I woke up at 6.15am sunday morning. It was still dark and cool. I bought 4 chapathis from the small restuarant in front of my hotel and began to walk to the UWA office. Gift was there waiting for me on a motorcycle. He sad he was going to arrange for someone to take me but in the end decided to rent a motorcycle ( $1 for 1 hour) and take me himself. I liked that he decided to take me because he’s a nice guy, not out to rip me off, speaks good English and knows the place. We put some gas in the tank and left the nice tarmac of Masindi for a rough dirt road, a ‘crap road’ as Gift put it. It was still early and this isn’t a popular route so there was no traffic at all. We drove past the Kinyara sugarcane plantation office, the people behind the destruction of the chimps forest, and drove through sugarcane plantations till we hit a small town. Here we picked up our guide, Gerrad and the 3 of us drove towards a hill where the chimps were apparently now. Gerrad said ‘ It’s not far’ but it was 45 minutes till we got there. The ‘road’ turned into a small bumpy track hardly fit for a mountain bike.
We stopped at a clear patch of sugarcane that had been recently harvested and the chimps were supposed to be in the forest adjacent. We began walking toward the forest when we heard the hooting and hollering of chimps behind us, past a patch of sugarcane. We got back on the bike and drove towards. We again came to the border of the forest and the trail became hard to drive so Gerrad and I walked while Gift walked the bike. In a few minutes I could see black spots up on the trail and as we got closer my first chimps came into view. They were right on the border of the forest and sugarcane, at least the ones I could see. With my binoculars I could see them well but Gerrad was urging me forward. I wasn’t sure how close we could get but we ketp going. The track between the forest and tall sugarcane was wide enough for a vehicle but then opened up to a patch that had been recently harvested and only sand and dead sugarcane littered the ground. As we got closer to this area, about 5 chimps fled right in front of us, some of them young ones. As soon as we got to the open patch, Gerrad insisted we move fast away from the edge so the chimps will come out of the forest and back to the sugarcane. We stopped at a distance of about 20m and waited. After a few minutes 2 chimps came out, one old with a silverback and grey beard and the other slightly younger. Even after only seeing a few individuals, I could tell them apart by their facial features. They looked healthy, their flawless black fur shined.

Chimpanzees are part of the ape family which includes the gibbon, orangutan, gorilla and bonobo. The gibbon is has the largest distribution of them all and the most species. It is found from northeast India to mainland southeast Asia and Borneo and Sumatra and is probably the least endangered of all the apes, though some gibbon species are very rare and they are all still threatened by habitat loss and hunting. The orangutan is found only in Borneo and Sumatra and only an estimated 30,000 survive in the wild. I feel lucky to have seen both the agile gibbon and orangutan in Borneo. My goal is to see all 5 great apes. The other 3 occur in Africa. The bonobo has the most limited distribution, only being found south of the congo river in the Democratic Republic of Congo and will be the most difficult to see because of that. They are the newest species of ape, before being thought they were a pygmy chimpanzee but have since gained their own species status. The gorilla is divided into 4 supspecies. The most abundant of these being the western lowland gorilla, found in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Central African Republic and DR Congo. I just read online this past August that evidence of more than 100,000 western lowland gorillas was found deep in the swampy rainforests of northern Congo. That’s great news, when so much of the news we hear about our endangerd animals is usually of the negative kind. The cross river gorilla supspecies is a small isolated population occuring only in cross river area on the border with Nigeria and northwest Cameroon. The eastern lowland gorilla numbers about 5000 and is found in eastern DR Congo, not far from the border with Rwanda. The most endangered subspecies of gorilla is the mountain gorilla found only in the Virunga volcanoes which span DR Congo, Uganda and Rwanda. An isolated population of mountain gorillas occur in Bwindi National Park in Uganda, where I hope to see them in a month or so. Only 700 of these majestic beasts are left in the wild. More about gorillas after I visit them.
There are 3 subspecies of chimpanzee. The most endangered with only about 17,000 left is the western form being found in west Africa from southeast Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea to southwestern Mali but the population is fragmented. The eastern and central populations are more or less continuous. The central form is found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic and Congo. The eastern is found in DR Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in eastern Tanzania. Fewer than 200,000 remain in total. Male chimps can weigh up to 55kg and stand 1m tall. Chimps have the widest tolerance of the manlike apes. They can live in rainforest, savanna woodland and open savanna with access to small patches of forest in gorges or gullies. They can live at sea level or up to 3000m. Access to water and trees suitable for sleeping are the principal factors in their distribution. They live in communties of 15 up to 100. The group we saw was 45 individuals. They eat a variety of food plants and also invertebrates. A break through was made years ago that showed chimps are more human that we thought we is was discovered they actually hunted other monkeys for meat. It was thought they were purely vegetarian. They will also take young antelopes and small duikers. I haven’t read too much about chimps but I what little I know is that they also have wars with neighbouring communities, mirroring ourselves in them. I believe there is a lot to know by looking at our closest relative, with which we share something like 98% of the same genes. I plan on reading more when I get home and will add more info later. I just wanted to give some basic information.

