Prime
Murchison Falls National Park: A game drive in the rain
What you need to know:
It felt good to see animals graze and hunt for prey from the comfort of our car seats .
Until my visit to Murchison Falls National Park this year, I had never been on a game drive. The realization hit me during a nap in the back seat of a car after a heavy lunch at Paraa Safari Lodge. After a few minutes of seeing nothing on either side of the track, I dozed off with instructions to my colleagues. “Wake me up when you see an animal!”
They dutifully did when they saw a waterbuck and some giraffes. Having seen one too many giraffes at the giraffe Centre in Nairobi and on the road to Mombasa, I ignored them and slept on. But not for long as the excitement of my company would not let me. I peered out to see what the fuss was all about. What I saw totally changed my attitude towards nature.
True I had seen giraffes before but it does not matter how often you have seen an animal, it feels different every time.
Seeing the tall gentle creatures in the extensive plains is a superior experience. Maybe it was how the giraffes’ patterned coats stood out in the Savanna or how their necks seemed to reach for the sky but they looked majestic in the pre-rain light—surreal even.
With rounded ears and no horns, the water bucks looked like overgrown baby antelopes with their dark fur that does not quite lie flat. From that point on, as the track wound through the country’s largest national park and the grass grew longer, I was very alert. In spite of the large number of giraffes and antelopes, I found myself craning my neck to see yet another one, or to identify the different species. Sometimes it was a game of chance with the animals; now you see it, now you do not.
Not even a torrential downpour could dampen the spirit of the eager party that we set out with. If anything, the rains made the experience more rugged- which is precisely the point of a game drive.
Game park sights
Besides, the rain did not seem to move the animals at all. With no shelter in the large open grassland they decided to wait it out standing in groups with the rain lashing at their coats.
I was beginning to tire of giraffes and antelopes and hoping for at least one of the big five when we spotted the first elephant.
I was floored when I first saw an elephant upclose. No artists’ impression or even photograph can do justice to the sheer size of this herbivore. The expanse of those ears and the height of those front legs is something you need to see to believe.
One elephant was not enough. Not even a herd feeding oblivious of our excited whispers and camera clicking could satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to walk over and stand by the biggest and feel just how I compare in size. Did I say an elephant is massive?
I gaped at the herd some more before I got used to the sight and for the first time noticed the tusks which looked neither big nor shiny enough for them to be the cause of the death of so many elephants.
We caught another big one, a buffalo. A couple as we moved farther towards the northern exit of the park and the animals thinned out. Though I didn’t see the big cats; the lions and leopards, I left with the satisfaction of knowing that they probably saw us and as predators, isn’t it their job to hide?
