Heading home

Sunday

Our last day in Africa. We chose to pack a picnic breakfast to be able to spend as much time as possible in the bush before our puddle-jumping flight back to Nairobi. Having seen so much, it was fun to slow down a little to learn more about individual species: zebras bark as a warning of danger and make a sort of hooting sound to call members of its herd; dik-diks fight by pretending to head butt without ever actually touching one another; and you can find hippos by following their strong sulfurous smell! We saw the hyena puppies again — they were wresting and playing with each other — and two of the lionesses from Friday night. We also saw the bathing elephants from last night, including a very small (less that a year old) baby boy. We visited a waterhole to watch giraffe manage the gymnastics of drinking.  A photo of him and a couple of his drinking buddies is attached.  We breakfasted by a hippo pool, being careful to be upwind of them (see earlier smell comment), which was great fun. On our drive to the air strip we saw a total of fifty-nine hippos in three different pools, two Nile crocodiles, and seven new species of birds.  Not a bad last drive.  

What a great trip this has been. So many animals, so many different landscapes, climates and cultures, and 251 species of birds, of which we managed to photograph at least 200. As we begin 21 hours of travel to get home, our eyes and brains and hearts are full of images and memories. We are also thankful for the outstanding guides we had during our trip — Paul, Joseph, and Lucas.  They played a large part in making our trip so special.  All of them also loved birding and loved the fact that we loved seeing all varies of wildlife, big and small, and everything in between.

Naboisho2

Saturday

Rather than a morning game drive, we went for a 3 mile walk across the savanna accompanied by our guide and an armed ranger — in case an animal decides to charge us. It was great to stretch our legs and see the landscape from a different perspective.  We learned a great deal about the social dynamics of the different antelope species.  For example, did you know that the stripes on a zebra not only confuse predators but also confuse biting insects and create local cooling wind patterns that enable the zebras to eat all afternoon rather than hiding in the shade as other species do?  We also learned about different aspects of the circle of life — how different creatures depend on other creatures for food and homes.

On our afternoon game drive, we got to observe how a brief heavy rain shower affects the behavior of the antelope herds. While the elephants are happy for the rain, the other species get jittery, probably not because of the rain itself but because the sky gets so dark that they revert to “sundown behaviors”.  After the rain stopped we observed two young lions and a lioness sunbathing to dry out, and two jackals snacking on fallen dates.  Near the lions we spotted a couple of elephants.  As we drew closer to observe them, the two turned out to be members of a parade of sixteen elephants of all sizes from babies to an enormous male. We radio’ed that opportunity to the other guides, who, in exchange, told us about a pride of ten lions.  We decided to curtail our elephant viewing and headed for the lions.  The pride consisted mostly of young lions playing in a field.  It was amusing to watch them wrestle, box, and running tackle one another in the late afternoon sun.  No matter what species we saw, the young always enjoyed playing with brothers, sisters, and cousins.  

We again stood on the savannah sipping white wine while the sun set (have we mentioned that this close to the equator the time of sunrise and sunset are constant within 15 minutes all year?) and then embarked on a night drive. What a night drive. In two hours (we ate dinner very late; the people at the lodge were very nice about letting us do that) we saw seven hippos out of the water heading onto the savanna to graze, five elephants heading into the water to bathe and drink, two bush babies jumping about in the trees, twelve scrub hares, six spring hares, three jackals, two bat-eared foxes and a genet (today’s viewing of the genet was outstanding). And hyenas! Four were hunting, and then we saw eleven at their den, including small puppies who were very interested in smelling our vehicle’s tires. 

The photos today include a new subspecies of Plains Zebra, called “flame-tailed zebra”, only visible at dawn, and a young male lion.

Naboisho

Friday 

Today we said goodbye to our Lewa friends and departed for the Naboisho Conservancy.  The plane ride there was like riding a city bus.  We made three stops before reaching our destination.  Naboisho lodge is a tent lodge, meaning our room is a tent; however, this is not your average tent.  There is a sitting space in the front section with two chairs and a day bed, a large sleeping section with a king size bed and writing desk, a bathroom space with the usual fixtures, and an outdoor shower— not your average tent.  