Gift, Gerrad and I got comfortable on some dead sugarcane and settled down to watch the chimps. Most of the group was in the forest and I could see young ones playing around in the trees but 2 chimps stayed for a while in the open, 20m from us. Most chimp tracking takes place in dense rainforest where glimpses of the chimps are had on the ground while they are 5m to 30m high in the canopy. I had a very special unobstructed view of them and I really liked that. The sun rose higher in the sky and the chimps eventually retreated to the shade of the forest. Gift wanted to go after only 15 minutes but I protested and we stayed almost 2 hours. I could still see chimps in the forest and was in no rush to go. I wanted to stay as long as I could see them. A mother and a young clinging to her belly was low in a tree and near the edge of the forest. I watched her for a while and took some photos. I zoomed in digitally 72x to get extreme close ups but made sure the camera was on my tripod to get clear photos. After a while they sun became very hot and most of the chimps were out of sight. I knew they were still there because sometimes they would begin to hoot and holler but it was finally time to go. We took a shortcut back and dropped Gerrad off. Gift is such a nice and polite guy whereas Gerrad was anything but. He didn’t shake my hand, introduce himself or welcome me to the forest, which is pretty standard when ever I visit a ‘tourist’ area. I came right out and told him this at the end. He would hardly even look me in the eye, I don’t like this at all. I paid 30$ to see the chimps but felt Gerrand didn’t deserve any tip and I told him and Gift why. “He has a lot to learn about what tourists like.” Said Gift on our return. It was dusty drive back to Masindi and I arrived around noon. I showered, ate beans and rice and took a siesta.
I have someone meeting me tonight to tell me about the details of visiting Kagaju forest where there are a lot of monkeys and sometimes chimps. I will only visit if he can ‘guarantee’ a chimp sighting because I have seen all the other types of monkey present and will spend my $ somewhere else if I’m ‘just’ going to see them again. I will see what happens. If it doens’t work out my next destination is southwest to Fort Portal. Not sure where I’ll be for the New Year but if you don’t hear from me, I hope everyone has a good one.

Comments (2) Dec 28 2008

Masindi is a small provincial town in northwest Uganda. There’s not much to see in town but it’s a jumping off point for Murchison Falls national park and other places. My first stop here after checking into the Softie Guesthouse was the U.W.A. office. The ranger on duty was named Gift. He told me about the one place to view chimps inside Murchison Falls that we drove by on our way in and out. I knew about this place but the info in my guidebook is outdated and things change quickly here so I wanted to know all the facts before venturing there such as how much was the chimp tracking, is there food available and how do I get there. Gift gave me the info and also told me of another place that was once the cheapest place to track chimps in Africa but has since discontinued the chimp tracking. My guidebook was out of date on that info. While eating lunch at the Traveller’s Rest I noticed an ad on their local bulletin board. It was promoting Kigaju Forest Reserve, only 10 minutes from Masindi with the forest containing chimps, black and white colobus, red tailed monkeys and others. I had never heard about this forest and it wasn’t in my guidebook. I asked Gift about it and he didn’t know a lot about it either but apparently it’s kind of an ‘illegal’ site because they haven’t registered with the U.W.A. of the forestry department. The ad stated that gratuities were appreciated but not necessary and I thought maybe they got around the redtape for becoming an official reserve by not charging people to visit. Gift the told me about another ‘ yet to be registered site’ that was about 30km away. He spent 4 days there checking out the place. The name was something like Kisenguiro forest. The forest was much larger but had been shrinking due to encroaching sugar plantations. The forest has since become an island amongst sugar plantations and the chimps are more or less trapped in the forest. He says the chimps eat the sugar cane and are happy but they can’t be happy about their home constantly shrinking. This sounds like the most inexpensive option for chimps and I returned to the office today after Gift got more information. He told me to be at the UWA office for 6.30am tomorrow ( sunday) and he would have a boda boda ready to take me there. I’m excited to see chimps and do something not in the guidebook.
Masindi is basically a one street town with some minor side streets but hardly any traffic at all. By all accounts I would think of it as a quiet town but Boxing day it was anything but. Even the Softie Guesthouse played their music fairly loudly all the time but there was a truck driving around with huge speakers promoting the Liquid Club, across the street from Softie. Another place down the road was blaring music from a local concert. Maybe it’s just because it’s the holiday season but the town was very loud and I couldn’t escape, at least for tonight. I had a few beers to help me sleep and crashed at 10.30 with my earplugs in. I slept ok but the music was on again early at the Softie and I had to find another quieter place to stay. I told the manager, John, honestly why I was checking out and he understood, no problem, he said. I found an even cheaper room for $3 at the classy sounding Executive Hotel. I ate lunch of rice and beans there and have been hanging out most of the day at an internet cafe. An hour of online time only costs about 90 cents, the cheapest I ‘ve seen so far.
I am going chimp tracking tomorrow at the place Gift told me about but also, Dan, from Kagaju forest is meeting me tonight to give me more information about that place so I might be going there as well the next day. Stay tuned for (hopefully) some good chimp adventures!

