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Published: October 8th 2010
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Kampala
I always thought that Ibisses were elegant birds, sophisticated even. But the Ibisses here at the Red Chili Hide Away campsite in Kampala are noisy and irritant. All day from dawn to dusk they fly over the campsite, chasing eachother like kids do in a restaurant between the tabels of the guests, shouting and laughing, while the parents duck away in shame behind their chateaux briands. Oh they are so lovely these kids/ibisses... Hadada Ibis is their onomatopoeic name, called after the terrible noise they make.
The Ugandese people are quite the opposite. They are never loud. The people we meet here are quiet, introvert, friendly, helpfull, fair and...sophisticated. We feel good here in Kampala.
On the campsite we meet people from all over the world, remarkable more women than men. Why specially women are attracted to Africa, I ask myself, like Karen Blixen, Jane Goodall, Diane Fossey, Irene van Lippe-Biesterfeld... and Lenny. Lenny is 74 and travels now18 months alone across the African continent. "I have only one pair of trousers, while I began with three" she confesses to us. She is from Australia, but originally she is Dutch. She also started with a camera, a videocamera and
a mobile. "All stolen", she says with a smile. "But I have them back. The police caught the naughty boys!" She is going to write a book about her adventures. But why Africa? Do all these women come for the Bokito's in the mist? We ourselves are not so interested in gorilla's. First we have seen already once a gorilla, and secondly and most important it costs $500 a person. No, we come for the plants, that is cheaper.
Entebbe
The botanical gardens in Entebbe give a good impression of the plants you can meet in Uganda. They say that one of the first Tarzan movies was recorded here. "I watched these movies closely", says Lawrence Kayima, "but to be honest I have never seen any similarity". Lawrence is our guide. He knows a lot about plants (and not only plants): their names in Ugandese, English and Latin, the way they are used. We look, feel, smell and taste all kinds of plants. Like the 'Yesterday, today, tomorrow' tree with flowers in three colours, depending on the day on which they flower. Or the beautifull "Flame of the forest (Spathodea campanulata), whose flowers really look like a flame. And
the incredible flower of the 'Old mans' pipe', which look like a pipe old men used to smoke. He shows us the seeds. They tast bitter. 'Against malaria', he says and puts some in our bag in case we need them. And just before we leave the garden we see the Black and white Gasket Hornbill. It is a male and he he has a stone in his beak. 'That is for his wife in her nest', says Lawrence. Gratefully she accepts the stone and he is on his way again to get a new one for her. How deep love can go! (LawrenceKayima@yahoo.com, tel.: 00256774789007).
Fort Portal
Fort Portal is a nice town some hours driving east of Kampala. There is nice hotel, called Rwenzori Travellers Inn. From there we took a boda boda (a motor taxi) to Kiningani Wetlands. Our guide is called Joseph and together we walk through the teaplantages to the wetlands. Joseph recognizes 400 bird species by heart. It is remarkable how well these guides are prepared. We follow the traces of a herd of elephants. We see several kinds of monkeys: the black and white colobus and the red colobus. "Colobus means without
a thumb", Joseph points out, "they have only four fingers". They sit near the Nandi tree or Fire flame tree (Arysinina abyssinica). They have flowers as red as fire and the bark is used indeed to make fire by turning a stick round and round as we see later in a demonstration.
Two hours driving from Port Fortal is Semuliki National Park. Actually we would like to camp there in our tent, but we heard it was dangerous at that moment because of Congolese rebels. From the top of the hills you can see the Semuliki river, which is the border with Democratic Republic of Congo. The jungle here is an extension of the vast Congolese jungle. We expected far more jungle in Uganda, but the major part of the country is an agricultural landscape. Deforestation is still going on. The national parcs are mostly savannah's. But this here is a jungle, though a secondary jungle, which means that really high trees are rare. Nevertheless it is a stunning landscape, specially because of the hot springs. We smell sulphurous damps. Water comes boiling out of the bottom. We see some locals cooking their banana's. Others boil their eggs in
the steaming water. Actually we are in in a valley, about 700 meters high, which explains the volcanic activities here. It is part of the Rift valley, which arises because of two tectonic plates which go apart. It is strange life can exist in such a hostile area. We see lemon grass and in between we hear frogs. According to our guide cichlids live in the waters around the springs. We taste the water. It is bitter. In between the mist we see two plovers. Probably they feed on the fishes. It is a wonderfull ecosystem.
There are two springs: the female and the male springs. Female locals used to go to the female springs to worship their ancestors. And they still do, according to our guide. The female springs are 103 centigrades. The male springs are a little hotter: 106 centigrades. It is the spot where the men come together.
With 8 people in a taxi is possible. I never knew that. And when one of the passengers is so nice to take place on the lap of the driver someone extra can join in. The car is old and we drive on a terrible dirtroad to our
next destination: Kigali Primate National Parc. It is only 3 hours that you have to sit in fixed position. We put our little tent on a field cleared in the middle of the jungle. When we walk to the restaurant Kigali Chimpansee Lodge nearby we meet baboons on our path. In the trees above us we see all kinds of primates: redtailed monkeys, black and white colobus and red colobus. To stay in the lodge costs $150 a night. The tent is cheaper, only $15. When we slip in our tent that night it is completely dark. We know us surrounded by all kinds of animals. We even think to hear the sounds of chimpansees close to our tent. We hardly can sleep. To kill the time we play some games of chess on my new mobile.
Next morning we make a trip in the parc with a guide. There are several possibilies. The chimptrack costs $125, a lot of money but still far less than the gorilla's. Lower primates are still cheaper. We choose for the birds and the plants ($40). On our trip we see a lot of monkeys and only one bird. It must be a very
special bird, because three men with big big camera's and three guides circle around the poor animal. 'There it is', whispers one of the guides and yes I see a brownish bird about as small as a finch sitting under the trees. Every time the 'finch' moves all men and all camera's moves with it. 'The Green breasted Pitta', whispers the guide with awe in his voice. I nod as if I understand how serious this moment is. Later I read in a guide about East African birds it is the third rarest bird of Uganda. We leave the birdwatchers and their bird and continue our trip through the jungle. Suddenly we see a group of chimpansees at close distance. Of course we did not pay for this, but to close your eyes and run away is also not so logic.(will be continued soon).
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Jaap van Elst
non-member comment
wat maken juliie veel mee...
Onbelievable.. How do you two manage to cope with all that experiences... But very nice to read!! Greetings, Jaap en Manon