Evening Game Drive- Lions!!

As we drove across the bridge to pick up Savior (our ranger/guide), we saw elephants on the Nile with 2 adorable babies- Lisa’s favorite! Savior hopped in the car and it felt like we were reunited with an old friend. It’s been so refreshing to be surrounded entirely by people who are filled with passion and joy for what they do! You can’t help but love every minute of every day. We made our way to a different part of the expansive Savannah grasslands, which was filled with Giraffe, Oribi, Uganda Kob, Antelopes, Warthogs, Water Bucks, Buffalo, Birds and more. But this time since we had already seen the hard to find animals (lions, leopards) we were driving slowly, standing on the seats with our heads out of the sunroof soaking in the warm breeze and sunset. Suddenly, Savior got a call from Sarah (another ranger) that she had spotted. We were at least 20 minutes away she and her car of tourists kindly waited for us to point them out. There is no way we would have seen them in the tall grass! We pulled right up (uncomfortably close) and in front of us were 2 mothers who had brought back a fresh kill for their 3 lion cubs (only 1 year old). You wouldn’t have thought they were cubs by how large they were but our ranger was thrilled to see how healthy they were, thanks to their moms being incredible hunters. We got so close I was almost frozen in fear and asked Godfrey (our driver) to please close all the windows. But he and Savior laughed, assured me there was no way they would attack us and encouraged
me to stand up, be confident and start taking photos!! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity! I (sweatily) did as I was told and with my heart pounding, snapped away! And boy am I glad I did :) We spent at least 30 minutes with them, what a treat. The Sun had set and it started getting dark so we began our journey home to the lodge. On the way out, we saw our third Hyena! Lisa is officially the ambassador of changing the reputation of hyenas because they are actually quite beautiful in person, especially the spotted fur! We enjoyed our final dinner at Murchison River Lodge with beautiful live music from some local musicians in the background. Just another way MRL is continually supporting the local community! We can’t recommend staying at MRL enough :)Read more