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Published: March 3rd 2012
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After our rewarding gorilla tracking experience, I felt like the chimp tracking was just a bonus! We drove from Bwindi Impenetrable forest to a new guesthouse called Ihamba Lodge, which was still working out the kinks as we had no power or hot water for long periods of our stay there. We were also the only guests staying there that night, which meant for overly attentive staff! The rooms were actually individual cottages with nice views overlooking the marshyshoreofLake George, but there was a loud generator spewing diesel fumes at night, and for some reason the patio doors didn’t have screens but the windows facing the generator did. Still, it was nicely decorated with good food and a good location and I’m sure they’ll work out the power and water problems eventually.
The next morning we were driven to Kyambura Gorge, where there is a chimp family. The hike in the gorge was very pleasant as it was nice and cool under the canopy. We saw chimp nests and we could hear them screeching, but they could cross the river much more easily than we could, and I had the impression that they were teasing us! Our first encounter
was frustrating because only one or two people at a time could look at the chimps. There were two youngsters wrestling under a bush with downward-growing branches, which created the perfect little hiding spot. I never did see more than a hairy arm, and we were accompanied by some pushy tourists on this hike. I was sulking at the bottom of a slope when I heard liquid falling on the bushes beside me and I looked up to see a chimp bum! Once the morning ablutions were finished, a chimp face poked down between the branches to look at me, then the chimp quickly swung down into the underbrush and was gone.
We were still looking for good photo opportunities though, so this one encounter, which only I had, was a bit discouraging. Our guide persisted however, and soon we came upon a large male, named B.J., lounging in a tree. He stayed there for at least 20 minutes, shifting position and rolling from one side to the other. Chuck was able to get out his big monopod and get some great photos. Because he was using the monopod, he asked if I would carry his camera bag.
Our guide suggested that it would be fine to leave it near the path as we moved forward to get a good view of B.J., as we would be coming back that way. To my horror, when B.J. was done posing and ready to start his day, he swung down from the tree, ran up the slope, and grabbed Chuck’s bag! I couldn’t see B.J. at that point but I could hear crashing sounds moving away from us, and our guide and another tourists were loudly giving us a play-by-play. We were also following the traveller’s rule of always having your passport with you, meaning that our passports were in Chuck’s bag! I was already having visions of trying to explain that one to Ugandan Immigration when the guide told us that B.J. had tried to open the buckles and then dropped the bag, only a few feet away from where I’d left it. We looked at it as a learning experience. We learned not only to avoid leaving baggage unattended at the airport, but also in the chimp gorge!
Another bonus experience that we hadn’t been expecting was a boat safari on the Kazinga channel, inQueenElizabethNational Park,
between Lake Edward andLake George. Unfortunately we encountered the same pushy tourists that had been bumping Chuck’s monopod and nudging in front of everyone on the chimp tracking hike, but we found a good spot on the upper deck. We realized that we’d been on an above average number of safaris on this trip when we could name every animal, including the numerous birds, that we saw on the boat ride. Highlights were a fish eagle with a catfish in its talons (Chuck got an amazing photo of this one), groups of hippos, Cape Buffalo and elephants all wallowing together, a huge Marabou stork flying overhead, and a newborn hippo surfacing wide-eyed as its mother glared at us protectively.
A low point was a young elephant with a poacher’s snare around its leg. The leg below the snare was hugely swollen and there was discharge running down the leg. He was obviously uncomfortable, rubbing the leg against the other one and sticking close to his mother. I asked the guide at the end of the boat trip what could be done about this and he said that the park rangers were already aware of this elephant. I tried
to ask if there was a veterinary service that would be able to sedate him, remove the snare and clean the wound, but the guide couldn’t (or wouldn’t) answer. I am afraid that the most likely treatment for this little guy, especially if the snare cut all the way through the skin, was a bullet. Out of all of the gruesome sights we saw on our safaris (Cape buffalo carcass being torn apart by lions, hyenas, jackals and vultures, newborn Thompson’s gazelle being run down by a team of hyenas), this one was the most depressing because it was caused by humans. We can’t just say “well that’s Nature for you”. All that we learned about poaching left me feeling angry, frustrated and sad. Unfortunately it is not just a case of catching and punishing the poachers. Often it is poverty and desperation that forces them to take the commission offered by a wealthy foreigner, or they are setting snares to catch food and an unlucky elephant steps in the wrong place at the wrong time, like a dolphin in a tuna net. In watching this young elephant all I could think of was the waste of a life. Elephants
can live upwards of 65 years naturally and this little guy’s life was being cut short by a simple piece of rope. Maybe I am wrong and the wound was not full-thickness and he has since been sedated and treated and is on the way to recovery, but I will never know. Unfortunately the most likely outcome is the former, and this is the outcome for the majority of animals injured as a result of poaching activity inAfrica.
Sorry for the morbid tirade. I will get back to our Ugandan experience.
The day after the chimp tracking and boat cruise was a travel day back toKampalaand I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit several toilets along the way, thanks to gluten in something I’d eaten (possibly a breakfast sausage?) We had booked a room at a hostel in the heart ofKampala, hoping we could do some sight-seeing and souvenir shopping the next day before catching an 8pm bus toNairobi. Unfortunately I still wasn’t feeling well the next day and I didn’t feel like exploring in the heat, so the day was a bit of a bust. The parts ofKampalathat we’d seen on our drive
out of the city were quite nice, with lots of green space and relatively clean streets. It is still not a very touristy city, however, and we felt quite out-of-place walking around on foot, unlike cities likeAddis AbabaorCape Town. At this timeKampalaseems like more of a stop-over on the way to the numerous and diverse adventure opportunities to be found inUganda. This country was one of our favourites of the trip and though it is relatively new to the tourist trail, it was voted the number one country for travel in 2012 by the Lonely Planet, so that is sure to change!
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