Fifty shades of khaki
Cameras are the new guns
Urban dictionary definition of “the ick”: something/someone that puts you off or makes you cringe
Animal safari is a bucket list item for a lot of people, especially for animal lovers much like ourselves. One thing we really looked forward to coming to Africa was the wildlife. Seeing animals in their natural habitat is an amazing experience, and it’s one of the top reasons people visit Africa. It shouldn’t be the only reason to visit mind you! People are quick to stereotype Africa as a continent of animals, and some people are even shocked to hear there are cities in Africa. “Are animal safaris even ethical?”, we asked ourselves. What’s for certain is the fact that the safari experience at Queen Elizabeth National Park definitely made us feel awkward at times. “Icky”, to be precise. If you thought skiing was the most white people thing someone can do, well, game drives have entered the chat.
Let’s not forget that the background of animal safari is strongly interwoven with hunting. Thankfully we’ve moved on from that (for the most part) and are repulsed by the thoughts of swathes of white men and women roaming a foreign country, killing animals, and returning home with their “trophies”. Not to mention proudly posing with the corpses for photos… Now we live in an era of game drives and animal tracking, where cameras have replaced the guns. And here enters our first ick - the photo hungry tourists with the massive camera lenses. Of course many are passionate about taking wildlife photos, and some people even earn a living from it. It’s a really cool thing, and everyone enjoys seeing the photos. But when you witness a boat packed full of white (and let’s face it, rich) tourists almost capsize due to the weight of the camera lenses all pointed in the direction of a resting hippo, you get the ick. It’s a sight to behold. There’s something about the stance, the long pointed object, and the colonial-inspired khaki outfit that sends shivers down your spine. It felt like we were hunting! We tracked down the hippos, we drove up to them with the boat (with two or three other boats following), we got very close, and then the cameras and smartphones were whipped out and pointed at them.
That was our first day in Queen Elizabeth National Park in Western Uganda, near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s the oldest park in Uganda spanning an area of 1,978km squared, and a variety of eco systems within the Albertine Rift Valley. It is one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations and receives the highest number of visitors of any of the country’s national parks every year. The diverse eco system of crater lakes, grassy hills, open savannah, and lush forests and jungles, means that it supports a large variety of wildlife. It’s a “must-see”. As you’ve probably gathered by now, we always travel independently and like to discover our own way of doing things, as opposed to traveling with tour agencies. We opted for pitching our tent at one of the campsites in the national park, with the added bonus of elephant and hippo visits to our tent day and night. Living in close proximity to wild animals means that the rangers are your best friends (they would even accompany us on our toilet visits). We had planned to self drive in the park on our second day, but given some previous challenges we had with our Subaru on bumpy dirt roads (and subsequent repairs), we made the sensible decision to avoid wrecking our car on the park’s tracks and go with a guide in his vehicle instead. We ended up seeing potholes that could have doubled as crater lakes, so it was the right decision.
“Ronaldo”, our driver and guide, picked us up at 06:30, and off we sped to the park gate. It seemed we weren’t the only ones heading for safari… The entrance area was packed with tourist vehicles, fifty shades of khaki. We then entered the game drive area and set off along what turned out to be Ronaldo’s racetrack. One thing people don’t tell you about safari is how uncomfortable it is for people with boobies - they fly in directions you didn’t know were possible while you tear along in the safari vehicle. Another thing they don’t tell you, is that safari vehicles are in competition with each other to get to each animal sighting first. It’s like Formula One out there. After a few minutes, Ronaldo’s phone rang. A lion had been spotted. Ronaldo by name and Ronaldo by nature did a very sporty U-turn, and sped off in the opposite direction. The race was on. Vehicles joined our track from every direction, the quest for the best vantage point was a brutal one. And then we experienced our second ick… We parked up beside a long line of vehicles, each full of eager tourists with cameras and smartphones at the ready, and we all stared at a lone sleeping lion. The whole scene felt ridiculous. We learned that some lions are equipped with a GPS tracker in order to protect the local community from the lion and vice versa - but it’s also handy for pleasing tourists it seems… Some vehicles with a “special permit at an extra cost” went off track to get even closer to the lion - no doubt so the Mzungus could get better photographs. But isn’t the point of the big lens that you don’t have to get so close? Our third ick closely followed the second one: the lion was not one bit bothered by the massive audience. He was totally comfortable with the vehicles driving up past him, which can only mean that he is accustomed to humans. Or maybe we’re completely overthinking it and he’s just an exceptionally lazy lion who couldn’t be bothered reacting…
The same show was repeated following a leopard sighting, and in the end we told our driver that we just wanted to drive around without following the crowd. Ronaldo could take a break from racing, and we could enjoy a less bumpy ride. We were even lucky enough to see a lion walking around in peace without the whole Mzungu spectacle. Is safari extremely romanticized at these big parks, or would one be completely naive to think it would be any different? Did we make a bad decision in choosing this particular park? Were our expectations completely out of whack? And coming back to our original question - do we feel that safaris are even ethical?
We have decided that despite our experience, they have to be considered ethical. Cringe-worthy moments aside, the impact that safari has on Africa’s economies cannot be underestimated. Tourism in Uganda, largely driven by safari, accounts for 10% of the GDP. Safari tourism boosts and empowers local communities. Tourists come and pay (a lot of) money to do game drives and enter the park, they stay in a lodge, and the lodge employs local people. Many lodges even go beyond and run community projects that empower and offer career prospects for nearby residents, like coffee cooperatives and hospitality training. In addition, a percentage of the National Park’s income goes towards local communities. The safari tourism also conserves wildlife - if animals in the savannah do not have economic value, then people are less likely to support their existence. The wildlife and the nature in the national parks depend on their economic value for survival. Animal safari has also led to a fall in poaching, which often stems from poverty. The animals are doing well.
So that’s how we’ve justified it to ourselves and we’ve decided to embrace the ick. It is a luxury to be able to support the animal’s existence, and indirectly support the local communities. By all means go on safari, don’t let our observations turn you off. But please let us know if you have had similar experiences!
Really interesting experience and very different from the one I made at Krugerpark. There, we rented a Jeep and took off on our own, which was great & we saw the big 4 away from crowds in one day! I haven’t witnessed any of this bizarre behaviour as you did with a single lion, but maybe Krugerpark has just denser population of wildlife, so that there is enough to see by serendipity? Not sure if that makes it better or worse for the animals, but I would also argue that such parks are generally contributing to the flourishing of community & wildlife. Love your blog!