Uganda : Dec. 30 - Jan. 7

Bwindi National Park : Tuesday January 2, 2006

Game viewing started before we actually left the lodge gate as we were held up by a bunch of hippos crossing the road. We were amazed as this was the first time we had seen them fully out of the water. The hippos lack sweat glands and are very susceptible to the sunlight and overheating. As they don’t feed on the water plants, they leave the water at sunset to climb the huge escarpment and roam miles inland into the forests and savannah to feed, returning back to the water at sunrise. We were catching them on the return journey.

Just down the road we ran into another larger herd lumbering by. The low light made picture taking difficult, but we did manage to get a good photo of the one hyena (our first new animal of the day) that we stumbled across on our way out of the park. Our first destination for the day was the Kyambura Gorge and another primate trekking trip.

The large 30 km gorge is cut directly into the savannah which is perfectly flat on top and drops several hundred feet down to the river. Debbie and Brian did the trek complete with armed guards while the kids were off to look for more wildlife with Gabriel in the vehicle. The 13 year old age limit was more strictly enforced on this trek.

While we saw several types of primates and tons of birds we didn’t really see any chimps! (Lots of dung but no chimps). This wasn’t too surprising as opposed to Kibale where there were several troops often comprised of hundreds of chimps there was a single troop in the gorge made up of around 30 animals. They were very quiet today. The highlight however came shortly after our river crossing on a large but very wobbly log. It wasn’t till we were a bit up the trail that we looked back and saw the 6 large hippos that were parked under the tree. Good thing we didn’t fall in!

We finally climbed back out of the gorge 2.5 hours later, a little behind schedule and absent of chimp spotting but we were very happy with our experience. It was back into the vehicle and up to the Maramagambo Forest about an hour drive away. This is a much younger growth forest than we had been in before with the trees well spaced and lots of filtered light. We ended up viewing large numbers of baboons along the way to the ranger station.

Once we picked up our guide we were soon off at a good clip. Again he was very informative about his forest and we learned all about the history and wild life as we looked for elephants and hippos (yes in the forest!). They are rarer here, appearing once a month or so. We learned to identify the difference between black ant nests in trees and termite nests (termites have the little tunnels that run up the outside of the tree trunks).

Our destination was the famous bat cave, located above a small river. As we worked our way across the small stream crossing we saw an amazing collection of butterflies and began to hear the bats. When we saw the bats and the cave for the first time we were in shock. Brennan was in awe as this was right up his alley. Sierra was a bit intimidated and understandably so. There were millions on millions of bats. Every square centimeter of the cave wall was covered with them. And they were close, within 6 inches of your head. The floor was spongy soft and it wasn’t the rocks we were stepping on. Brennan and Brian ventured further in as the bats began to take flight. Then the guide pointed out the various rock pythons that inhabited the cave as well. These were very large and very well fed. Basically all they have to do here is reach over and take a bite!

Leaving the cave, the guide suddenly jumped back. A large green colored snake darted across the path, and he pushed us all well back. He claimed it was a young rock python, but Brian had his doubts. There was way too much caution being used to keep us back from a constrictor, and the snake was moving much too fast to be a python. Our suspicion was either the green mamba or the cobra which also inhabit the area. Later discussions suggest it was most likely a cobra that crossed our path.

We quickly came to small crater lake of a very deep blue color. The guide told us all the different theories behind the coloring from chemical content to shape. Sierra thought the theory that the lake was filled with elephant tears was the most likely. Our walk was soon at an end and after another packed lunch, we climbed back into the land cruiser and began our long drive (4.5 hrs) towards Bwindi, the home of the Mountain Gorillas.

Even thought it was bumpy it was a very entertaining 4 hours, and we passed the time watching the various animal life along the way. At one point we saw something different crossing the road a couple of hundred yards ahead. We will all remember Gabriel’s somewhat understated observation. “Oh My! I think that is a lion up there!”. Sure enough he was right. It was a beautiful female, our first of the trip.

Two hours further along we ended up at Ishasha section of QE Park, home to the famous tree climbing lions. It was still warm, and the lions were obviously searching for shade. There had also been a large burn through the savannah sometime earlier which made things a bit warmer as well. This was the first time in the trip that we didn’t want to see the huge herds of topi, water buck, and bush buck. Their presence suggested that lions were not around. It took a while, but thanks to Gabriel’s experience and persistence we finally located a pride of around 8 lions parked deep in the brush under a tree. It was an exciting 15 minutes we spent watching the babies play and the females clean themselves.

Back on the road again we finally began to climb up out of the rift valley. The road was getting progressively smaller and rougher as we made our way up to the mountains of Bwindi. The Congo border was now tracking closely to our right side, only a few kilometers away. All along the way the guides were very careful to point out that the armed guards we had been having were for our protection against animals and that the disturbances in the Congo while troublesome were really centered a long ways away in the center of the country. The smiles on the children and the people along the roadside however did more to qualm any apprehensions we might have than anything the rangers had told us. These were very happy people around here.

We finally arrived at the Bwindi tented camp, and after a quick shower and another fabulous dinner we settled in for an early bed. It was another very exciting day, but tomorrow we trek for the mountain gorillas!( NEXT PAGE )