Beauties and Beasts

The past two weekends, we were fortunate enough to explore the Ugandan wildlife.

The first of these weekends was spent on a safari at Queen Elizabeth National Park and a boat ride on the Kazinga Channel. Our guide, John, came and picked us up at 6:00 AM. The animals were amazing and the scenery was breathtaking. Our game drive was a total of four hours long. We had a car where the top of the car opened and we were able to stand up and stick our heads out. We were able to see animals that included water bucks, cobs, lions, and buffalo.

Entering Queen Elizabeth National Park

A kob

Hanging with our guide, Bosco John.

Uganda's national bird, Crested Crane.

After our game drive, w went to the Mweya Safari Lodge that is right on the Kazinga Channel. It was a beautiful lodge with fantastic views over the park and the channel. Then, we had a lunch break before we set out for our boat tour. Our boat tour was about 2 hours long and was on the Kazinga Channel. We saw many species of birds as well as crocodiles and hippos.

In front of the Kazinga Channel

Passing a fishing village in Queen Elizabeth Park.

Our boat driver, Benedict.

After our boat tour, we were driving down the trail to head home. On our drive back, Heather thought that she had seen something in the bush so we drove back. Sure enough she had spotted a leopard, which is one of the rarest animals to see in the park since they are solitary and there are only about 50 of them in the whole park. It stayed in its spot for a good while before other safari goers pulled up in their vehicles and scared the leopard away. A little ways after seeing the elephant, we spotted an elephant behind some trees and bushes. Then we saw another. Then another and a baby! One final elephant trailed behind, trumpeted, and started to charge us! The safari was definitely a successful experience.

Spotted a rare leopard!

The first of the herd we saw before they charged us!

The following weekend we went chimp tracking in a forest in Bushenyi district. Our safari guide, John, also organized the event and drove us to the location. We went into the forest with our guide, Deborah. We walked a little ways and were notified that a tracker was already in the forest since early in the morning looking for chimps. The forest was quite dense, but breathtakingly beautiful. We met up with our tracker who looks like he's been tracking chimps for ages. We walked around for hours, tracking the chimps. We kept hearing their calls but couldn't find them. Finally, we spotted a couple of them walking on the ground from afar. But they quickly disappeared. We had to go off the trail to catch up with the apes and our tracker would use his machete to cut down trees and branches that were in our way. We were able to spot a couple more through the dense greenery but not ever a really good look at them. Finally, we got to a very small clearing with high trees that had vines. Sitting in the three different trees were chimps that had just killed a monkey and were feeding. They stayed up in the trees for awhile before quickly swinging down and running off. Right after, we saw a female chimp in the tree behind us with some meat in her mouth making her way down before disappearing. It was really amazing to get close to the chimps in their natural habitat.

Getting ready to chimp track

A chimp!

At the end with our guides.