Kidepo Pt. 2

     We had a pretty nice campsite. There were two open-sided bandas, one
for our ranger Ben to stay in (he guarded us at night and travelled
with us during the day, armed with his AK-47), and another which we
used as a kitchen/hangout spot. We set up our tents pretty easily, and
I was on cooking/dishes duty so I helped Martha feed the hungry
masses. We were on a small hill, and all around us were valleys full
of herds of animals. The edges of the park were marked by the
mountains surrounding us in the distance on all sides. I can't really
describe it, so you'll have to see the pictures sometime!
     Each morning and evening we went on a safari drive. The park is huge,
and on one of our drives we even crossed over the border into South
Sudan (just far enough to awkwardly straddle the line between the
countries and snap a picture). Most of us young folk (plus Kristy
Rosenbaum) would sit or stand in the back of the pickup during the
drives, to get the best view. It was SO MUCH FUN. I love the Wrights
and Maria and Jamie, we had some really funny conversations, laughed a
lot, went a little crazy, just enjoyed each others' company while we
saw hundreds of amazing animals.

     We saw WAY more animals than I expected we would, and they were much closer than I had anticipated (something about being in the bed of a pickup truck completely exposed to wild animals kind of heightens the experience). We saw tons of elephants, thousands of cape buffalo, Jackson's hardebeasts and several other kinds of antelope (oribi, dik diks, etc.), giraffes, warthogs, ostriches, and lions. Yes, lions. We
saw 11 lions one morning. A bunch of us are in the back of the pickup when Ben directs us towards a group of lionesses. They're down a little gulley so we could see them, but we weren't too close. We turn off the engines and enjoy the sight, amazed that we had gotten so close.
Then we drive on a bit, and before we know it Ben has sent us to a group of five male lions. They were younger (didn't quite have full manes yet) but they were HUGE. And we got about six feet away from them. They weren't scared of the vehicles, they were just sitting
there watching us, dozing off, bathing, stretching – it was probably one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. They were SO CLOSE. We turned the engines off again and spent probably almost 30 minutes just watching them and taking pictures.
     We couldn't top that. The whole trip was amazing, but nothing beat
being so close to the lions. We also sat in the middle of a HUGE herd of cape buffalo for several minutes, but they're pretty dumb and the
wind was in our favor (not blowing our scent towards them) so they didn't bother us. But they could have done some serious damage if they
wanted to.
     A few years ago the Wrights went to Kidepo and were charged by a bull
elephant, and their guard had to shoot his gun to scare it off. I
didn't expect this, but I was more scared of the elephants than
anything else we came across. They are massive and almost every time
we saw them, there were baby elephants around (so cute! And yes they
do hold their mama's tail when they walk) so they were very
protective. I admit I said some prayers on a couple occasions. But no
incidents to report!

     Last I wrote, the Wrights and Erika were on their way up country
again, along with Bob's sister Kristy and her son Justin. I had been
alone on the compound for a couple weeks, so it was great to have the
place humming with activity again. And boy, were we busy. We were
packing for a safari.
     Just a few days after they arrived in Karamoja,
14 of us (plus all our tents and camping equipment) drove north to
spend a few days at Kidepo Valley National Park.
Now, when I say we drove north, this was not a comfy road trip (not for most of us, at least). A few people road in the Wright's SUV, but me, Erika, Rachel, Justin, Mary, Kipsy, Bobby, Anna and Jamie climbed onto the back of the pickup truck, on top of all our camping gear, and held on tight for the 8 hour drive north on the dusty, bumpy Karamoja roads.
     It was fun at first – we talked, had some sing-alongs, enjoyed the scenery. After a couple hours it was not very much fun anymore; it
was just plain painful. The only really unbearable part of the ride was a certain section we passed through when we were getting pretty close to Kidepo. The road was very bumpy and slow going, and as soon as we had to slow down to navigate the ditches, we were attacked by tse tse flies. We are very fortunate not to have a lot of tse tse flies in Nakaale. They are big, persistent, fast (like horse flies but WORSE)… they can bite through clothes, they're very hard to squish, and their blood burns your skin if you do manage to kill them. Cool.
     I was so glad to finally go north of Nakaale, though – it's hard to
imagine any place more barren and less developed than Nakaale, but the
northern districts of Karamoja are EMPTY and the mountains and hills
are stunningly beautiful. We drove through a few "cities" and got lots
of stares and shouts and waves. We wazungu were a sight to behold –
dirty, sunburned, exhausted.
     One thought that struck me again and again as we drove farther away
from civilization was this: so few people in the history of the world
will ever see these mountains, these amazing rock formations, these
savannahs and caves and hillsides (how blessed I am to be one of the
few!). But God made this place beautiful anyways… for the few who
would see. He displays His beauty, His strength, His creativity, so
that even in these remote places people will see the evidence that He
is there. He loved the Karamojong enough to place them in a
magnificent country where they can't escape the fact that He IS.
     About eight hours after we set out we arrived at the ranger station
parched, hungry, dusty (all the ladies had nice moustaches by this
point!), extremely sore, and extremely happy. Just driving into the park to get signed into our campsite, we saw a herd of elephants.