Comments (0) Dec 27 2008

Today is our last day of the tour and after walking up to the a viewpoint above the falls, we would be driving back to Kampala. I would have liked a longer tour because 2 of the days were mostly spent on the road. We left the restcamp at 8am for an hour drive to the falls. Tsetse flies were a problem as we drove through certain sections of the park. These nasty flies, a bit bigger than a housefly, deliver a painful bite and some carry sleeping sickness. They can fly up to 40km an hour and actually chased our van. We could see many flying behind us and if we slowed down for a difficult section of road they were all beside us. We had to close the windows accordingly but it was very hot and some of the flies made it inside. It then became a challenge to kill these buggers. They are very tough and don’t die on the first slap, or sometimes even the second! There were many around the van when we got to the parking lot where we would begin our hike to the top of the falls. None of us wanted to get out but when we didn’t they weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be. I got a small bite in the van but that was it.
Rebecca wasn’t feeling good and we suspected the culprit to be the pumpkin and carrot soup starter of our Christmas dinner last night as others were sick too. I actually finished the rest of Rebecca’s soup after she announced she wouldn’t be eating it all, but I felt fine. So Rebecca stayed behind and the rest of us began and uphill hike to get a panoramic view of the falls. It was nice to get a different view of the falls from this high vantage point but what I really wanted to see ( and the others in our group) was the blind spot of the falls not visible from a head on view. The falls wind through the gorge and the place of the most intense action wasn’t visible until we descended the path on a different direction than we had come. We got to see the part of the falls that had been hidden and it was intense. The water is so powerful, it’s almost frightening being this close. It had its own feeling. Rainbows were plentiful and I got some great photos. This is the dry season and the falls are spectacular, I can only imagine what they look like in the wet season. We were the last group to stay at the falls and reluctantly walked back to our van. We had an hour and a half drive back to Masindi and the occasional battle with an univited tsetse fly into our van. The road to the park had very little traffic and drivers often speed. We saw an overturned white pickup on the side of the road we didn’t see 2 days ago on our drive in. It looked pretty nasty.
We arrived in Masindi to the Travellers Rest for lunch. Surprisingly and unfortunately they were out of most of the food that we ordered. No rice or tilapia. Most of us settled for samosas or chips and chicken. The van would be taking the group back to Kampala but I would be staying in Masindi. There are parks with chimpanzees in the area and I want to stay to explore them and then take the back route to Fort Portal, my next destination. I said my goodbyes to everyone and exchanged emails. I took a very cheap room at the Softie Guesthouse and went to the Ugandan Wildlife Office (U.W.A) for information.