The lodge has no perimeter fence; so animals can come wandering right up tp your tent.  Once darkness falls and before the sun comes up an escort accompanies you to your tent. When we arrived, we had a wildebeest about 50 yards from our tent.  A short time later, a giraffe joined the wildebeest.

The landscape here is very different from Lewa. The land is flat and the plains open with few trees and only occasional thickets of shrubs. While it is still quite dry, the grass is greener than in the north. Naboisho has a very high concentration of lions, thanks to the huge herds of zebra, impala, thomson’s gazelles, giraffe, buffalo, topi, and of course wildebeest — and the consequences can be seen in the skulls dotting the ground as you drive past. 

We are again lucky in our guide, who is experienced and knowledgeable, and a birder. His name name is Lucas.  We also have a student who is studying to be a guide. They have classroom work and need to spend time in the field learning from experienced guides. Between the drive from the airstrip and a long afternoon game drive we saw a male lion, five lionesses, four cheetah (a mother and three young about 14 months old), two jackals, a hyena, and banded mongoose and lots of birds.

At the end of the afternoon drive, we stopped to have a sundowner — sipping wine on the savanna and watching the sun set.  We ended our sundowner a bit early when we heard the “walking, not angry” growl of a male lion. We pursued him by ear in the gathering dark, and discovered that he was on his way back to his den.  We continued the night drive and encountered another male lion and two lionesses starting their nighttime hunt.  We also came across another jackal, a scrub hare and three nocturnal species: white-tailed mongoose, genet (which looks like a cat but is related to mongoose) and springhare (who bounce around like miniature kangaroos).  

The photos today are a secretary bird and our neighbors as viewed from the tent. 

Lewa3

Thursday

It seems that every day we say “we had an amazing day” but it was true again today!  Our morning game drive took us to a new part of the Lewa Conservancy in search of rare antelope species. We were quite successful in our search. We saw dik-dik, gerenuk, klipspringers and greater kudu. We saw more rock hyrax, lion, ostrich and more common ungulates. We also saw a leopard, giving us a view of the last of the African big five (lion, Cape buffalo, rhino, elephant, and leopard).  We also saw two of the small five: an ant lion and a buffalo weaver.  The full list of the small five is: ant lion, buffalo weaver, elephant shrew, rhinoceros beetle, and leopard tortoise.

These sightings would have made a great morning, but the highlight was undoubtedly seeing four young hyena.  We had first spotted the adult hyenas, but as we got closer, we saw one pup, then we saw another, then two more.  Their mothers decided we were not dangerous and went off to hunt, leaving us free to watch the puppies play and be curious about us for as long as we liked.  The puppies were of three different ages.  Joseph said that hyena tend to have twins; so these were the puppies of three different mothers. Truly, baby anything are cute! 

During the game drive, Joseph, our guide, gave us a brief overview of the geology of the area.  Lewa sits in a hilly bowl formed by three mountain ranges. Mt Kenya, an extinct volcano to the northeast, is one of the highest peaks in Africa and last erupted about two million years ago. Subsequent volcanic eruptions occurred by magma flowing through cracks in the bedrock, pushing up the three mountain ranges, the most recent only 200,000 years ago, and in some cases later lava flows filled in the canyons the earlier ones had created. All of this makes for a dry (in the rain shadow of the mountains) environment with a complicated geology.  Until cattle farming (by westerners as well as the local tribes) began in the 19th century, Lewa was too harsh an environment for settlement.  We also learned that to keep elephant from killing trees by stripping the bark, you should hang beehives from the trees. Elephants don’t like bees, and giraffes don’t like ants! 

The afternoon drive (the final drive of our stay at Lewa) was a show stopper.   Our first encounter was an eagle owl.  It was sound asleep; therefore an easy target for a photographer.  Next we came to a huge herd of zebra.  It was a mixed herd of Grevy’s and plains zebra.  After that we saw all the big five in one afternoon drive!!  The rhino sighting was a female black rhino with her baby.  We got an excellent viewing of a leopard, first by a stream in long grass and later walking to, and jumping up into, a pile of fallen branches. The climax of the big five sightings was a pair of lions mating, not once, but twice.

