Rounding out the Big 5 with the Leopard (and Cub)

 After breakfast, we headed out of Kibale toward Queen Elizabeth National Park.  A tree full of black and white colubus monkeys bade us a fond farewell!  One even gave us the back of disdain!  (I'm sure he was just sitting that way, but...)  These guys are so beautiful!  I love this long white hair on them!

We took the back roads.  Apparently, this is the faster way.  Obviously, it's the more interesting way.  Bruce, you will be happy to know you are not the only driver put on really bad roads for my benefit!  We have been getting LOTS of "African massages" during this trip!

Uganda has a lot of crater lakes, as they previously had active volcanos in the country.  You can even do crater lake tours to see many of them and learn their history.  Many of those crater lakes were on our path.  One of these lakes, the Nyinambuga Crater lake, is pictured on the 20,000 shilling Ugandan note.

There was also lots of farm land along our way.  One thing that stood out to me was that the banana fields did not have any bags hanging from them.  That was a shock to me, as the only banana fields I've been exposed to before were in Ecuador, and ALL of those fields bag the bananas as they grow on the trees.

As we pulled into Queen Elizabeth National Park, we crossed the equator, moving from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere.  Some of the same novelty stunts are set up here as they are along the equator in Ecuador.

When we got to the park, the welcoming committee was out in full force!  A large herd of water buffalo

Vervet monkeys

Female waterbuck

Black bellied bustard

And lots of elephants!

After getting settled into our lodgings and eating lunch, we set out to see the Chambura Gorge.  It's a nice gorge where some people go to find chimps.  It's a harder trek down into the bottom of the gorge and you're less likely to find a habituated family.  Glad we did it in Kibale.  It's a pretty gorge, though!

On the way back, we stopped and picked up some not-quite-ripe-yet soursop, also known as guanabana and graviola.  Delicious fruit, whatever you call it!

And we found elephants hanging out just by the road!  Didn't seem bothered by us in the least!  I got so excited, I called Bruce on a video chat.  

This old guy was by the road eating papyrus almost every time we drove by!

After dinner, we were told that, for our safety, we could not be outside without an escort after dark.  This is because we were close to the Kazinga Channel, and the hippos came up to our yard at night to graze.  This was exciting to me.  However, I can tell you that when they are grazing outside your window, just behind the bush so you can't see them, they do disturb your sleep - even over the BiPAP machine!  When my escort came to get me for breakfast, we did hear a grunt, which he confirmed was a hippo behind us!  He was on a different path, and luckily, wasn't concerned with us!

After breakfast, we headed into the park.  We had decided to pay extra to get the biologist, Dr. James Harrison, who would lead us into the open range in search of the big cats.  We saw lots of lions, at one point thinking we were going to witness a mating.  One of the lionesses was obviously in heat (according to Dr. Harrison), and the male was hanging close, but she wasn't quite ready.  We saw several different prides, including some cubs.

After seeing a ton of lions, we moved on to looking for leopards.  We found this lovely lady.

She kept mewing at somebody, so we kept looking around.  Finally, we found who she was talking to!  Her cub!

We got to see the two of them in their den!

It was a difficult angle.  In case you can't see the cub, here's a shot with the baby blown up and focused in.  Look at that adorable little tongue!

Mama tolerated us for a while, then she came back outside and let us know she would like us to leave, so we did.

What an amazing morning!!  That's the last of the Big 5 - Rhino (in Ziwa), Elephant, Water Buffalo, Lion (Murchison and Queen Elizabeth), and the Leopard (Queen Elizabeth).

Aba Daba Daba Said the Monkey to the Chimp! Not!

From Murchison Falls, we had a nice drive to Ft. Portal, where we were to find Kibale National Park.  An Aba Daba Honeymoon of sorts ♫♬, where monkeys and chimpanzees live together.  (But read on, there's a twist coming later!)

It was a mostly paved road along the eastern shore of Lake Albert, with the Congo still on the other side of the lake, just like it was when we were in Murchison Falls!  