Comments (0) Dec 27 2008

Christmas Day

We’re up and ready to go at 6.30. We have to be at the ferry jetty to make sure we get a spot on the 7am ferry or else we have to wait another hour. We park behind a few other minivans. There are many foreigners here and a bus with a dozen Indian tourists. I eat my oatmeal while we wait for the ferry. We cross the river on time and began our game drive. Within 10 minutes a small herd of 3 elephants come out of the bush just as we drive by. We stop and they cross the road behind us. Apparently elephants aren’t seen much in this part of the park and we are told by our ranger/guide that we are very lucky. The terrain of the park is hilly savanna but has taken on an otherworldly appearance due to the annual fires that have burnt all the parks grass. I’d say as much of 80% of the park that we saw has been burnt. Sometimes the road proved a formidable border for the fire and provided a stark contrast from one side of the road to the other. There were many kobs, Jackson’s hartebeest, some giraffe in the distance and oribis. Oribi are the largest of the ‘small antelopes’ and it’s my first time seeing these cute animals. In the not so far distance is the largest herd of buffalo any of us have ever seen. There must be hundreds of them. We stop for a look and most of them look our way, pondering our next move. They blend in perfectly with the burnt background. Further on we come to a gathering of vans, tipped off that there were lions around. We join the group and look in the direction everyone appears to be looking in but see nothing. Our guide points our where the lions are and it takes me a few minutes to even see where they are. There is a lion and 2 lioness on the hill opposite us but very far away. Even with binoculars they are hard to see. It’s always cool to see lions but I hope we get to see them a little closer. This is Catherine’s first safari ever, so I feel excited for her and hope we have some closer sightings.
Our ‘destination’ for the game drive is the delta where Lake Albert meets the Victoria Nile and becomes the Albert Nile. This area is supposed to be good for lions. The problem is the area is 35km away and we can’t stop as much or as long as we would have liked to on the way there to photograph some of the animals. We are able to get out and stretch our legs at the delta, which doesn’t look like much except a lot of blue water and aquatic plants. We carry on but then turn around on the word of more lions. They are on the same road we took to the delta but were closer to the water in the dense vegetation, that’s why we couldn’t see them on the way in. One of them crosses the road in front of us and 4 others are close by. They are all about 1 year old cubs and not the full grown lion size yet. We all wondered were mom and pop are but we don’t see them. We can only stay a few minutes with the cubs because we have to catch the 11am ferry back to Red Chili. We are able to take some good photos but we all would’ve liked to stay longer with them. We drove fast back and had to pass on animals and photo opporunities. I didn’t like this at all and it felt much too rushed. What’s the point of a game drive if you can’t stop and look and photo the animals you are they to see? I think they should have pushed the time back an hour so we could catch the noon ferry to have more time. We only had 3 hours and most of this was spent driving to the delta.
Back at camp we all had lunch but the restcamp was out of some food and I settled for a cold pasta salad. We had till 2.10 till our afternoon boat safari up to the falls started. It was almost 29C in our tent but there was a breeze and I took a short siesta as did most of the others in our group. We met at 2.10 to get to the river for the 2.30 ferry. The ferry is one of these party style ferries with 2 flat levels, accomodating about 25 people on the bottom deck and a few less up top. I don’t like being in the direct sun if I don’t have to and decided to sit on the bottom level on a lifejacket. The rest of the group sat upstairs. The ferry was full of all the same people from the restcamp and the Indians. The journey up to the base of Murchison is 17km and we moved at a snails pace. I liked this very much because it gave us plenty of time to observe the wildlife along the way which included many hippos, some Nile crocodiles and a few elephants. There were also many birds, kingfishers, fish eagles and bee eaters. A few unlucky birds were having their nests dug up by 2 Nile monitor lizards. Baboons and vervet monkeys were on the shore and in the trees. The trip was filled with wildlife on all fronts.
It took a few hours to get to the base of Murchison falls. We stopped at one point were the river widens again after coming through the narrow channel of the falls. Many fish die going over the falls and many crocodiles wait on the shore here for an easy meal. We continued to a small rocky island closer to the falls but still almost 1km away. I spotted black and white colobus monkeys in the trees and pointed it out to the guide. Surprisingly he didn’t seem interested though I thought we was a good guide. He reluctantly told the rest of the boat but by this time they had disappeared out of sight. We pulled up to a large rock and tied the boat. The current was very strong here. Most of us jumped onto the rock for some good photo opportunites. Murchison falls doesn’t actually drop that far but the wide river upstream is forced through a gorge only 6m wide and results in probably the most powerful surge of water in the world. I didn’t know it then, but we would be able to get much closer to the falls on our walk to the top tomorrow.
On our return trip we stopped at the same place with a dozen crocodiles hanging out. An elephant was there now and was eating a bush very close to the crocs. Hippos were in the water. It was quite a scene to see all these large animals so close together. The elephant almost stepped on some crocs and forced them into the water. We saw most of the same animals on the return but didn’t stop this time. We arrived back at camp at 6.30 and arranged for our Christmas dinner to be at 8. I showered in the slightly cold but refreshing shower and read till dinner. There was only one option for dinner and it was a matter of deciding between having a 3 course meal or just having dessert or a starter with our main course. I decided to have the dessert with my main. There were 3 main courses to choose from. I went with the chicken which included potatoes, beans, and red cabbage and almonds. It was all very good and the lemon lime refrigerator cake for dessert was one of the best desserts I’ve ever had. Catherine treated us all to a glass of mulled wine. I’ve never heard of it before ( which does’t mean much, I don’t know a lot about food admittedly) but apparently its big in Europe around the holidays. The wine is heated up and spices such as nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and cinammon are added. I liked it more than regular wine. It kind of reminded me of a sort of chai wine. We stayed up chatting and listening to Christmas music. At 10.30, Stefan and I were the only ones left and I suggested we go to our tent so they could close. It was a very merry Christmas and one of the best ones I’ve had in a while. Although I felt the game drive was rushed, the boat up to the falls was a great experience and the closest I have ever been to hippos and crocodiles.