The photos are hyena puppies, a generuk, and the second leopard of the day.

Lewa2

Wednesday

On our way down the driveway of the lodge we saw 3 Dikdiks, the smallest of the antelope species... so small that it resembled a rabbit on first glance. Ironically we also saw the largest of the antelope species, the eland, this morning. We saw several other rare species today, including the rock hyrax and four black rhinos. Rock hyrax look like big rodents (think guinea pigs) but are most closely related to elephants! Black rhinos are not necessarily darker than white ones—- white rhinos are named for their wide grazing mouths (wide became white over time) so their counterparts who are shrub browsers and have a narrow mouth were named black.  Confusing?   

We also had some lessons in the ways of Mother Nature today, and when man ought or ought not intervene.  One of the black rhinos had been seriously injured in a fight, and the rhino vet was on the way to doctor him up.  This whole reserve started as an attempt to save the black rhino, which in the mid 1990’s were down to 400 individuals. There are now close to 1000 worldwide, but it still makes sense to intervene.  On the other hand, we saw a lame plains zebra today (probably injured during a lion attack) and as that species is plentiful, the animal will be left to survive or not as its luck goes.

After lunch, we had a short relaxing time (we wondered around the resort birding and viewing the vegetable gardens), then we headed off for an afternoon safari.  The first part was bird focused. As ever, we saw some interesting new bird species. Then a call came in of a cheetah sighting, so we were off in pursuit.  The cheetah was lying down in the grass, so we were grateful for the advice from the team that first spotted her, or we’d never have seen her. Once we were there, however, we were able to see her yawn, stretch, get up and walk around... she is a beautiful animal! On the trip back to the lodge we again saw a lion, as well as a young jackal (who seemed a bit confused about us, in the end he seemed quite relaxed with our presence) and a hyena which was chased off by some waterbucks.

It is fascinating to be in the Kenyan highlands. The lodge is at 6000 feet, so the days are warm, the evenings cool, and the humidity negligible. Quite a change from the overcast days and rainy nights that predominated in Uganda.  

Lewa1

Tuesday

Today started with a alarm going off at 5:45.  We had to leave for Wilson Airport at 6:45 to catch an 8:30 flight to Lena.  Wilson Airport is a small airport servicing the small domestic flights within Kenya.  It is about the size of Westchester Airport back in the 1980’s.  The reason we had to leave so early for an airport that has virtually no waiting times for security lines is because Nairobi traffic is horrific.  Our flight on the 18 seat dual prop aircraft was quite smooth.

Upon our arrival at the airport, we were met by Joseph our guide/driver for our safaris over the next three days during our stay at Lewa House in the Lewa Conservancy.  The trip to the lodge was amazing!!  We saw lions, Grevy zebra, plains zebra, Cape buffalo, impala, elephants, reticulated giraffe, and 23 new species of birds.  Not bad for a trip from the airport.  The Lewa House lodge is magnificent.  The architecture of the buildings is a cross between Hobbiton and Tatoonie.  The food is excellent and the managers, a husband and wife team, are very pleasant and fun.  

We went on another game drive in the late afternoon. We saw many of the same animals, plus warthogs, white rhinoceroses, fringe eared oryx and Somali ostrich. One of the great things about Lewa is that it represents the southern end of range for northern species like the oryx, and the northern end of range for southern species. One fun experience was with a large herd of Cape buffalo.  Joseph stopped our vehicle so that we could observe the herd.  Soon we found ourselves virtually surrounded by the buffalo, large and small plus all sizes in between.  One of the buffalo had a flock of yellow billed oxpeckers riding on its back.  Another great experience was having a lioness walk right by our vehicle.  A great first day in Kenya.  

Monday travel

Just a quick post, about our travel day on Monday. We flew from an airstrip near Ishasha to Entebbe. It seemed an odd place for an airstrip but we were told that it allows people from Entebbe to fly in on a weekend to play golf at a nearby golf course (which felt even odder, given the subsistence farming we’d been driving through all week). After several hours at the Entebbe airport, our flight to Nairobi was uneventful. Driving to our overnight hotel (a former estate in Karen, north of Nairobi proper) was a shock — beautiful paved roads with no “Uganda massage”!

