Rhino Sanctuary

Our team leader is in America, so when the time came for two of our journey girls to go home, it fell to Doug and I to take them to the airport.

On our way to Kampala, we all stopped off at a place we hadn't visited before.

The Tiwa Rhino Sanctuary.

This is the only place rhino are in all of Uganda.

You pay a park entrance fee. Pay for a "tracker."

And then the tracker drives with you in your own car somewhere in the bush.

There are 9 rhinos in Uganda.

This is what happened to the rest of them during the war.

Horrible, isn't it?

There are three dads, three moms, and three calves.

The first baby born here was named Obama. His mother came from Disney World in America, and his dad came from Kenya. :)

(By the way, Obama is pretty much a rock star over here, but that's beside the point.)

Our tracker radioed to some soldiers who are assigned to guard the three families. Three soldiers radioed back to say that one family was near.

We parked and started our trek through the bush.

Let me stop here and say that there was a sign we read when we arrived.
1. You must be wearing long pants
2. You must be wearing close-toed shoes
3. (I forgot #3 - we were already failing at the first two)

I got my kid's tennis shoes out of the back end of the car.

We all travel in flip flops, except for Doug. He wears Chacos.

We couldn't do anything about the long pants, and no one said anything, so we went on.

Doug had some alternate shoes to put on, but not me.

I was graciously loaned some boots -

in fact, all the girls were.

Pretty, huh?

Found the mom...

Found the dad...

Walked around a tree, and we saw the whole family.

This is not Obama and his family, by the way.

So close.

Pretty amazing, huh?

It's a good thing they were all napping. Our tracker said that if the baby hears the clicking of the camera, he walks over to inspect it.

Momma again.

He crouched down to look.

Then I cracked up.

He took the position of a lion about to pounce.

Pretty much all of them were napping now.

Kelli and the kids. Can you see how close we were?

In 15 years there might be enough rhinos that they can re-stock the national parks here.

That would be nice.