Comments (0) Dec 27 2008

I got up at 7am wednesday morning to pack up my tent and eat breakfast. I bought a bag of oatmeal for $1.50 and some powdered milk and this will last me for breakfast for 4 mornings. Last night was the end of my longest stretch of consecutive nights in my tent. Usually I will use my tent for 4 or 5 days and then stay in a hotel/guesthouse for a night or two and then back to my tent but this trip I have been going from place to place staying in my tent. I slept in it for 12 nights straight, beating my last record from Borneo of 9 nights. I stayed in a tent for 25 nights so far, 21 of those in my own tent. It’s been great to use my tent a lot, since last year I hardly used it at all, there just wasn’t any opportunities in India.
There are a few groups going on the 3 day tour to Murchison. In my group is Stefan – Swiss, Konrad and Mirjke – Belgian, and Catherine and Rebecca from England. I sit beside Stefan for the 4 hour drive to Masindi, where we will have lunch. Stefan is well travelled and is doing the same circuit as me, around Lake Victoria. The road to Masindi is in pretty good condition but the scenery is nothing special, just a lot of scrub bush. It’s a sunny and hot day. We arrive in Masindi about 1.30. We eat lunch at the Traveller’s Rest restaurant. Shortly after leaving the restaurant we turn onto a dirt road for the remaining 2 hours to the Red Chili Restcamp, deep inside the park. There are a few baboons, buffalo and some Kob (Uganda antelope) along the way. At the restcamp, Stefan and I share a tent. The tent is similar to the one I stayed in while in Masai Mara but its a little nicer and roomier. It’s about 34 C in the tent, much to hot to stay in there long so I walk down to the Nile river, about 10 minutes away. The Nile is an important feature of the park. Most of the wildlife is on the north side, the restcamp is on the south, so we will have to catch a ferry across the river, which dictated the length of our safari. The river is also the starting point for the passenger ferry to Murchison Falls.
Murchison Falls national park is the largest park in Uganda, covering an area of 5050 sq.km. Most of the park is savanna bush with the southern section containing Budongo forest, an area of dense mohaganey forest harboring chimanzees and other primates. The park is close to the border with Democratic Republic of Congo and in an area of Uganda still harbouring occasionally rebel activity but is considered safe right now.
We all ate dinner together at 7pm. I had delicious spaghetti with Italian meatballs. We talked for a few hours about Africa, travelling and each other. Konrad has been living in Kinshasha, DR Congo for the last 8 years working for the U.N. and Catharine was there for a few years but is now beginning a new job for the U.N. in Kampala. They are both on a short holiday. Rebecca and Mirjke are travelling around East Africa for 1 month. Stefan is on an epic 8.5 month trip which he began in central Asia, then Japan, Africa and some of Europe before he goes home. He his visiting some of the same sites I plan to visit and we might meet up again. I often don’t see the same people too many times when I’m travelling. I’m usually on a longer trip than most people I meet and I travel very slowly. Even if people are heading to the same places as me, I’m usually travelling behind them. Stefan is one of the only people I’ve met who is just strictly backpacking and not doing any type of work. We crash as 10 as we have a long day ahead. Murchison falls is very warm but the temperature drops to a slightly cooler 24C during the night and is good for sleeping. The staff have warned us about wandering at night to use the toilet. Hippos frequent the area and we don’t want to run into one of them unexpectedly. Warthogs are also around the camp all the time but these aggressive looking animals with curved tusks are harmless.