Gorillas2

Two members of our Nathab group got so exhausted trekking to see the gorillas the first day (Saturday) that they decided not to trek the second day.  This turned out to be a boon for the rest of us because the remaining seven of us plus our tour leader were able to trek together (remember, maximum of eight people in a trekking group).  Before today’s trek we were entertained by a school group.  They performed different songs and dances from the group yesterday.   At one point, they got everyone to get up and dance with them.  

The gorilla family we were assigned today was a large family consisting of 17 members, including four babies ranging in age from two years to four years.   Given this bit of information we were raring to go.  To get to our trek starting point, we had a short drive.  The trek up the mountain was not as tough as yesterday’s but there were a few places with 70 degree inclines.  

After about 90 minutes of trekking we came upon the gorilla family.  The first thing we saw of them were two of the babies playing on a tree.  As we prepared to observe them, that is getting our cameras out of our daypacks, the two scampered down the tree and into the bush.  Our trek guide bushwhacked a path of us (it’s not called the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park for nothing) to where the gorillas were located on the ground.  There on the ground were the two youngest ones wrestling each other and rolling around.  That was the start of a wonderful hour of watching a large family of gorillas. Most of the adults were just laying around (unlike the adults yesterday who spent the time we were with them eating) while the young ones played non-stop.  On occasion, when the young ones’ rough housing caused them to crash into the silverback, he would yell at them.  Like most human toddlers, they just ignored him and continued their play.  One game the young liked to play was to climb up some vines and then come crashing down, sometimes not completely on purpose.  Watching this family was truly a wonderful experience.  We got a bonus of seeing a chameleon during our trek back to our vehicles. 

After our trek and lunch, we went on a birdwatching walk with a local expert. We were initially skeptical, as the walk was along the main road through the village rather than in the forest, but we ended up seeing 25 new species, including several that are only seen in small corner of Uganda where the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is located.

We regret that the Uganda portion of our trip is coming to its close (tomorrow is a travel day).  We had an amazing adventure - we saw a wide variety of wildlife, spent time with a great group of people, stayed at very nice lodges, and tasted some great food.  As for birds, we saw 171 species and we have photos of 141 of them — not too bad.

Gorillas!

Gorilla Day 1

Mixed emotions filled the air during this morning’s breakfast.  Everyone was quite excited about seeing the gorillas, but apprehensive about the climb necessary to reach them.  The mountain on which the gorillas live towers above our lodge.  During the previous night’s dinner, we were given a briefing about what to expect on the trek.  The trek could last as little as an hour and up to eight hours — it all depends on where the gorillas are each day.  Each family has a territory, but wander widely within that territory.  One porter would be provided to each of us to carry our day packs containing our rain gear, cameras, fleece (it is chilly in the morning), box lunch, water, and other assorted stuff.  We were also told the porters could help us up the mountain, either pulling or pushing.  All of this made us think this was a really difficult hike — thus the apprehension.

After breakfast we headed off to the park visitor center. There we were assigned to groups of eight people.  Each group was then assigned to a gorilla family.  Once a group comes upon the gorilla family to which they ere assigned, they can spend at most one hour observing the family members.  This way the visitors are spread out across the mountain and time is constrained so impact on the gorillas is minimized. Before we started the trek we were entertained by a group of children from a local school.  They performed a few traditional Uganda songs and dances.  

 We were very fortunate on our trek, after only about 2 hours of hiking we found the gorilla family we were seeking. Trackers go out at dawn to determine the gorilla family locations, so the trek guides have a pretty good idea of which trails will need to be followed. The hike up the mountain was not too bad, but the trekking through the forest was a bit more challenging because of uneven terrain, thorny underbrush and lots of vines perfectly positioned to catch a passing boot. 

