Hello. So clearly I have not written in a long while. Since I’m in Africa I’ll chalk it up to getting attacked by lions, being swallowed by hippos, or being abducted by chimps. Clearly those are the only explanations. In any case, this past weekend I got to experience all of the above animals, so it seemed like a pretty good excuse to rekindle my African tales via this blog.
So this past weekend Curtis, Katie, Kristen and I visited Queen Elizabeth National Park. It is about four hours west of us, but since buses are often full when they come through Nkozi, we traveled two hours east to Kampala on Thursday night. We stayed at Kampala Backpackers, which was actually a very nice hostel. The owner had just bought a two-week old puppy, and there were plenty of interesting people there from all over the world that we stayed up with playing pool. We also walked around Kampala a bit to find an atm, at which point I got an largest rolex I’ve ever seen, about one and a half times the size of a chipotle burrito. I’m not sure if I’ve explained Rolexes yet, but typically they have two eggs and chopped up tomatoes, peppers and onions rolled up in two chapattis. They are delicious, and we frequent the rolex stands at least two or three times a week after dinner at the trading center.
The next morning we got on a bus at 6:00 am to take us from Kampala to Kasese. It was about a six-hour bus ride, which took us through Fort Portal, which was cool because we got to see the Rwenzori Mountains. We got there at noon, and Robert our safari guide picked us up from the bus park. He took us to his house, which we were not expecting at all and was really nice of him. He served us goat meat, which none of us had eaten before, and it was surprisingly tasty. Probably the best meat I’ve had since being in Uganda. After lunch, we drove to Queen Elizabeth National Park, and on the way Curtis spotted elephants from the highway. Apparently the day before, they had spent most of the day looking for elephants but had been unable to find them, so being able to see them before our real safari experience even began was a blessing.
That evening, we had our first official safari experience with a boat cruise. The minimum number of people on the cruise was supposed to be ten, but they decided to take us anyways even though we only had seven people, which was great because we essentially had the whole boat to ourselves and could get all of the best views. It took off at 5:00 and lasted two hours, so we returned just as the sun was setting. The cruise was on the Kazinga channel between Lake Edward and Lake George, and it apparently is home to the densest population of hippos in the world. Nevertheless, since I had heard they were very territorial creatures I figured we wouldn’t get too close to them and they’d be somewhat difficult to spot. Thus, when during the first five minutes of the cruise we pulled up three feet away from a group of twenty hippos I was rather surprised. Also unexpected was that they seemed completely docile. I’m not sure if it was because they were used to the cruises or they just didn’t see us as a threat, but they didn’t seem to mind our presence. Throughout the cruise we saw at least 100 hippos, and right next to them were herds of buffalo. Since neither of them feed on the other, they coexist peaceably. We did see evidence of the hippos’ territorial nature though, as there was one dead hippo floating which the guide said was most likely the result of the hippos fighting. Also more common than expected were the Nile Crocodiles, of which we probably saw about half a dozen. The channel also had a bunch of cool birds including king fishers, fish eagles, storks, cranes and egrets. Overall, it was a great way to start the weekend as we had seen everything we had hoped to.
After the cruise we returned to our campsite at Mweya Peninsula in Queen Elizabeth National Park. We walked to the restaurant nearby. Despite being the only customers in the whole place, we waited an hour and a half for our food. Curtis and I had ordered fish and chips, and it was definitely worth the wait. It was the first time we’d eaten any sort of meat in Uganda that did not have bones in it. After dinner, we played cards before heading to bed. Kristen, Katie and I had never legitimately camped before, so it was fun sleeping outside. I would say camping on the savannah in Africa is a nice place to start. We heard hyenas and warthogs throughout most of the night, and apparently hippos and elephants frequent the campsite although we did not see/hear either of those.
The next morning we got up at 6:30 for our first game drive at Kasenyi. We were all excited at the prospects of seeing animals we had only seen before in zoos or on TV. We were riding in a sweet safari vehicle, one where the top pops open so you can stand up and have views in all directions. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so we were forced to put the top down for most of the time at Kasenye. We drove around for about an hour without seeing anything other than Ugandan Kob, which look like antelope and are everywhere. At this point, it didn’t seem like there was much going on here, so Robert suggested going to Ishasha to do a game drive there instead of doing in the next morning as we had planned. Ishasha is famous for its tree-climbing lions, so we were hopeful that we’d be able to see one but we didn’t want to get our hopes up. We figured if we saw a lion at any point in the weekend that we would be thrilled.