Comments (0) Dec 27 2008

I could tell I was getting closer to Kampala because the traffic was starting to get congested. Although Kampala has a reputation for being one of the safest capital cities in Africa, its downfall is the traffic jams it frequently experiences. The matatu I was in was hardly moving once we were in central Kampala, so I decided to get out and get a boda boda to Red Chili Resthouse, about 6km outside of the centre. I dropped off my large pack and headed back into town. I tried to change some travellers cheques that I didn’t have the receipt for but with no luck. I browsed great bookstore and bought a book on Mammals of Africa. I have a similar book at home but thought I would be ok if I left it at home but I’m feeling lost without an ID book. I really like the one I bought, lots of color photos, info and distribution maps.
Kampala is a busy city with traffic and people and I didn’t really like it but I don’t really like any cities that much. Though I have seen much worse cities than Kampala. To me cities are just an unfortunate stopover between national parks and wild areas. They do have their benefits of cheap internet,good food and sometimes a cinema but after a day or 2, I’m ready to leave. I’m never in a park and thinking, ‘ Oh, I can’t wait to get back to the city!’ That’s why I choose to stay out of the city at Red Chili. The place is full of foreigners and I see the Americans I met at Sipi Falls. I also came to Red Chili to book a budget safari to Murchison Falls National Park. There is no public transport in the park and it would be much more expensive to hire my own vehicle so this is my only option for visiting the park. The 3 day tour doesn’t leave until wednesday, it’s monday now so I have to spend another day in the city.
I hangout at Red Chili for the afternoon and go back into the city for cheap and fast internet and some lunch. I eat dinner alone and go to bed early. We are leaving for the park at 8am tomorrow morning.

Comments (0) Dec 27 2008

I have a question for all my loyal readers out there and for anyone else who’s interested in answering. I have been asking this question randomly whenever it I think about it, for the last few years. Many of the answers are similar but I have been surprised before, so I’m just curious on where my readers stand. Here goes…..

If you could be any animal in the world ( living or extinct), what would it be and why?

My answer would be a New World monkey, no specific species as long as it’s a New World monkey. I say this because New World monkeys, those native to South America, are the only types of monkeys to have a prehensile tail, used as a fifth limb to hold onto branches. I would like to be a monkey because they live in my favourite place, the tropical rainforest, they get to swing through the trees and eat fruit all day. They live a relatively carefree existence with few natural predators.

Comments (2) Dec 23 2008

I just wanted to wish everyone a safe Christmas and a Happy New Year. I will be spending my Christmas inside the Murchison Falls National Park on a 3 day tour which leaves tomorrow. All the details of the trip will come in a few days. I’ll keep you updated and thanks for reading.

Comments (1) Dec 23 2008

I took advantage of my third noiseless morning at Mabira by sleeping in till 9. I walked to the Exodus and ate what was becoming my usual breakfast – omelette wrapped in chapathi, coffee and juice for $1.75. I got on the red trail at 10 but took a diversion to the right to begin the yellow trail. I’m sharing the path with a giant millipede (15cm) for a while. Red tailed monkeys are crashing through the trees. While I’m watching them, I see movement closer and lower in a tree. I look at it and for a second think it’s a big dead leaf falling but it was actually a flying squirrel. It must have been disturbed from its daytime nest and glided to a lower tree. I was very surprised to see this during the day. I’m also not 100% sure if it was a flying squirrel, there are other flying mammals here called anomaloures ( or similar) that I think are different than a flying squirrel but for now, let’s just say it was a flying squirrel. It sat motionless on the trunk of the tree after it landed and I could see it clearly with my binoculars. It was all grey with a dense tail that ended in a bit of a tuft. I tried to get closer but the vegetation was so thick here, I scared it off trying to get through it. Sometimes the forest is all about timing. Some of the forest here is very nice, tall canopy and little undergrowth and some of it is dense with little visibility. There are a lot of strangular figs, choking the life out of a variety of different sized trees.

After walking leisurely through the forest, I emerge onto the main road after 4 hours. I decide to have a pure fruit lunch today. I buy 10 bananas, 5 small mangoes and 5 large passionfruit for $1 and wash it down with a litre of mixed juice for a $1.50. The bananas and the passionfruits were very tasty but I was disappointed with the mangoes. They were small and very stringy, I needed a 1m of floss after I finished eating them. I’m a bit of a mango snob after visiting Guimaras in the Philippines. This small island is known for having the worlds sweetest mangoe and I believe they did. They were huge, juicy and each half could be eaten with a spoon, it was like soft ice cream, no stringyness at all. I’ve learned now to stay away from most other mangoes.

The camp isn’t very well maintained here but today they’re doing a cleaning blitz, raking away all the fallen leaves. A guy was here checking out the site to bring a big group Christmas day. I like having the camp to myself but wouldn’t mind if a few other travellers arrived. I showered again with the monkeys watching me and then ate rice/beans at Exodus.