We saw 12 different gorillas from our family — the silverback, his brother, his 2-year old son (who was just as curious as a human 2-year old), three other young ones, one other male and 5 adult females. We watched them eat, nap, wander in search of food and climb up into a tree to eat berries, a special treat for them. Gorillas need to eat constantly as they are completely vegetarian and it takes a lot of leaves to sustain those big bodies. These gorillas near the edge of the forest are habituated to humans, so while visitors are not to get too close to them, as long as we behave well they ignore us — on several occasions we were looking at one gorilla to find that another was walking through the high ferns right next to one of us. Both of us had moments when we could have touched one, but of course we did not!   The silverback may not have cared that we were there, but he was nervous about a neighboring family with which his frequently fights. He made small noises to call his family together, and then rose up to beat his chest with a short roar to announce his location. The rest of his family, as far as we could tell, ignored him. But his little son practiced the chest beating move, which was adorable. 

After a short rest at the lodge, several of us went to a local charity called Rides4Women, which helps victims of domestic abuse with skills training, English classes, safe housing and clean water. A gift shop sells their fabric and basket crafts to provide them with needed income. The crafts were beautiful and the equipment innovative.  For example they use a charcoal iron and foot pedal sewing machines so they are not dependent on electricity generation to do their work. 

Trees!

Our primary objectives this morning (Friday) in Ishasha were to spot a leopard (pun intended) and some additional lions. It was an overcast and cool morning, which could delay the timing of the cats climbing up into the trees. Yesterday’s tree was devoid of lions, but after 45 minutes of looking at every promising tree and searching for movement in the tall grass, we did find a leopard partially hidden on a shady branch halfway up in a tall tree by a river. Leopards like this sort of location because they can see the animals as they come down to the water for a drink — a fine point of view from which to pick a meal.  We also saw more Uganda Kob and Topi (the latter is a handsome mahogany colored antelope). Both species move in large herds and are entering mating season, which makes them a little crazy. One section of the plain is called the breeding field. This is where the males challenge one another and where the females choose their champions. 

We next moved to the river that separates Uganda from Congo, and observed more hippos under the watchful eye of our armed military escort. There were large signs, well back from the rivers edge which read “STOP. Hippos are Dangerous”.  After viewing the hippos for a short time we headed south in search of lions. Our valiant trip leader knew of another good fig tree near the main road, so we went there. He was spot on, in the tree we found two lionesses and three lion cubs. Unlike yesterday’s lion, these cats were not such good sleepers and took turns waking up to stare at us. One cub was especially restless. 

After a picnic lunch we drove south to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, which us where we will gorilla trek on Saturday and Sunday. The mountains are indeed daunting — it looks like the 70 degree incline advertised in our briefing materials might be true! Our cabin is surrounded by so many flowering plants that we are inundated with small birds. Kevin could hardly keep up with photographing new species, they arrived and departed so quickly — the departing part is rather frustrating to the photographer.

Heading south

When we arrived at Mweya Lodge we thought the rule about not walking at night for fear of hippos was silly, as the lodge was easily 100 feet above the Kazinga Channel at the top of quite a steep cliff. But our first evening, right after dinner, our trip leader took a photo of a hippo right by the walkway to the lodge dining room!

This morning (Thursday) we started again at 6:15 with a game drive. We went to check on the  elephant carcass to see if any predators had visited overnight. To our surprise, they had not, and the number of vultures had decreased significantly. As we headed further east on the channel road, we came across a large male hippo crossing the road and heading back to the channel at his leisure. Hippos do not waddle on land but walk quite smoothly. Then while we were watching him, a hyena wandered by, heading back towards the elephant. A herd of waterbuck stood quietly watching both animals.  The hyena decided that fresh waterbuck was more attractive than old elephant and turned around to give chase.  Waterbuck have poor depth perception, and the herd was a bit slow to recognize their peril. We do not know the outcome of the chase as the animals disappeared into the brush. We did not see many mammals during the rest of the drive (other than warthogs and kob). We did see a variety of birds including some new sightings. 

After breakfast, we headed south to the Ishasha section of Queen Elizabeth Park, another 2 hours on rough roads.  At one point there were so many little white butterflies that it felt like driving through a snowstorm. Fitbit statistics are unreliable this week as we keep getting over 10,000 steps just from bouncing in the Jeep!   Ishasha is famous for lions who climb trees.  Fig trees are their favorites because of the numerous horizontal-ish branches, and our guides knew where to find a large male lion napping in the afternoon breeze.  He didn’t mind our taking endless photos while he slept.  

