One last look at Uganda's treasures
Uganda Photo Album
Uganda Safari Album
Uganda Villa Katwe Photo Album
Time flies!! The last time I wrote, October 16, I was getting ready to leave Villa Katwe in Masaka, Uganda and head for another safari, visiting the Kibale Forest and Murchison Falls. Here it is November 30 and I have been too busy to write!
I spent my last few days in Masaka saying goodbye to the people I had spent time with, they were so kind to me that it made saying goodbye difficult. Will you come back they asked - what can I say...
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| Villa Katwe Staff |
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| Wycliffe & Robin, Owners of Your Way Tours & Villa Katwe |
The trip to Kibale Forest to track the chimpanzees was just perfect! My 5-day, 4-night safari arranged by Wycliffe at Your Way Tours was excellent! Though I was the only one to go, my guide, William was both great company and an expert in Ugandan wildlife and culture. We traveled the southern route from Masaka to Fort Portal and then on to Kibale, passing through the lands of ankole and dairy herds, sugar cane, and cotton. Our first stop was the Kibale Forest Camp where I spent a couple nights in a comfy tent set in a tropical forest with the lovely sounds of creatures big and small coming to visit the little stream just outside my tent (what a treat!!). The second half of the trip was spent in Murchison Falls National Park with bush drives to see the wildlife near the Nile River.
I was up early the first morning at Kibale to join a group at the national forest for our trek. Kibale is one of two or three sites where chimps can be observed but at Kibale there has been years of work habituating the chimps so there is always a good chance of seeing these primates. But, just the day before, groups had not been lucky and had come back to the camp so disappointed that they had missed the chimps. Luck was with us though, and almost immediately after our briefing we began to hear the calling of the chimps and we knew this was going to be a great day! This experience was so different that the trek to see the mountain gorillas where, after a couple hours climbing the mountains, we found the gorillas sitting quietly & peacefully in one spot, eating and grooming. The chimps in Kibale Forest however live in both the trees and on the ground and are fast movers!
Fortunately the terrain is fairly flat but the vegetation is very thick. Our guide warned us that we would have to move quickly to keep up with the chimps who move from tree to tree either up in the canopy or on the ground. We really did have to move fast (practically running!) to keep up but the sightings were so amazing and entertaining. In the early part of the morning the chimps are up in the trees eating fruit and their favorite leaves. The males move quickly and independently and as they do remnants of fruit come raining down. Clusters of females with with babies move patiently, following the directions for best food called out by the males. The chimps are noisy & loud; communicating through hoots and cries where the best fruit is and if there is something potentially dangerous coming their way.
The females and their babies stay up in the trees to keep their babies safe but the males are busy after their morning feeding session and come down from the trees to groom and move about more freely. We spent most of our half day trek within sight of chimps and came away with an incredible sense of awe of this habitat & respect for the work that Uganda is doing to protect these amazing creatures.
Near the Kibale is a community development wildlife/wetlands park that trains & employs local residents to guide walks into the park. My guide was a wonderful young fellow who absolutely loves his work and mixes in stories of traditional culture while pointing out the wildlife and plants. He was a fantastic spotter! In addition to seeing several monkey & colobus species he stopped me abruptly to wait for a green mamba snake to pass from a tree to the ground & slither away within just a few of us! And then, he turned to show me an African Scops Owl tucked way up in a tree.
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| Ankole |
The trip northward to Murchison Falls National Park took the good part of a day but along the way we passed through rolling hills with grazing ankole, plots of maize & cotton, and of course, banana plantations. We arrived at the Murchison Fort lodge and again I had a comfy tent to call home for a couple days. The lodge is right along the Nile River where you can hear and spot hippopotamus, egrets, herons, stork, and fish eagles. William had us leaving early for a sunrise bush drive to spot elephants, giraffe, plenty of antelope, cape buffalo, and as always spectacular birds.
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| Ugandan Kob Antelope |
William showed me the mating grounds of Uganda's antelope, the kob, which are fairly unique among antelope. Rather than banding in harems with a dominant male and a small herd of females, the kob females band together in large herds separately from the male. They create a large oval in open space where the females will congregate at mating time. The males then enter the space, if dominant enough, to mate. Murchison had a couple of these mating grounds that were close enough to see and it was fascinating watching the maneuvering of the males around and in the open space in their coy attempts to attract the females.
One night while in Murchison we had heavy rain and though most of the roads into the park were passable in the morning, by evening the road we needed to get back to the lodge was flooded with water from higher ground. William was cautious and he would not take his 4x4 through the high water for fear of getting stuck. After some negotiating and a couple of hours of waiting in more rain, there were enough people to fill the park's open cab safari vehicle with enough clearance to cross. Thankfully we had this heavy duty vehicle as the flooded areas on the road seemed to offer a perfect place for several very large crocodiles to settle in. A little too up close & personal with crocodiles swimming alongside this open cab vehicle but we made it through!
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| Murchison Falls, Uganda |
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| Last Sunset - River Nile, Uganda |
After two months completely enjoying Uganda, it was time to say goodbye and continue on. William my guide dropped me off in Kampala at the end of my wonderful safari - from there I traveled a few hours by public mini-bus on to Entebbe where the international airport is located. At 2:45 am on November 1st, I waved goodbye to the Pearl of Africa as I headed north to Egypt.
Fortunately the terrain is fairly flat but the vegetation is very thick. Our guide warned us that we would have to move quickly to keep up with the chimps who move from tree to tree either up in the canopy or on the ground. We really did have to move fast (practically running!) to keep up but the sightings were so amazing and entertaining. In the early part of the morning the chimps are up in the trees eating fruit and their favorite leaves. The males move quickly and independently and as they do remnants of fruit come raining down. Clusters of females with with babies move patiently, following the directions for best food called out by the males. The chimps are noisy & loud; communicating through hoots and cries where the best fruit is and if there is something potentially dangerous coming their way. 
Near the Kibale is a community development wildlife/wetlands park that trains & employs local residents to guide walks into the park. My guide was a wonderful young fellow who absolutely loves his work and mixes in stories of traditional culture while pointing out the wildlife and plants. He was a fantastic spotter! In addition to seeing several monkey & colobus species he stopped me abruptly to wait for a green mamba snake to pass from a tree to the ground & slither away within just a few of us! And then, he turned to show me an African Scops Owl tucked way up in a tree. 
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