5/5

Now officially been here for more than a month! Its the comedown now though, we're heading back to Kampala for the journey home. But not before completing the Big Five! That's right, I've check off leopard, lion, buffalo and elephant. Just rhinos left. So we asked our man Mohammed to drive us in the early morning to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, where they have 12 white rhinos, majestic beasts.

It was easy enough to track them, as the rangers pretty much know where the rhinos are permanently. That helps, in a country where rhinos were decimated and are only now being reintroduced. Interesting fact: rhinos can only live in grassland with a specific height of grass, due to the structure of their mouths. If the height is not approximately 3mm, then they can't survive. Sounds so counter-evolutionary for such an impressive race of animals. That's what you get when you're top of the food chain. Ziwa is quite an ethereal place, beautiful grassland covered in dew. We found a pack of four, a mother, its two offspring and a reject from another pack. Notice the scars all across the back of the rhino. Experience totally worth the detour!

After that, Mohammed dropped us off on the main road, next to a little store where we bought fantas and waited for a bus to come by, befriending some local boda drivers. Before long, we decided it was fruitless to wait for a bus and instead jumped in the first matatu that came by. Thankfully, it was mostly empty and we got to enjoy the journey and our driver's impressive knack at avoiding traffic!

Three hours later, we were back in the ugly urbanization of Kampala, trying to ward off the usual packs of taxi drivers. We got a special hire to the Red Chili hideout. Until one of the tires popped, classic situation. We decided to walk the rest of the way. Big mistake! We would have been at it for hours, little did we know that Red Chili had recently moved to a new location. Some boda drivers tried to warn us but we thought they were scamming us for money. In an incredibly lucky turn of events, a Red Chili van drove by and we hailed it. The guy explained the situation. Dunno what kind of mess we would have gotten into if that van hadn't driven by. Damn. Turns out the new location was WAY out of town, not to mention only halfway through the construction process. No water in the pool.
So we just chilled out on the veranda, played pool at the bar and ate burgers. The life before home. Overall, we took it easy today.

peace