C,T & G Uganda 2020

I woke up early and revelled in the early dawn chorus knowing it would be my last one in the African bush for quite a long time.   After an early breakfast, we sadly piled into the car knowing it was our last game drive of the holiday.   We saw so many different animals on our way towards the park exit – impala, zebra, giraffe, warthogs, monkeys, topi and so many birds – it was as if they were all on show to remind us of what we were leaving behind us. A hammerkop We drove for quite a long way on a very good road as we were heading towards Entebbe and Kampala.   Just outside of Kampala, we turned right towards Lake Victoria where the huge Mabamba swamp is located and hopefully, where we will find the elusive shoebill.   We parked up and had a quick bite to eat before getting into our small wooden canoe shaped boat with a guide and a chap to steer it and control the engine.   There was no shade on it all and it was boiling hot.   Chris and Mum both had hats so I used an umbre

We were woken up at 6.30am with tea/coffee and had breakfast at 7am for a 7.30am game drive.   Not our favourite thing but it’s the last game drive of the holiday so we were all determined to go. Giraffe Zebra We started off with a couple of crowned cranes followed by a large flock of tree wood hoopoes, which we were thrilled by.   Then it was onto red necked gamefowl and an immature lilac breasted roller.   We stopped to admire some giraffes and then some zebra - I just love watching them graze - could sit there for hours!!   Eland antelope However, Shindishi was on a mission as wanted to find us the reclusive and shy eland antelopes.   He knew several locations where we might find them so we went to all of them - no sign of them.   We did come across a bad-tempered buffalo sitting in the middle of the road soaking up its heat, who eventually shifted for us.   We visited a watering hole where they’re often found, but all we saw we

The event in the hotel last night went on to 11.45pm and was very loud with a thumping bass which made sleep impossible.   Chris complained to the management and in the end, they gave us a bottle of wine on the house. Horrendous quarry We left the lodge in pouring rain so decided not to pursue the scenic viewpoint.   Instead we traced our route from the day before and passed the numerous quarrying and stone bashing areas before town.   It looks a horrendous job - men just manually pickaxing rocks loose from the hillside or digging up sand from the side of the road washed down by the rains and the women and kids of all ages just bashing big bits of rock into smaller pieces. Plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables for sale everywhere We needed some more fuel at some stage so we pulled over into a garage.   There was a commotion going on on the other side of the road and a white car was surrounded by a huge crowd which was getting bigger all the time.   Shindishi told us t

We finally left a lodge on schedule - a first on this trip!   We retraced our steps from the other day but this time in a comfortable vehicle with an excellent driver so it was a completely different experience.   Our welcome We met our guide near the Batwa community and he caught a boda boda taxi so we followed him.   As we neared our destination, hordes of young boys started running after us and climbed up on the back of the vehicle to hitch a lift.   Shindishi didn’t like that and made them get off and then kept reversing at them very fast to try and stop them getting on again.   We were introduced to our guide who was resplendent in a Manchester City T-shirt.   He walked us into the community which was just so incredibly poor.   We were ushered into the centre of the village which consisted of a rough hut and then a couple of brick buildings and a raised wooden shack full of sheep with their manure underneath it so it was a bit smelly.   The area in the middle was a

This had been scheduled as a free day in our itinerary, but as we’d missed our scheduled boat trip the previous day, it was rearranged for today. Local fisherman We had a leisurely breakfast, and then were collected by our guide, Steve, and the boat driver and taken down to the boat.   We were all given a stick as the decent is steep and slippery down to the lake.   They were very dubious about my crocs, but it’s all I had to wear as Shindishi has my hiking boots in his car still, which is annoying.   Mum has been wearing crocs all the time anyway and managing fine, so I was sure I’d be okay too. We eventually got down to the large pontoon boat and it was just us 3, Steve and the driver.   We pottered around the lake admiring different vistas and watching the local fisherman in dug out canoes with their 4 cane rods trying to catch fish.   Chris thought it looked very hard work as they had no floats or lures and certainly didn’t use nets.   From what Shindishi has told us

Our tent After we had woken up, we sat outside our tent and enjoyed watching the river running by us.   Quite soon, we spotted Henry, the resident lone male hippo, wandering along the river edge and then he disappeared off into the bush.   After breakfast, we were told about a lone elephant standing in the river feeding off some trees on the island so duly went to admire her/him.   There were lots more stunning butterflies to admire too and I also got attacked again by the very vicious fire ants. A herd of topi that we passed leaving Ishasha We then heard that our vehicle hadn’t been repaired so that another driver and vehicle would be arriving at some point to do the next transfer.   We had to hang around for another couple of hours and eventually Vincent turned up in a much smaller, and, as it transpired, rather uncomfortable Land Cruiser.   He wasn’t a guide, so just drove as fast as he could ignoring anything of interest.   We were frustrated as were assured Ishasha

Blank Headed Gonolek We didn’t have to leave until 8.30am so enjoyed the lie in and were ready to leave promptly for a change.   We’d only gone a kilometre when the card shuddered and came to a halt as Shindishi couldn’t find a gear - yep, the gear box had a major problem.   So, we were picked up by a car from the lodge and taken back there along with our packed lunches.   We took the opportunity to catch up on emails, review photos and take more bird photos as the birds are so tame and prolific around the lodge. White-browed Robin-Chat Finally, another car arrived at about 3pm and we set off for the 100km drive south to Ishasha, the southern part of Queen Elizabeth NP.   The road was okay most of the way but we had to close all windows whenever a huge lorry passed us as the dust clouds were horrendous.   The lorries were coming from DR Congo and were apparently loaded with jeans and material and went back with cosmetics. Weaver Birds The scenery

Our lodge is quite a large one and is in the same group as the huge Paraa lodge in Murchison NP.   It’s in a superb location on a peninsula overlooking Lake Edward.   It’s got lovely grounds and is full of different birds, a resident family of wart hogs and a huge group of banded mongoose which are very tame.   We’ve enjoyed spending the morning just mooching around watching the birds and attempting to photograph some of them. A sun bird around the lodge We even saw a small snake (Mum spotted it) wriggling down some steps to a cover decking area that looked perfect for chilling out in later.   It was a tiny snake but very distinctly and brightly coloured - green and blue with huge eyes in proportion to its head size.   We went into the shop later and they happened to have a poster of poisonous snakes of Uganda and I have to say, it looked horribly like a young Boomslang - a very deadly snake indeed!   We’ll show the photo to Shindishi later and see what he thinks. We met

We said a sad farewell to Noline and Tony and set off for Queen Elizabeth NP this morning.   We had a stop off in Fort Portal to visit an ATM before continuing our journey south.   The road surface wasn’t great so it took quite a long time.   We eventually got to the park at about lunch time and enjoyed our pack lunch at the rangers gate. Old bull buffalo enjoying a mud bath The park is 1973 km squared but less than half of it is inhabited by wild animals as the western side of the park where our lodge is has been taken over by invasive grass and tree species which the native animals won’t eat.   So, our game drive was restricted to the eastern side of the park near Lake George.   Apparently, the park used to be known as Kazinga NP, but was renamed QE after the visit on 30th April 1954 of The Queen and Prince Philip. Thick Knees seeing off a monitor lizard We drove around for several hours but didn’t see a lot.   It’s a very open landscape - lots of low dry grass pun