Day 23

Today was the day we have all been looking forward to for a while, the safari!! We awoke at 4 am in order to be at the park for 6 am, as most of the animals are visible at this time. After collecting our guide we were ready to see some animals and were raring to go. We went on a 4 hour safari however we were told that because of the dry season we were unlikely to see any elephants or herds of animals because they moved up north where there were swamps. Luckily he was wrong! As we travelled round we could see a herd of zebras and were lucky enough to be able to take some close up shots. In the distance we could see a giraffe's long neck and head towering over tree-tops. As we approached there were a number of giraffes together and we were again able to get close up shots on the camera. In particular the male giraffe was larger than expected. We were told that they could live up to 25 years, but in the last 5 years they live in solitude away from their family. There were then more zebras with their young. Behind a number of trees we saw some buffaloes, but were unable to capture them on camera because they were too far away. Further on there were a number of baboons and we were fortunate enough to see a family- a male, female and their 5 day old baby. As we headed down to Lake Ihema, the second largest lake in Rwanda, a large number of antelopes were crossing our road ahead. We were able to get quite close to them before they hurried off into the trees. When we arrived at the Lake we were able to get out of the vehicle to see the hippopotamuses which were bobbing up and down in the water. Although we were unable to see their whole bodies, from the size of their heads we could see that they were huge. It was hard to take a picture as every time we got ready they would bob back under the water. Our guide informed us that hippos can spend up to 15 minutes under the water without taking a breath. We then followed the track onwards and as we turned a blind corner, Tel (our driver), slammed on the brakes as there was an elephant. The elephant was enormous. We were told to back away as this elephant is well known for charging and tipping cars. He had previously tipped the French ambassadors vehicle. Chief, the elephant, is the only one that travels alone in this game reserve as the others travel as a herd. We had to take a diversion back as he had blocked our route ahead. As we passed the lake again, we saw some baby crocodiles that were approximately a meter in length. After our 4 hour safari we felt very lucky to have seen as many animals as we had and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. We headed back to our guest house for lunch before returning to Kigali in the afternoon.