The scenery was similar for the most part as the drive up to Murchison Falls from Entebbe, except there seemed to be more brick work.  There were also these communities of small houses, usually circular houses arranged in circular fashion.  I don't remember what they were called, but as boys grow into men in this particular tribe, they must leave the home they grew up in and build their own home in the vicinity.  Once they have a home built, they can take a wife.  I tried to keep logs and journals, but the name of these communities didn't make it into either my journal or my phone notes.  I don't know how I missed that!  I was so enthralled with the concept that I though for sure I put it in my notes, but I didn't.  We also discussed that only women carry things on their heads in Uganda, and women carry everything on their heads (except babies, who are tied onto their backs somehow)!  It's apparently a macho thing, which makes sense.  Macho guys haven't seemed to develop their brain cells to the point that they can recognize when something is this awesomely efficient!  I hope it didn't hurt Gody's feelings when those words tumbled out of my mouth.  If it did, he didn't show it.  If it did, please apologize to him for me, Kalema!

As we got closer to Ft. Portal and higher in elevation, we began seeing tea plantations.  I didn't even know Uganda grew tea!  It is one of the largest exports in the country, though, second only to coffee.  I drank Ugandan tea every morning.  It was quite good.  I'm going to have to find some on Amazon to ship in!

When we arrived at the park, there was another welcoming committee of baboons waiting for us, including this little baby who stuck pretty close to his mama!

This guy tried to hijak our car, though!  He walked around on the hood, looking into us through the windshield, trying to be a little intimidating and hoping for some handouts!  Gody entertained him for a while, but then started inching forward, trying to convince him to jump off.  He actually had to get up a pretty decent speed before our guy jumped off!

I love that they have opposable thumbs on the back feet, too!

Once we got settled into our hotel, we headed off to a "swamp walk" in the Bigodi Swamp. At the UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) office, we traded in our hiking shoes for gum boots and headed for the wetlands.  The UWA guide pointed out a termite mound and gave us information about how the termites mix their spit with the dirt to keep the inside temperature cool, and how quickly they rebuild if you kick part of it over. (It's lightening fast!)  He also shared information about some plants, and then we went searching for monkeys (my favorite part)!  We saw a bunch of these little cheeky red tailed monkeys.  I think there are two in this picture.  I think I see two tails, but the little guy hanging upside down has stolen my heart!  

There were a couple of my favorites, the black and white colobus monkey!  They mostly hid behind the leaves.

And there was a mother/baby pair of the endangered red colobus monkey!  This shot was taken by our guide, who took my Lumix camera and went off of the trail, deeper into the swamp to get some better angles.  I'm so glad he did because most of views I was able to get were obstructed by leaves.

These guys were all very smart to live in the swamp instead of the forest where the chimps live.  Shortly before coming to Uganda, I learned that chimpanzees are actually carnivorous, and one of their favorite meals is monkeys!  So, I don't think the big baboon one night in June would marry a monkey and a chimp regardless of what Aba Daba Daba Daba Daba Daba Daba means!  The Aba Daba Honeymoon is nothing but a lie spread by Debbie Reynolds!  How could she do me like that!?  (The Aba Daba Honeymoon was one of the first popular songs I ever learned to play on the piano as a child!)

The next morning, we set out for the park office and our first trek.  Before the briefing, they had a group of musicians and dancers entertaining us.

I've been training all summer for these treks.  When I left Patagonia, I had noticed significant difficulty breathing when trying to walk uphill, even tiny hills.  I mentioned it to my doctor, and she started running tests to figure out why.  She learned that I have some left ventricular hypertrophy, the very earliest stages of congestive heart failure.  She started me on an exercise protocol, gave me new meds, and set me up with a cardiologist.  After a major scare with a test that had false positives for a complete blockage of some major arteries, cardiology gave me more new meds and wished me well in Africa.  Cardiac cath showed that the large vessels were mostly good with only some minor plaquing, but that I had significant microvascular disease, meaning the small vessels (capillary-type) were blocked.  No real intervention available for those because they are too small to stent.  After all of the medical interventions and physical training, I am at least 300% improved from where I was.  Still, I asked Kalema to put me in with the "easy" group.  Susan and I shared a porter.  He carried both of our backpacks, but stuck by my side, making sure I didn't trip over anything and steadying me anytime the path was precarious or I seemed to be off my balance (which was more frequently than I care to admit).

