Our safari commenced at 3pm when we were picked up by a 25 seater bus, typical open sided truck with bench seats and canvas roof. We were seated a fair height above the road which gave us a feeling of safety from wild animals we may come across, this proved to be a false sense. There were 9 people on the safari and most were first time to Africa.
Our driver/guide was a young man with plenty of confidence backed up by the loaded rifle which he carried as he boarded the bus. During the safari the rifle always went with him and we thought this was part of the show. Within 10 minutes drive we were entering the game park through the Bakubung Gate and were lucky enough to see a local market set out inside the entrance. We stopped long enough for photos and then set down one of the many game tracks and within minutes came upon 3 hippopotamus resting in the grass.
As we moved on away from the water the terrain changed with plenty of grey brown scrub , some trees and brown grass. We were all looking for animals, however only a few sightings and most could not be verified by fellow tourists.
The problem was the animals blended into the terrain and were hard to see. Once our eyes had adjusted and we quickly learnt where to look we all started sighting a huge variety of wild animals including white and black rhinoceros, giraffe, zebra, hyaena, elephant, warthog, wilderbeest, impala etc etc.
The safari gave us more than we expected, wild animals everywhere and our guide's experience allowed us to get very close to the animals.
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