Uganda : Dec. 30 - Jan. 7

Queen Elizabeth National Park : Monday January 1, 2006

We were on the road with breakfast in us by 7:30 this morning. We had a good distance to travel if we were going to make it to QE National Park some 7 hours away. You have to backtrack a bit through the park and then back through the tea plantations. At this point you hope that your guide really knows what he’s doing as he turns off on the “short cut” that will cut an hour off the trip. The road had been a fairly decent logging style road albeit a small one. The shortcut took things to a different level as we moved into a smaller 4 wheel drive road and for the next 90 minutes proceeded to bump and grind our way through banana plantations, mountains and very small villages. Each village was accompanied by a host of small children all waving (and expecting waves back) as well as people trekking along the road/track/path hauling all sorts of stuff from spot to spot. Often they had to travel 4-5 hours on foot to reach their destination. Debbie was astounded by how many people of all ages were walking on the edges of the roads, especially in areas that seemed to be very far from any villages. Often they were children carrying bundles of firewood or large jugs of water on their heads or backs. Brennan was especially amazed at the banana haulers. These guys go to the farmers and purchase the large bunches of green bananas from them for little money. They then load their single gear bikes up with 5-6 huge bunches weighing upwards of 3-400 lbs and proceed to manhandle the bikes along the track for 20-30 km each day. They don’t get to stop until they get to the main road where they in turn sell it off to a guy waiting with a big truck. They do this rain or shine every day for around 3-4 dollars a day. Brennan quickly gave up complaining about allowance and chores.

It took us about 90 minutes to cover the 30 km distance. We finally hit the main road only to find out it was under construction. We still made better time however and eventually the terrain flattened out and started to become much drier. Suddenly Gabriel pulled off the road and stopped. Brian was thinking it was another flat but it turns out we had arrived at the equator again, only this time it was on land. While we were doing the picture thing we spotted another safari van with a group in it that had left our camp a good hour ahead of us. Turns out their guide didn’t know of the shortcut. We were extremely pleased and they looked a little surprised to see us ahead of them.

A few miles further down the road we began to enter the outer fringes of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Our first new animal of the day was the beautiful kob antelope. These large animals had amazing horns that nearly touched together a couple of feet above their heads. Next up were the cape buffalo and the warthogs, both wallowing in the mud. Gabriel was terrific stopping at each opportunity and new animal. He happily put up with our tinkering around with the cameras to set up the shots. We hadn’t gone 100 yards down the road when we spotted a large rock formation by a group of trees. It wasn’t until the rocks moved that we realized we were looking at our first elephants! Everybody was very excited and pumped. Away went the game boys and the kids were now all eyes on the savannah.

Not too long after we officially entered QE Park, on a small dirt track that would take us to our lodge for the evening. The drive in was equally fruitful as we saw a large green snake crossing the road along with increasingly large herds of kob and baboons. The highlight was the elephant herd which was very close by and we watched as they sheltered the babies inside a wall of large elephant bodies. They were heading down to the lake/river channel for some afternoon watering. We watched for around 25 minutes and eventually went back on our way. The pop top on the vehicle was terrific for viewing.

Mweya Lodge was stunning! It was a left over from the British Colonial days and sat on a high escarpment above the Kazinga Channel. This natural channel was approximately 20 km long and connected Lake Edward to Lake George in central Uganda. We checked in and grabbed a delicious late lunch. We were warned that the lodge was unsecured and that animals were almost always present. The fact that this was still a wilderness lodge was underscored by the fact that Sierra almost tripped over a large warthog as she stepped out of her room. A squeal by both her and the hog separated them but she was very very vigilant after that and the trips back and forth between rooms were no longer unescorted! Brian also saw the troop of 30 or so domesticated (i.e. they had collars on) mongoose that cruised the grounds. There are snakes of the cobra and mamba variety in the park as we had seen but they were very timid and rare. The mongoose were around to make sure they stayed that way within the hotel premises.

Shortly before 3:00, Gabriel collected us to drive down the escarpment to the boat dock for our 2 hour tour of the channel. We had been advised to get there early and sit on the left side of the boat. Good advice again from Gabriel! We had the best seats in the house for one of the most exciting boat tours we had ever taken. As we cruised down the channel we were up close (very very close) and personal with hundreds of huge hippos and felt like we could touch the elephants that came down to water. There were also more antelope, baboons, warthogs, and buffalo than you could count. And the birds ….. Flocks and flocks of the most beautiful and strange looking birds we had ever seen. The cranes and the storks were big hits, but the fish eagles and the kingfishers probably captured the kids’ attention the most.

We also floated by one of the small fishing villages that predated the parks’ formation, so the villagers were allowed to remain on the channel. These fishermen go out in the evening to the lakes and set their nets, sleeping in the small boats overnight. They collect the fish first thing in the morning and bring them back. It is a dangerous life being a fisherman in QE Park! Several die each year from hippo attacks making them the most dangerous animal, but there were also several deaths due to lions a few years back.

Our ride was soon over and as we disembarked, Gabriel was ready for the evening game drive. More close ups and viewing were in order as we cruised the bumpy off road tracks. The sights never ended and we got truly fabulous pictures.

Another spectacular meal and it was off to bed. At 6:30 it would be a very early start the next day!( NEXT PAGE )