The drive to Ishasha was longer than we had anticipated. It was on the opposite side of the park, so it took us about an hour and a half to drive there. About an hour into the drive the sun had come out, so we were able to pop open the roof again. For the second day in a row, we were lucky enough to spot elephants. This time they were much closer than they had been the day before. They are some giant creatures and seem to be about the size of a small house. Feeling good about our luck, we entered Ishasha in hopes of seeing a lion. We were keeping our eyes peeled but were not having much luck, when all of a sudden Robert said ‘I smell them, they are about a minute away.’ We figured he was either joking or had some sort of super-human tracking powers we were unaware of, but then we saw two cars parked next to a tree. We pulled up to the tree, and sure enough there was a male lion lounging in the tree staring right at us. About a minute later, it got of the tree and ran between our car and another vehicle to some nearby tall grass. Just then, another male lion came from the opposite side and hung out a bit before hiding in a brush. We were incredibly lucky to be able to see a male lion in a tree. Most people don’t even get to see a lion, let alone a male lion, let alone in a tree, up close, and staring right at us. Chalk it up as ‘awesome.’
After the lions left, two of the cars were going to find a shoe-billed stork they had heard was around. Meanwhile, there was another car that had pulled up to the tree after us who were looking for elephants. It was full of tourists from somewhere in America with a heavy southern accent. The Ugandan word for ‘sir’ is ‘sebo’ and it is often used to get the attention of another. The Dad in the other car got out, and yelled at Robert ‘HEY SEBO! SEBO! Where the elephants?’ Except he had a very heavy southern drawl, so his attempt at Luganda reminded me of Bob Cimino attempting to get directions in a foreign country; where-o, is-o, the-o, boat-o? blue-o, ocean-o? It was quite entertaining.
In any case, after Robert had directed them, he asked us if we would rather go find the stork or chase the lion. As if that’s a real choice. Giant birds are a bit creepy anyways. After informing Robert of our decision, he said ‘ok, after everyone leaves we will pull a sinister move.’ Aka, At the national park it is illegal to drive more than a few feet off the path, which was exactly what our plan entailed. Robert had seen which brush the second male lion had hid in, so our plan was to scare it out. He found a big stick and asked us if we could throw it, to which we said yes, and he handed it to me. Anger the huge beast with the stick, got it. Foolproof plan. We drove at the lion, and thankfully it walked out the other side of the brush before I had a chance to throw my stick. We followed it in our car, and up ahead there was a huge herd of tomi and kob (both antelope-type creatures), so Robert decided we would try to make the two come together. They got close enough that a few of the antelope ran away, but then we saw another car coming so we had to return to the path. We watched to see if anything would happen for awhile, but eventually the lion laid down in the grass and that was that. It was an awesome experience, and if it weren’t for Robert we would not have even ended up at Ishasha that morning, let alone chased a lion in our car.
By this time we felt as though we had experienced a whole day’s worth of adventures, but it was hardly after noon and we still had an afternoon of chimp tracking to look forward to. We headed to Kyambura Gorge to start our adventure. I wasn’t sure what the chimp tracking would entail, but it turned out to be just the four of us and a guide for two hours. The gorge basically looked like a giant hole with steep walls in the middle of a Savannah filled with a forest and a river. Our guide’s name was Stephanie, and she was decked out in a green uniform complete with long sleeves, pants, boots up to her knees and an AK 47. We asked her if she’d ever used her gun, and she said yes just that week she had fired it in the air to deter charging elephants. At the beginning of the tracking, Stephanie pointed out some of the food the chimps had eaten. The remainders they had dropped looked like white leaves, but apparently there had been nuts on them before that the chimps enjoy. In the first ten minutes we heard one chimp call, so we went in the direction of the call for awhile, but they did not call anymore and we were not able to find them. For the next hour and a half we quietly hiked around the gorge listening for calls and looking for fresh droppings. They did not call the entire time so it was difficult to track them. However, we were able to see some baboons and some monkeys, which was also cool. For the most part though we just focused on finding the chimps.
At one point there was a stream we needed to jump across that was pretty wide. About a foot on either side of the stream was pretty deep mud, so you needed to clear the stream and the mud on either side in order to land safely. Stephanie asked if we thought we could do it, and while the rest of the group hesitated, I said of course we could. Stephanie went first, and one foot landed safely while the other landed in the mud, but with her boots she stayed clean. Curtis and I went next and were both successful. Katie followed, and also landed with one foot in the mud, so she got a bit muddy but was overall successful. Kristen was the last to attempt the jump, and she was a long jumper in high school so we all had confidence in her. However, upon takeoff something terrible happened (gravity) and she landed both feet in the water, with both hands coming down in the mud. I must admit it was quite graceful. Her pants were caked in mud and we were all almost crying we were laughing so hard. She took it like a champ though and we continued onwards.