It didn't take us long to find our first chimp.  He was running through the forest to get to the meeting point where the other chimps were calling.  I got an excellent picture of him!  LOL!

I got some decent, but not great footage of them swinging in the trees.

Then, we came upon this little family, and this was where we spent most of our time!  This is a mommy, daddy, baby, and juvenile.  Our guide said the baby was about 3 months.  She was still nursing.  We spent most of our time with this family, so that's where I got most of my pictures!

Daddy grooming Mommy.

Daddy, Baby, and Juvenile

Proof that I did, in fact, make the trek!

Daddy, Baby, Juvenile

Mommy grooming Daddy

Mommy, Baby, Daddy

At one point, big brother decided he needed to answer the call and go to the meeting point.

You only get an hour with your chimp shrewdness.  (I love that a gathering of apes is called a shrewdness!)  So, we had to move on.  As we were leaving the area, we came across this other mommy/baby pair in a tree.

And this guy kept changing positions, just not able to find one that was quite comfortable for him!

Getting back was harder than getting there.  There was more uphill to get back.  A bunch of our group was basically doing the trip in the other direction and had been gorilla trekking a couple of days before.  They had an older lady with some mobility problems.  That group and my porter said they believe I will be able to do the gorilla trekking, so I'm feeling positive.  I also met a girl from Tacoma in that group.  Which reminds me, I have her number, and since I'm back, I should shoot her a text!

The First Game Drive

Today is the day for my very first ever game drive!  Yesterday doesn't count because we just saw things on our way to the briefing spot at Ziwa, the top of the falls, and to our hotel room.  We weren't out specifically just looking for whatever animals we come across driving through the park.  After breakfast, we got in the car and headed to Murchison Falls National Park.  The park is close to the northwest corner of Uganda.  It's on the Victoria Nile and Lake Albert.  This is the area of the old Bogie and Hepburn movie, "African Queen".  I had seen the boat several years before.  It's docked in Key Largo, Florida.  Just walk out on the docks, and she's right there - or at least she used to be.  Anyway, the movie really isn't relevant to the game drive - just a side note.  On the other side of Lake Albert is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and just a bit north of the park is South Sudan.  There's the geography and movie trivia lesson.  Now, on to the animals!

After breakfast, we headed out.  Not even half a mile down the road (a kilometer to you folks who don't live in the US), we found our first elephant!  Absolutely beautiful in the morning mist!

Soon after entering the park (which was very close to our hotel), we came across more bushbuck and more elephants.  Then, in the same general area, we found patas monkeys

and our first Jackson's hartebeest.

There were also lots of oribi.  We thought they were baby bushbuck, but they are not.  They're just very small.  This is a male bushbuck (with horns) and a female oribi (without horns).  They just happen to be in the same place.

Not long after, we came across another elephant, this one with a bird on his back.  I think it was a piapac (related to the magpie), but I'm not sure.  

Keep in mind that we are just so enthralled with these animals, that Gody has to prompt us to move along after watching each of them for a while!  

Soon, we got our first look at Lake Albert in the distance

and some vultures roosting in a tree.  

After some baboons in trees (which we did stop and photograph, but there will be plenty of baboon pix, and these were nothing special, so I'll skip them), we came upon a couple of giraffes!  Nice and stately with long necks and beautiful reticulated markings!

They have birds that like to hang out on them, eating ticks and other bugs.  Ladies and gentlemen, meet the red billed oxpecker!

By mid morning, we made it to the lake, where there were facilities that needed to be used!  There was also a couple of bloats of hippos in the lake, close to the shore.  Their bird of choice appears to be that most exotic of exotic birds, the common egret!  (LOL)  Note how this bird balances on the stack of hippo heads beneath it!

A warthog had also taken up residence in the shade of a small tree by the restrooms!

After stretching our legs and exploring this shore of Lake Albert, we got back in the car - er, safari vehicle.  Before taking off, though, we had Gody take a picture of me, Susan, and Kalema and our safari vehicle!  Ain't we adorable?!