Tonight I’m walking the dirt road to the red trail and following that all the way back to the camp. I figure it will take 2 hours. Even before I get onto the trail I see eyeshine high in the trees. Parts of the forest here are so dense and low that I feel like I’m being swallowed by a green living beast before I finally emerge in the stomach where the canopy is raised again. I see 3 more sets of eyes but it isn’t till the fifth set that I see what’s behing them. It’ a small bushbaby and is low in the trees and is also curious about me. He sits still while I photograph him. The forest can be very relaxing at night because its so dark and quiet, except for insect sounds, there is no monkey calls or tree crashing. All the bushbabies I saw were on site only, I didn’t hear any of them. Nightwalking can also have its unexpected rushes as well. Sometimes an animal I don’t see is waiting in the bush beside the trail and waits till the last minute, when I’m almost beside it, to run away. This unexpected busrt through the undergrowth is a quick adrenaline rush. Most of the time it’s a bird but sometimes it’s something bigger, like a duiker or forest antelope. There are leopards in Mabira forest but they are rarely seen. Conversely, the best time to see them would be on the trail at night. Leopards are big animals and like most big animals prefer the path of least resistance when possible. The trail I’m walking on is definetely the easiest way through this forest.

I cross the main road and pick up the trail on the other side, I’m on the home stretch now. As I get closer to camp I see eyes high in the trees but as when I’m just a minute from camp I see another bushbaby low in the trees. He also hangs out with me for a few minutes. I’m trying to take photos and walk 2 steps off the trail when suddenly I feel biting pain on my legs. My legs are covered in ants of all sizes, from 2cm long and smaller. No matter what their size, all they want to do is viciously bite me and hold on for life. I begin taking them off but there’s too many and I’m still standing in them, so I run back to camp and strip down to my boxers. I hate ants and this isn’t the first time I’ve had problems with them on my last few night walks. Since I’m walking slow and not concentrating on the forest floor, I sometimes walk through an ant area but don’t know it until they start biting me. This always seems to happen at the worst times too, just when I’m about to take a photo or see something cool. Like I said, the forest is all about timing, sometimes it works out, other times it doesn’t!

I sleep in again till 9 on my fourth day at Mabira. Today I am combining the red and yellow trails. I take a few photos of flowers and large trees but there’s not a lot happening in the forest today. I see redtailed monkeys but no mangabeys. I’m out of the forest after 3 hours. Back in camp, I’m surprised to see 2 vehicles. One is a family from Kenya who I chat to and the other is a foreigner/Ugandan couple who can barely spit out a ‘Hi’ to me as I walk by. I didn’t talk to them at all, they weren’t interested in talking to me. I don’t like these types of travellers, not interested in anyone else. There’s also the type of traveller who when seen in public, especially in a smaller town, just turn the other way and ignore me, like they want to believe they are the only one travelling in that country. I can understand this when I’m in a capita city where there are a lot of foreigners, but other places it doesn’t make sense. I also don’t care for these types of people. I’m interested in all the foreigners I meet while travelling, exceptions maybe for people who are there to do missionary work, I don’t have much in common with these people. But for the most part I’m interested in where someone is from, where they have been and where they are going. I’ve learned a lot from just talking to other travellers about places to go that I didn’t know about before.

I am going to Kampala tomorrow so tonight is my last nightwalk. I see 5 sets of eyes but only a few of these are close enough to tell they are the same bushbabies I’ve been seeing. I just walked the dirt road tonight towards The Rainforest Lodge, 2km each way. I decided to have an easy walk on the road for once, though the road goes through the forest and is more like a wide trail than a road, there’s no traffic. It just means easier, more level terrain, though most of the road is hilly, there are no roots and rocks. The one big bonus of the road is the lack of spiderwebs spanning its width. In the forest I’m wiping a web away from my face every few minutes. It’s kind of annoying and feels gross to have this silk web all of a sudden in my face, and usually at eye level. Oh, and there are no ants on the road! Even though I’m only 55km away from the capital city of Uganda, the sky is clear and the stars are amazing. There is music and partying going on near the main road and it’s another loud night.

I sleep in till 9 and then pack up my stuff. I eat my last breakfast at Exodus. The young waitress there asks when I’m coming back. I tell her ‘Never.’ but she gives me her phone number anyway. Unlike most travellers I meet and most locals nowadays, I don’t carry a cellphone. Sure, they have their benefits but most of the time I don’t want people calling me and think cellphones can be really annoying when I’m trying to have a conversation with someone and their phone keeps ringing or they are constantly texting. I walked up to one of the stopped matatus and got in and was on my way to Kampala.

