Lake Mburo

One cool thing about most places in the Pacific Northwest is that you can live in a big city, while at the same time be so close to mountains, lakes, rivers, and so many other outdoor options for fun during both summer and wintertime. Well there may not be good rock climbing or snowboarding options here in Uganda, but there’s a safari less than two hours away!

I love the beautiful African sunsets that are so common here.

Lake Mburo National Park is one of the smaller national parks in Uganda, but it’s the only one where you can see zebras. The best part about it is that it’s only an hour and a half drive away from Masaka, so it doesn’t require much planning. This weekend, I traveled there with some friends for just one night, but we were able to squeeze in a couple game drives and a boat trip into a short period of time.

The zebras' designs are so cool to look at.

We left Masaka around 4pm on Friday, and returned around 1pm on Saturday, which may sound like a very quick trip. And in fact, I didn’t even have to change my schedule much to accommodate for the trip. I was down in Kibaale on Friday, so I left a bit earlier than normal, but still had a pretty normal day of work. And on Saturday, I still had the rest of the day at the Timothy Centre like a normal Saturday afternoon. But in between, I was able to see a whole bunch of zebras, hippos, waterbuck, fish eagles, and so much more!

The boat we were on was tiny, so we were right on the water next to the huge hippos!

The fish eagles were out in large numbers - it was fun to watch them dive into the lake!

This mischievous little monkey was robbing the weaver birds' nests.

Yes, I’m certainly looking forward to having the ability to go up to the snowy mountains in the coming months at home, but I will miss the very “African” opportunities at my fingertips here in Uganda. The abundance of relatively cheap and convenient travel options is just one of many reasons why I have loved my time living in Uganda during this past year.