Tuesday, December 23, 2014

African Safari Day 4 Part 2 Sweet Waters National Park.

Click on the pictures to see the pictures in full.

We go into the Sweet Waters  National park.



Crowned Crane.  This is the National Bird of Uganda.


The Baboon is  carrying its baby on its back.
It is very different the way it is carrying it.


The Baby seems to be sleeping on the back of its mother.


Yellow throated Sand grouse


                                                       Helmeted Guinea Fowl

 We see lot of Impalas, Big group of gazelles and Zebras.  We sight a  Lion again but fail to see any Cheetah or Leopard.


                                             Group of Thompson's Gazelles.


                                                                A Very Healthy Lion

 In our drive we are taken to a Chimpanzee Shelter.

This is a shelter for abused Chimps which were rescued by the famous researcher on Chimps,  Jane Goodall.  She had done many years of research in these parts of Africa and had seen the Chimpanzees using tools.  She has also written that Chimps are  intelligent animals.   They are the nearest relatives of mankind sharing almost 98 % of Genes with humans.

The chimps here were  captured as babies and once it grew big  people understood they are not good  pets  and were  abused , kept in chains and were not fed properly.  Those were rescued and have been kept in this shelter and more than 40 Chimps are here.
Here  they live as they live in Wild  and  they follow their natural  lifestyle of Alpha Male leading the group.
We were looking at them.  They  were sitting on the other side of  the fence which had a water body separating them from us.   We could see the chimps using the plastic bottles there to take water from the water hole and drink it instead of drinking directly from the water body.



The Chimpanzees


Look at the way they are sitting.


Chimp getting down into water.


Picking up the plastic bottle


Filling its bottle with water.


Filled the Water!


                                   Now can sit and relax and drink it in leisure.


 The white Rhinos are an endangered species.
 Human beings are the worst species to occupy this universe.  Each kind of animals are killed indiscriminately for some imaginary uses and also for fancy .  With modern day weapons each animal becomes just a sitting duck and the  poor animals are hunted  down.
  But on the other side such Game Reserves are also trying to conserve these animals as best as they can.

White Rhinos are actually not white in Colour but they are Wide mouthed Rhinos as they graze the grass down like cattle and have wide mouths unlike the other variety of Rhino which is called the Black Rhino. In this Reserve they are protecting this 'White Rhinos' and we could see them in enclosure.  They had a blind Rhino which had lost its eyesight in some fight and it can smell the food (some kind of grass) and comes to eat from the hands of the tourists.  So many people had the pleasure of touching the Rhino with the Rangers helping them.  It is named as Barak. I some how felt  sorry for this blind Rhino and didn't feel like touching it.



                                            The White Rhinos inside the enclosure.


                                                     The Blind Rhino

Feeding the Rhino.

We return to the lodge and our  guide tells us that there is a Night Safari here in  this Game Park and they take the vehicle inside the grass   to see the animals closer.

We are excited , so come back and enquire and we had to pay in $$ for the  night Safari. We both decide to take it and our friends Agarwals also  have decided to take the trip. The Night Safari starts at 7 p.m. and  again it is only the five of us in the Vehicle.

It is very cold but luckily there is a big blanket kept in the vehicle for each seat.  We get into the Wild

  One driver and one other person  with a search light to search for animals come with us.

 We all stand up in the open jeep and no animal is seen.   But the feeling of being inside the jungle and jungle noise of crickets and the open cloud with stars is too good a feeling.  It is heavenly and I was one with Nature . My eyes are filled with tears.

We see some Jackals, Rabbits which we can not see in the day time.  We  are taken inside the grass still no animals.



                                                     Ready for  Night Safari

Suddenly we sight a Male Lion very healthy  .  We go very near it.  In the other side one more Male Lion is sitting.  Just little farther away one female Lion is sitting.  It looked as if they were trying to hunt together.  (Lions hunt together many a time).  They all move as if on cue  and our vehicle follows them.  But our guide says they can not hunt as they need more female lions to hunt (hahha. ) More over he spots a wild buffalo which is dangerous and can change direction any time and so we back up.

There is one more vehicle going around and the communication between the drivers is very good and so he says we can see many Lions together in another place.  He asks us to hold on to our seats tightly and we proceed there very fast.


A group of Impalas their eyes are reflecting the Camera light.


                                                  The First of the three Lions which we saw.



                                                  The Second Majestic Male Lion


                                                           Third Female Lion

                                          The Lion is  also Sleepy , it is yawning.

Oh My God.
  We see inside a bush some Lionesses and Cubs may be more than ten in number eating a kill which they had killed earlier.  It is a Zebra I am told  as the leg of the Zebra can be seen.( I can not see the kill and I don't like to see) . All I can see is some rib bones and the Lions enjoying their dinner as if it is a community dinner.
Our Vehicle  go quite  close ( we are all very quiet and without disturbing the lions)  We can see the lovely , shining healthy back of the Lions and so many of them in one place.  Few feet away in another side of the bush we see some 4, 5 Lions resting after eating a sumptuous dinner.  The guide says totally there are 'Eighteen' Lions.  I could not count them.
We just keep on looking at the lovely creatures.  The ranger reminds us that it is our time for dinner and we would miss out on it and we reluctantly return to the Lodge. Too good an experience , unforgettable.  .


                  The Rib of the animal they are eating.  there are  many Lions near each other


Very Busy eating their dinner



Their skin is so healthy.



                                           Oh Eaten too much so  slept already.



                                                               Sharing with each other.


                                                  The dinner is nice.



  We return  around 9.30 p.m.  The tour Manager who came with the South Africa Group is waiting for us (Very nice of him)  .  Very good dinner (for us also  just like for the Lions).  The soups are very good and we walk back to our tents.

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