Comments (1) Dec 23 2008

Mabira forest reserve center is found 500m from the main road at Najjembe village. The site is run by the forestry department and not U.W.A., making it very cheap. Camping was $1.50 a night and the one time entry fee was$3. The camp was in the forest surrounded by tall trees, looked like a great spot to set up my tent. It’s possible to walk unguided in the forest here and they supply a map and the trails trees are color coded, making self navigation very easy. The main road ran through the reserve with about 1/3 on the campsite side and 2/3 on the other side. It was almost 3pm when I started hiking so I stuck to the shorter trails on my side of the road. There were many red tailed monkeys around but the monkey I was hoping to see here was the grey cheeked mangabey.
The reserve is very basic with long drop toilets, though with a western seat and a concrete cubicle for a shower. The walls of which went up to my chin so I could still watch the forest as I bucket showered. There was no one else staying here. After my walk and shower I go to Exodus restaurant but surprisingly for a restaurant, they had ‘no food’ this evening, so I ate a Little Kingston down the road. The Najjembe village is very small but it a major quick stopover for vehicles with sellers in blue vests running up to stopping vehicles to try and sell them water, skewered meat, fruit or anything else they wanted. They had a lot of fruit, mostly jackfruit, pineapples, mangoes, passionfruit, papaya and bananas.
I come back to the campsite at 8pm and although the site appears quiet, it’s not. I can still hear the thundering of heavy trucks on the road and people in the village screaming or whatever and blaring music, it kind of sucks because this place could be so much better. I try not to let that bother me though and concentrate on my first night walk. I was very happy to hear the forest officer tell me that I could also walk unguided at night. It would cost me $20 to take a guide at night, I’d see how things went on my own first.
Fireflies were all around the perimeter of the campsite in the forest. I walk for 30 minutes and don’t see anything. I begin to think, ‘ Watch, I’ll get back to the camp and then see something there!’ Well, literally about a minute before I arrive in camp I see my first eyeshine, about 5m away and about 5m high in a tree on a large horizontal branch. The eyeshine belongs to a primitive nocturnal primate known as a potto. These tail less primates are mostly arboreal and move slowly. The potto doesn’t move right away but slowly turns around and goes back up the branch, this is when I see no tail and know it’s a potto. They are small, 50 cm in length, up to 1.5kg and stoutly built with a bear like face. I knew what it was right away because I’ve looked through my African Mammals book so many times, but didn’t expect to actually see one! The first night walk was a huge success.

Day 2
Last night was very loud until very late in the night so when morning came and it was quiet, I took advantage of it and slept in till 9. There’s no reason to get up early here to get on the trails anyway. The forest never really gets that hot and stays cool for a while into late morning and the animals seem active at any time of the day. I go to Exodus for breakfast of omelettes wrapped in chapathis. I take the main road for 2km before turning right onto the red trail. As I get deeper into the forest, the sounds of the road disappear and I actually feel like I’m in the forest. Mabira forest extends for 300sq. km and is the biggest area of semi decidious rainforest left in central Uganda. It is under threat though from encroaching sugarcane plantations and illegal logging. I hear crashing of trees to indicate monkeys are around. I settle down in a spot and wait till I can see them. It’s troupe of grey cheeked mangabeys. I don’t think they see me yet because I don’t hear any alarm calls. They stay in view and I get some distant photos.They are a medium sized monkey, mostly black but with a dirty grey mantle of hair on their shoulders.
The trail crosses a dirt road and leads to a radio tower with a lookout point. I get back to the village, eat chicken and chips for lunch and relax at the campsite for the afternoon. I was clothes and shower around 5.30pm. As I’m showering, red tailed monkeys are in the trees above my head. I’ve gone from one amazing shower location with views of the Nile and now to monkeys crashing around me. Wow, Uganda has the best showers ever! I end up eating dinner at a tiny table that looked better if in were in a primary school, but the food is cheap and tasty. Groundnut sauce over rice and a bowl of cabbage washed down with a Krest soda for $1. I take a bit longer of a nightwalk tonight, building up for an epic nightwalk tomorrow, but tonight I only see a set of eyes way high up in the trees. By its movement I think it’s a bushbaby. I arrive back in camp at 9 and hangout reading till I go to bed.

Comments (0) Dec 22 2008