Our lodging tonight is a tent camp by a river, with the sounds of monkeys (during the day) and lions (at night).  This is truly glamping as both the food and the WiFi are the best since we left Entebbe. 

Meywa Wednesday

Lions, hippos, and crocs...oh yes.  Today we started the day very early (6:15am) with a morning game drive in the savanna portion of Queen Elizabeth Park.  The savanna is home to a variety of animals, not on the same scale as the savanna in Kenya, but enough to make for an entertaining drive.  The first mammal we encountered (we had already seen several winged creatures) was a hyena.  True to its species, it was out on its own.  After a few more bird sightings, we came across a group of mongoose; there were at least one and one-half dozen of them.  A bunch of them were in the road drinking out of a puddle.  Some of them would dash into grass along the roadside only to have some others appear to take their place on the road.

Shortly after we came by a herd of Uganda kob (think impala). These guys are the main course for the four-legged predators living in the savanna.  What we got to see was a group of lions watching the kobs and the kobs watching the lions.  This scene had the potential for some exciting action, for us, not the kob.  However, the lion just kept watching; — no savanna breakfast today.  

During the rest of the game drive, we saw large herds of Cape buffalo, more Uganda kob, a monitor lizard, a couple of hippos each in his own mud hole, waterbuck, vervet monkeys, wart hogs, elephants, and lots of birds, including several kinds of birds of prey. Near the end of the drive, we spotted a large number of vultures.  As we drew closer to their position, we came across an elephant that had died of old age.  Several vultures were feasting on the elephant while a large number of vultures awaited on nearby trees for their turn.  It was fascinating to see this part of the circle of life.

After our lunch, we went on a boat ride in the channel that separates Lake George from Lake Edward.  We saw a massive number of pied kingfishers.  They make nests in the bank of the channel and dive into the channel to fish.  We also saw lots of hippos.  Large males, females, and some young.  In a single group there is only one male.  Any male born into the group are either killed or exiled (the hippos we saw in the mud holes were probably exiled hippos.  Elephants came down to the water for drinks and baths. Nile crocodiles were visible along the bank as well as in the shallows.  A great variety of water birds also occupied the shore line. After the boat ride it was a short rest, then off to dinner.  When we left for dinner we needed to call to get picked up in a golf cart.  Walking from the rooms to the lobby was considered unsafe because hippos come up from the lake at night (hippos are considered the most dangerous animal in Africa).

Tuesday

 Our day started with the usual excellent breakfast.  Ndali Lodge makes a great breakfast open-face sandwich with avocado,tomato and eggs (cooked to your choosing) served on whole wheat toast.  They also make a delicious green smoothie.  After breakfast, we headed back to Kibale National park for another chimpanzee trek.  A short way into our trek, we had to make a quick retreat and a large detour.  Why you may ask.  Well answer is simple: forest elephants.  Some forest elephants started crashing through the forest towards our path.  Since the elephants will charge humans on sight,  our guide immediately turned us around.  It would have been cool to see the elephants, but if we saw them, they would probably see us, and that would spell trouble for us.

The detour our interlopers caused us to take was rather long with a lot of trekking through the jungle, generally not on any sort of trail and much of it steeply uphill.  For a while we were thinking we walked far enough to have crossed into the Congo and would be in trouble because none of us had our passports.  We did eventually come upon a single male chimpanzee, age 33. He was initially up in the trees, but shortly after we came upon him, he climbed down and started to travel on the ground.  We were in pursuit.  He would stop briefly and we followed diligently. Unfortunately he kept doing this for awhile.  Finally he found a spot with lots of fruit on the ground.  He settled down to a long meal which gave us a fabulous opportunity to observe him as well as take a bunch of photos.  The park guides told us that being able to watch a chimpanzee on the ground for such a long period of time is considered a rare event.