Just as our two hours were coming to an end and we thought we were about to head back, Stephanie seemingly spotted the chimps out of nowhere. At first there was one, and then a few more, and in all we saw about six of them. They really are amazing creatures, and their features, particularly their hands, are so human-like its startling. They were somewhat shy and seemed to hide behind the leaves as much as they could. At one point I was moving to get a better picture, and by the time I’d turned around everyone had disappeared. Figuring they had moved onwards I continued up the path but did not see them. I called their names and no on answered, so I doubled back to see if they had gone back to where we saw the first chimp. As I was starting back, the chimp I had been taking a picture of had come down his tree thinking all the people had gone. By the time we saw each other we were fifteen feet apart. We startled each other, made eye contact, then he screamed at me so I ran. Thank you Curtis for telling me about the chimp who tore off someone’s face, that was appreciated. When I realized he was not following me nor was he attempting to scalp me, I found the rest of the group at which point they told me to stand still. A baby and a mama were hanging out on the lowest branch of the tree right near us. The baby was rapping his knuckles on the tree branch in an effort to scare us off, and the mama was just watching us. I came around the tree to get a better view of the mama, and we watched each other for a couple minutes. While the baby had the same sort of playful, wide-eyed innocence that human kids do, the mama just looked at us as if we were only mildly interesting. Soon there was a baboon call (so Stephanie told us), and the mama scooped up the baby and placed it on her stomach to hold onto her, and she swung down the branch right towards us. Curtis and I, thinking she was going to come at us, backed away but Stephanie told us to stay still, and the chimps walked across a log to the other side of the river.
After that, the chimps disappeared so we headed back out of the gorge. On the way back we found out that during the wet season when food is plentiful, people see chimps 99% of the time, but during the dry season when food is not as abundant, they only see chimps about 50 or 60% of the chimp tracking tours. That morning the group had only seen one chimp and it was running away from them, so we were quite lucky to have seen them, especially up close. It was pretty unbelievable we got to see male lions and chimpanzees up close in the same day!
That night, we returned to the campsite to have dinner at this place near our campsite. While we were waiting for our food, a girl came up to us and asked if she could join us for dinner. She was from England and was studying mongooses at the national park. During dinner she informed us at a party going on that evening at the place we were in order to celebrate Manchester United winning the premiership. Considering that in two nights we’d seen a grand total of two other people at this restaurant that was somewhat surprising. After dinner we returned to our campsite and chatted with the only two other people at our campsite. They were about a 60-year-old couple from the U.K. who were driving from South Africa back to the U.K. in a 1950’s land rover turned camper. They were very interesting people and great to talk to. Their deadline for returning home was their granddaughter’s second birthday in September. After talking with them we decided to go to the Manchester United party for awhile. There was dancing and food and it was a good time, and we even ran into Robert our safari guide there. He asked us how we were getting back, and we told him we’d just walk since its about a four minute walk to our tent, and he said its too dangerous for that because there’s elephants and hyenas and hippos and lions, so we agreed to let him drive us back in his car. When we got back to the campsite we chilled outside for awhile and looked at the stars, which was also cool because there was heat lightning. I don’t think I’d ever seen heat lightning before, it just looked like someone was periodically flickering a huge flashlight on and off over the whole sky.
The next morning we had our last game drive, and we returned to Kasenyi to see if we could have any more luck there than the day before. We had already seen pretty much all the animals we had came to see, so anything at this point was gravy. We got a bit of a later jump on the day because we were packing up our tents, so by the time we got to Kasenye there was already a small caravan of cars touring. After about 45 minutes of driving around and seeing only Kob and Waterbok, Robert got a tip about where some lions were. We drove there and about ten other cars were lined up trying to catch a glimpse of these lions. Unfortunately they were pretty far away and difficult to see. However, today it was a whole pride of nine lions sitting in the tall grass. At any time you could see two or three heads, but when they sat down they completely disappeared. There was also a herd of buffalo off in the distance. At one point a group of about six buffalo started running directly at the lions! They had a full head of steam, and then when they were about 20 feet away they got scared and all ran back to their herd. The lions had stood up in preparation but did not chase the buffalo when they ran away. Robert said it might have been because the buffalo have poor sight and smell, but even so running directly at them would have been quite a coincidence. We stayed for about an hour watching the lions but they did not move any closer, so we decided to take off and go to Salt Lake, which is a crater lake created by a volcano.
At Crater Lake we took some pictures and hung out for a bit, and then we got back in the car. At this point I thought our Safari had ended, but Robert said we should go check on the lions before we take off. We returned to the spot they had been, and only one other car was there. The lions had moved a bit closer but not too much. We watched the lions stalk a stork for a bit, but eventually the stork moved and the lions gave up. The herd of buffalos that previously had been off in the distance had also moved, and ended up stampeding right in front of us across the road. Shortly after, the lions decided that they wanted to head the same direction as the buffalo. This resulted in nine lions crossing the road twenty feet in front of our car. The previous day the safari vehicle had needed maintenance, so today we were in a land cruiser. Unfortunately it did not have a pop up roof, so in order to get a better view of the lions we were standing right outside our doors. One of the men in the other car commented that we’d better be prepared if we get charged because they’ll close the gap in a blink of an eye and it’s happened to him before. Thankfully (although it would have been cool) that did not happen. The lions were so cool up close. There were two male lions that were just starting to get their manes, and seven females. We watched until they disappeared into the distance and then called it a day. Quite an end to an amazing safari weekend!
After this we just returned to the bus park in Kasese, thanked Robert for the weekend and hopped on the bus back to Nkozi. The weekend was better than any of us could have dreamt.
(Pictures Coming Soon)
