Uganda Kampala & Parks

Uganda's Lush & Mountainous Beauty -- from hilly Kampala with Maribou Storks
to Chimps in Murchison Falls
and Lions & Leopards in Queen Elizabeth National Park!

Kampala, Uganda is a nice small city, much safer than Nairobi. Despite Idi Amin's army using wildlife as amusing target practice,
the animals resiliently re-populated their habitats. Between working with TechnoServe Uganda projects, we visited
two national parks, northwest to Murchison Falls and southwest on an unexpected side-trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
We saw many more animals and beautiful scenery than anticipated, especially chimps (at page bottom)...amazing!...lions and leopards...majestic!
Also visit the TechnoServe Uganda page for the Matooke Banana and Dairy projects and farmers.

Our 2nd Trip to Uganda (below) - August 2007

The highlight of our trip to Queen Elizabeth National Park in August 2007 came in the last 30 minutes of our afternoon safari drive, thanks to the sharp eyes of both our guide who spotted the lions (Above Far L) and our TechnoServe colleague who saw the 2 pairs of ears in the straw-colored grass. (Above R & R Center) The 4 ears belonged to leopards pairing their 1 week per year to mate. We will be eternally grateful to the lioness (Above L & L Center) who must have seen us coming and wanted a better look so climbed on the termite hill behind which she was hiding, to perfectly pose for us. And of course, Rick the quick-fingered photographer, pictured at Uganda's equator (Below Far L).


We passed through the Equator (Above Far L) on the short drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, which is only 30 miles from the DRC border, i.e., the infamously violent Democratic Republic of the Congo . The Park's classy Mweya Safari Lodge was booked for the weekend but we stopped for a nice lunch and view of Lake Edward (Above L & Center). We took a boat ride (Above R) on the 35km. Kazinga Channel connecting Lake Edward to Lake George. A few villages are "grandfathered" into the park, like Kazinga Village (Above Far R) which barely survives on fishing, and are susceptible to the occasional raids by the park's lions, buffalo, crocs, etc.


The striped mongoose (Above Far L) usually travels in packs but was just relaxing here. The croc (Above L), blending well with the river bank, keeps his mouth open even when sleeping because they hope insects will fly in, get caught on their sticky tongues, and provide a light snack. We learned that the Cape Buffalo (Above Center) though part of the so-called "Big Five" predators, apparently has poor sight, hearing, and memory and only a good sense of smell (hence the nose in the air). Also Cape Buffalo males that lose to the herd's alpha male in battle are shunned, so often seek the company of hippo "losers" and birds (Above R).


Once again, we some some of the 610 bird varieties in Uganda including Pink Pelicans (Above Far L) and the very famous Saddle-billed Storks (Above L & Center) that proudly wear Uganda's national colors: red, yellow and black. A close cousin is the Yellow-billed Stork (Above & Far L). Both cousins uniquely rest on their backward-bending knees and hang out with a wide range of bird-friends.

On our 2nd trip in and around Kampala, we continued to see the many contrasts. (Far L) In a village near Kampala, is the typical substitute for a wheel chair: a hand-driven tricycle used by the disabled. (L & Center) A typically chaotic market day featuring matooke bananas. (R) On a Kampala main road we see 3 key religious institutions each on their own hill, including (Far R) the mosque built decades ago by Muhammar Khaddafi of Libya.


Our 1st Trip to Uganda (below) - late April 2007

Our flight from Kampala to Nairobi was the shortest part of our trip to Uganda due to a flight delay and over 45-minute but lovely drive by Lake Victoria into the city. (Far L) Erastus, the TechnoServe Country Director, and Rick wait for lunch at the Speke Hotel in downtown Kampala. Though it seems rather peaceful and civilized, the tree (Above L) behind Rick resembles the "whomping tree" from Harry Potter and 2 huge, unattractive Maribou Storks ((Center L)) keep their eyes on us. One side our room at the Humura ("get rest" in Ugandan) Hotel overlooked a quiet courtyard (Center R). On the other side were 2 contrasting views: suburbia in one direction and what appeared to be ruins in a jungle in the other ((Above and Far R).