Our new photogenic friend eventually took to the trees and we took to the regular trails towards the park exit.  On the way, however, we came across a mother and toddler chimpanzee (it was about 5 years old) in a tree — more observing and photos.  Our time in the park was drawing to a close, so back to the exit trail.

Once our trek was over and we were waiting to board our vehicles for the ride back to the lodge, who should appear but a group of black-and-white colobus monkeys.  They were great entertainment and gave us our last opportunity of the morning to observe and, of course, take more photos.

Back at the lodge, before lunch, we had one last opportunity to spot, identify, and photo some of the sunbirds inhabiting the lodge grounds.  Sunbirds are East Africa’s equivalents to hummingbirds ( beautifully colored, love flower nectar and never stay in one place very long— well sunbirds are worse in this regard). We did manage to identify a few and get some photos; however, I think more got away nameless.  After some local fish and chips lunch, we were reflecting on what a great day we had.

But wait, there’s more! After lunch we piled into the jeeps to retrace our steps to Kasese, then turning southwest towards Queen Elizabeth Park. We went straight at one intersection where a right turn would have taken us across the Congo border, and then crossed the equator. The road is wider there to allow people to stop and take pictures, but due to road construction they took down the signs. Fortunately our guides knew we were at this important location.  We stopped for a moment and cheered.

Once safely in the Southern Hemisphere, we entered Queen Elizabeth Park, then turned onto a road that would take us to our next lodge... this turn turned into our first game drive— we saw warthogs (lots of warthogs: bigs ones, medium ones, and, yes, baby ones) waterbucks , buffaloes, mongooses, elephants (all sizes as well, including a baby practicing land-snorkeling) and 25 species of birds.  All this in 45 minutes.  What a day! 

Dali Lodge Day 2

Today (Monday) was primarily a primate day.  We started the day with a morning “swamp walk” at Biloxi Swamp Preserve.  The preserve is know for a diversity of monkeys and birds.  Our group of nine split into two subgroups: one interested in birding as well as monkeys (that would be us) and the other having general interest.  We ended the morning with 35 bird sighting (we heard more) and three different species of monkeys, including the red-tailed guenon below.

For lunch we visited a local farm for a cultural exchange.  The food was all locally grown and very fresh including the beef — the steer was killed at six that morning.  After lunch we went on a chimpanzee trek.  This was quite adventurous.  Many times we left the trails to get to areas where the chimpanzees were located.  Some of the paths we took were made by forest elephant.  We saw many chimp, most up in the trees, but we also saw a few on the ground. We saw babies, young ones, moms and other adults — playing, sleeping, eating, just living their lives as if these odd bipeds with cameras clicking weren’t right there. 

Dali lodge

Today we flew from Entebbe to Kasese, a town on the shores of Lake George (no, not that Lake George!) in a 10-seater plane. We landed on a grass runway, which one of our group called the Wimbledon of runways, then drove 2 hours north through the Western Rift Valley into the Kibale Forest. At the end of many rutted red clay roads we found ourselves at a beautiful lodge with cabins overlooking the mountains and a lake. This whole region is full of “blast crater lakes” formed when old calderas drop below the water table. We hiked around our lake this afternoon, discovering more birds and butterflies and learning about local pineapple farming methods. We had a bit of rain during our hike but that did not deter us.  The lodge has three dogs named Basil, Sybil, and Polly, from Faulty Towers. Only one photo today as the internet in this part of paradise is a bit limited!

Entebbe

We had an uneventful if long (29 hours door-to-door) trip to Entebbe.  Views from the plane were quite spectacular, but seeing the varied textures of the Sahara was truly amazing. Today was a rest and get ready day, practicing our binocular and camera skills on the various birds around the hotel grounds. On a trip to the Entebbe Botanical Gardens we saw many birds (including 3 kinds of hornbills) plus colobus and vervet monkeys.  Tomorrow we head west to start looking for chimpanzees.

Let the adventures begin!

It's finally here, the day of packing and last minute errands and then off to the airport.  24 hours of flying will bring us to Entebbe, Uganda to begin 10 days of wildlife spotting, including (we hope) both chimpanzees and mountain gorillas!

Second test

lets see if this is any faster