Into the Wildness...

One of my favorite sayings of all time is "When in Rome..." It's like "chill out, go with the flow, live in the moment, absorb your surroundings," all rolled into one terse little adage. I say it a lot, and let's be honest, usually just to be funny. But obviously right now I could not be farther figuratively or literally from Rome. And Africans take things, especially words, quite literally. Well, on our safari a couple of weeks ago, I learned a new little maxim that is much more applicable to my surroundings. Let me start at the beginning.

I can't think of anything more synonymous with tourism in Africa than a safari, and you better believe I wasn't going to go home without experiencing one for myself. Only problem is they are expensive. You know you're in trouble when prices are quoted in US Dollars...no exchange rate necessary. We researched several companies and settled on Red Chili's Big 5 Game Safari in Murchison Falls, Uganda. We're started off from their hostel in Kampala and drove about 8 hours north to the Murchison Falls National Reserve, home to abundant, although diminished populations of African wildlife. It was astonishing to learn that over the past 100 years the natural herds of elephants, zebras, lions, cheetahs and giraffes had been reduced to about 10% of their former and sizable glory, but thanks to the conservation efforts of the game parks and some steep prices for park entry, some of the animal populations are recovering. Depending on luck we would have a good chance to see lions, cheetahs, hippos, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, water buck and kob (antelope). After venturing through miles of tse tse fly filled reserve, and a stop at the beautiful and intense Murchison Falls (think thousands of gallons of Nile river water converging), we reached our campsite with a beautiful view of Lake Victoria.

We woke up really early the next morning and headed down to the Nile to cross our Safari truck over to the game park. Apparently animals wake up really early, and we didn’t want to miss prime viewing hours. We reached the river just in time to take in the most breathtaking sunrise I’ve ever seen. Words can't really do it justice, and neither will this photo, but at least you can get an idea.

As we headed up the trails into the park, I had one of my surreal “I’m in Africa moments. Whoa.” Craning my neck out of the open roof of our safari van, it would have been such a waste to not capitalize on this perfectly good opportunity to start narrating the trek in an Australian accent. Bear Grils would have been proud. I’m sure our driver and guide have never been more annoyed. But in any event, not five minutes had gone by before we were stuck in some mud trying to go up a hill. Everyone pile out of the safari van and push. Now, covered in mud and standing along the trail, we figured we might as well look around a bit. No worries, there’s just a herd of giraffes to our right, munching some leaves for breakfast! Crikey! Just a few minutes prior, we had agreed as a group that there’d be no squealing of any sort. Just imagine how many animals you could drive away with a van full of 8 girls screaming “OMG, a baby elephant! That is soooo cute!” And by agreed as a group I mean that as the fearless leader of the group, I made a no screaming rule. 

Back to present scene, herd of giraffes, cue Ally: “Giraffes! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkk!” as she covered her mouth with her hand. Imagine if we hadn’t made the rule. There were indeed about 20 or so giraffes off in the distance. Apparently they're considered the most majestic of the animals, and with they're long regal necks, I can see why. At this point our van was un-stuck and it was time to continue our journey. Back to the van we trudged. As we started to climb in, we tried scraping our boots on the rail and kicking them off against the side of the van. The guide looked at us in dismay and exclaimed, “You’re in the Wildness! There’s no need to be clean!” Indeed! And from that moment on, we embraced our wild safari selves and continued on our jungle trek through the plains and bush of Murchison falls in complete stealth, and of course covered in mud. We saw lots of animals. 

They were majestic and proud, and everything I imagined them to be, and well worth the exorbitant price tag in American Dollars. After returning from the initial game trek, we headed out on a real jungle cruise; a boat ride on the Nile to see alligators and hippos and the base of Murchison Falls. A relaxing and breath taking way to conclude an epic day in Africa. 

So next time you waste precious time scraping mud off your boots when you could be scouting lions, just remember: when you’re in the wildness, there’s no need to be clean.