Safari at Queen Elizabeth National Park!

QE park Friday July 3 2008
Here we are at Queen Elizabeth National Park, one of Uganda’s best safari areas, on the western border with Congo, and right in the heart of the African Rift Valley-West. Here the earth is slowly spreading apart, (possibly forming a new tectonic plate) and has sunk into a flat plain 1000 feet below the surrounding hils and volcanic mountains, 20 miles or so wide, and hundreds of miles long. The sources of the Nile flow thru lakes along this valley running from south to north, so that part of the valley is very dry savannah, and part is lake, river or marsh, creating a great variety of habitat for abundant wildlife and plants. There are over 100 mammal species in the park and over 600 bird varieties!
Yesterday, after driving all day from Kampala, and crossing the equator, (a big tourist attraction), we arrived late in the day and were greeted by a highway roadblock of baboons, demanding bananas before we were allowed to pass. Fortunately our veteran travelers were prepared and we had enough bananas to secure our release and safe passage into the park! They ate the banana first and then the peel too.
After we arrived at our hotel and were enjoying a drink on the deck, we were greeted by a large hippopotamus grazing in the yard at dusk , not 20 feet away from where we were having happyhour! This enormous creature was systematically munching her way across the lawn, making only crunching and chewing noises, oblivious of the cameras going off and us tourists going nuts trying to get close but not too close to her!
Today we had a little safari in our bus with a park naturalist, Van, who was very knowledgeable of each animal and its behavior. In 4 hours beginning at dawn, we saw elephants, gazelles, water buffalo, water bock, gazelles, wart hogs, forest hogs, hyenas and monkeys! I even saw the ears of a lion, who was camouflaged in the grass, but would occasionally lift her head to survey the dinner scene of gazelles and warthogs around her. Tho the famed Serengeti is a few hundred miles east with zebras, giraffes, and other large mammals, I cant imaging a better experience than we are having here.
Upon returning to the lodge, we were greeted by a troupe of mongooses, including several cute babies. They live near the lodge and come around every day to amuse the guests.
We were booked for a river boat cruise this evening, to look for crocodiles, hippos, water birds, etc, but a major squall came up and turned the river into a raging storm-tossed sea with whitecaps and duststorms, so the trip was cancelled. Good for Uganda for having safety standards that put safety above more mercenary motives! Oh well, one more reason to come back to beautiful Uganda! As a consolation, earlier in the day while standing in the lodge swimming pool we had seen an elephant bathing in the river (Brad and I remarked it is probably the only time we will ever see a elephant smimming while we were swimming too!), and about 100 water buffalo cooling themselves in the river too.
A few miles north of here at Murchison Falls, the movie River Queen was filmed years ago, so you can imagine what the river scenery would have been like if you have seen that movie (think leeches)!

The lodge was built many years ago and all decked out for the Queens visit in 1954 and again in 2007, so needless to say it is a rustic but elegant old place, reminiscent of those old lodges out on the Olympic Peninsula…very comfortable and wonderful food, with open passages between the dining area and lobby and the outdoors. The climate here like Kampala is surprisingly mild and breezy…no airconditioning and few bugs. It has been a great break from the workfilled week in Kampala, and a chance to meetup again with the kids and adults from Forest Ridge, who have almost completed their loop around Uganda installing over 150 computers for the schools. They have provided a wonderful service for the country and had a great time doing it!

Pictures to follow this weekend...
bill