it got out of its pool and waddled away in the opposite direction.

Hippo not looking impressed at having its wallowing session interrupted!

Jason and I have been to Lake Mburo a few times now, but we really love it. It's a pretty small National Park, which means you generally don't have to travel too far to see all the different animals. There are no elephants or giraffes there, and we have never seen any lions (although there is reported to be one pride inside the park); but it is one of only two parks in  Uganda where you can see zebras, and there are also impala which aren't common in other national parks. There is a lovely boat-trip you can do around the lake, where you see things like crocodiles, loads of hippos, and lots of different kinds of birds - we saw one called the African Finfoot, which is apparently very elusive.

The day after our trip to Lake Mburo, we relaxed in Mbarara. We were invited to our friend Gary's farewell dinner, as he was returning to the US after 4 months of teaching and research at MUST. Leaving dinners at the university are a pretty formal affair, with a top table for important people - my parents were a bit surprised (and slightly embarrassed!) when they were called to sit on the top table (especially as they had never even met Gary before), but they enjoyed it in the end. My Dad particularly liked being introduced to Waragi, which is the local gin!