After a few days in Kampala (read our impressions in our blog), we headed northwest on very long, unpleasant roads but with a few fascinating stops. The first was to visit Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary (sign Far L) where we walked 15 minutes into the bush to stand less than 50 feet away (Center L) from Bella & Kori, 2 very pregnant rhinos guarded by Umoja, a bull rhino imported from a U.S. zoo (Center L to Far R). He substituted for the babies’ father who was busy siring more babies on the other side of the sanctuary...


Next stop was inside Murchison Falls National Park, (sign Far L) Uganda's largest, which is split by the "Victorian section" of the Nile River--jungle on one side and savannah on the other. The water is quite wide above the falls (Above L) then narrows dramatically to cascade 45 meters down a gorge heading north toward the "Albert section" of the Nile (Center L to Far R) and eventually the Mediterranean. Rick stands next to a buoy painted like a globe (Below Far L) at the Nile where we wait for a ferry to unload (Below L) then to re-load our car, driver, and us across to our hotel (on the hill opposite the ferry) on the savannah side of the Park.

Over the next 3 days we would cross the Nile several times by ferry, overlook it from our hotel dining room, then take a 3 hour boat ride on it to view Murchison Falls (Center L Above). The 30-foot tarp-roofed boat not only pushed upstream against the current but had to shelter twice from torrential rain, thunder, and lightning under trees by the river bank for almost an hour (Center R Above). (Above R) We and the 8 other passengers got totally soaked from the pelting horizontal rain. The current helped us get back. Alongside was this odd, white floating foam (Above Far R). The captain claimed it was foam from the falls combined with sediment. We hoped it wasn't affluent released from farms and villages...


Despite the extra time under the trees and being soggy for 3 hours, we really, truly enjoyed the fauna and flora along the Nile. We saw about 20 crocodiles--the most ever--only about 30 feet from the boat (Far & Above R) along "Crocodile Bar" which is an extended sandy riverbank. We must have seen 150 hippos or more "chewing the grass" with waterbucks and other creatures (Above Center L & R) or just peeking their ears and eyes up above the river surface. Again, the most hippos we've ever seen. Unusual flora included "sausage trees" dangling with huge seed-pods (Above R).



Uganda is a non-stop BIRD GALLERY. We could only identify and photograph some of the tens of species (help would be appreciated!). Starting 2 rows above L, then going clockwise: Crested Crane (Ugandan national bird), Maribou Stork, Fish Eagle, Palmnut Vulture, Egyptian Goose, unknown bird, tree filled with Golden Weavers and their nest colony, 2 more unknown birds, a Plover of some sort, Grey Heron, and White Egret.

Our morning and evening game drives included an elegant lion and lioness. She was lying down yawning then rose to hunt.

We saw a number of unusual as well as usual creatures (Below Far L, going clockwise): Gamma Lizard, Jackal lying and standing (our first sighting ever!), warthog crossing the road (to get to the other side), evening line-up of giraffes, an aggressive bull elephant, Pattas Monkey in profile and walking, Jackson's Hartebeests fighting, looking like bookends then hiding behind a termite-and-white-ant hill, and finally me standing beside a termite/ant hill as my father did 65 years earlier in Africa during WW2,




Last but definitely not least was our biggest excitement in Uganda--and maybe Africa to date--our guided, 5-mile jungle trek with a to find a troop of about 15 chimpanzees. Our guide instructed us to stand confidently when we were in their territory, crouch submissively with eyes down if they approached close by (to show respect), and NEVER in any case run because they will chase and kill. The chimps (Above Far L to R) were in the trees just over our heads, hooting, shaking branches, swinging among the trees, and at one point surrounding us (based on their hollering). They are about 4 feet tall from head to toe and about 5 times as strong as humans though, thank heavens, they believe people are stronger. We definitely were scared, especially when the guide told us all the horrible high-pitched screeching we heard was a colobbus monkey being slaughtered and eaten by the chimps right above us. When we returned to the car, we were wet, muddy, bug-bitten, and totally thrilled as you can see !!! (Above Far R is our guide, Rick and Dominic our driver.)