On the way back out of the park, we skirted the lake and soon came across our first road block.

We did have to wait just a bit until shenanigans were complete before moving on.

We hadn't even completely passed the herd of water buffalo before finding a flock of that majestic bird, the national bird of Uganda, the African crowned crane.

I couldn't choose one of these over the other, so they both made it into the blog!  Traffic was very busy because only five minutes down the road, we met our next road block!

After he crossed the road, we hung around taking pictures of him, like we have for all of the other animals.  Apparently, he was not in the mood.  He doubled back, faced the road, and fake charged at us with his ears puffed out.  We decided that since this was his living room, we would follow his instructions and leave before he decided to charge for real!

Driving on through the park, we came across more giraffes and other animals, and after about 25 minutes, we met the King of the Forest.  He was more in a savanah, but still!

His queen was nearby, under the shade of a bush.

We hung out as long as we could watching these guys, but Gody had come a bit off the road so we could get decent pictures, and Kalema said we had plans for the afternoon and needed to get back for lunch.  So we headed back to the hotel with only a few stops for other animals, including the large herd of elephants that went by while we marveled at the babies.

Only about 24 hours since our first animal encounter at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and we already have four of the Big 5 (rhino, elephant, water buffalo, and lion, missing only the leopard) and two of the Ugly 5 (warthog and vulture).  Of course, I haven't even been counting the Ugly 5 yet!  My head is spinning about the animals we have seen already! 

Following lunch, we headed to the Victoria Nile, where we were scheduled for a cruise to the base of the falls.  Nothing like the speed boat under the falls I did in Iguazu, but it was safe to take the camera on this one!  It was a catamaran, and our guide was named Olive.  She said her nickname was "Baboon" because the baboons in the area were olive baboons, so she was good with that!  Staff kept trying to run this little guy off, but he kept coming back.  For a minute, I thought he was going to drive off with this little center console!

We saw tons of hippos and I took loads of photos.  I didn't manage to get any with their mouth open, though, hard as I tried.  If you look closely at this one, you can see the baby in the middle.

We watched this fisher eagle go fishing.  Thankfully, he recognized that his prey was actually a piece of garbage and not a good meal.  I wish we could have stopped and picked it up out of the water. 

We crossed paths with our first crocodile.  I smiled at him, but I don't think he saw me.  ♫♫♫♫

We passed this flock of white faced whistling ducks.  They look an awful lot like Canada geese!

This female giant kingfisher was sitting rather stately on a bare branch!

We passed lots more hippos, a giraffe that I couldn't get a decent shot of, more hippos, some baboons and some warthogs, all of whom came down to the water's edge.  Then we came to a cliff.  This cliff is apparently the home of bee eater birds.  They drill their holes high in the cliff to stay out of reach of the monitors, which we didn't see.

A small herd of elephants with a baby also came to the water's edge for a drink.

Olive called this the "loser" herd of water buffalo.  These are apparently males who had lost breeding rights in their original herd, so they were kicked out.  They know they need to join up with other "losers" for safety from predators.

It amazed me how far back we saw the foam from the falls.  Foam was visible at least 15 minutes before we were in view of the waterfall itself.  That's a sign of a pretty strong waterfall.

When we got close enough to the falls that we had to turn back because the water was too fast for us to safely go closer, there was a small island with a tree full of cormorants.  Their throats were expanding and contracting like frogs, but more quickly.  Olive said this was how they cool down.  It was pretty hot out.  I tried to take a video, but between the boat shaking and my tremor, you just couldn't tell what was going on.  I have an appointment with my neurologist to talk about starting treatment for it.  He says we have some options.

On the way back to the dock, we saw much more of the same things.  Finally got a decent shot of a crocodile.

And saw a beautiful juvenile gray heron.

On the way back to the hotel, SURPRISE!  Another road block!  This time a herd of bushbuck crossing the road.  I think they're hilarious the way their back ends move when they run!

A few more elephants and some other pretty birds that I couldn't get shots of, and we were back at the hotel for the night.  All in all, an amazing day, and I was more than ready for sleep!