Hi Everyone,
We are just back from our weeks holiday and had a great time. As you could probably tell from our last blog we were a little in need of a break and the week off came just in time. Work had been a bit frustrating in the previous few weeks and CTPH are struggling to fund our work so we were getting a bit annoyed with them and life in general. When things don’t go right here, you can feel a a long way from home!
Anyway, we headed off South from Bwindi towards the Rwandan border and were dropped off on the shore of Lake Bunyonyi. It is a large lake with 29 islands and we had booked to stay on one called Bushara Island.
The boat trip across the island was lovely as the lake was completely still and we were to spend the next 5 days in a tree house on the south side of the 500 metre long island. The treehouse was very peaceful, with great views and we spent the next few days eating, sleeping and swimming in the lake (happily free of Bilharzia!).
We even went on a canoe tour past punishment island, where teen pregnancies would be dumped to die, we also visited Sharps Island and Leper Island. Sharp was a doctor who set up a leper colony in the 1920s (on Leper Island of course) and his island was laden with English Thatched cottages, gardens and even a tennis court (bear in mind that it is only 150 meters long!)
We left the island on Thursday and headed north to Queen Elisabeth National Park. This part of Uganda is much hotter and is surrounded by flat Savannah and mountains in the distance.
On our first day we booked a boat trip along the Kazinga Channel which runs between Lake Edward and Lake Albert. There were Hippo’s, Elephants, Buffalo, Colobus Monkeys and hundreds of birds.
The next morning we were up at 6am for an early game drive in the park - as the sun came up we saw herds of Ugandan Kob, Buffalo, Hyena, Waterbuck and finally some lions. We found a mated pair who were hiding in some bushes, the male roaring at us as he defended his mate.
The next day we just planned a short walk in the woods (Kalinzu Forest) nearby but when they arrived we were told there were chimpanzees nearby and we could track them for a limited fee (about £20). We set off into the forest with a local guide and within 10 minutes had found a lone male chimp eating berries in a tree. Above him was his leaf nest where he had spent the night. We watched him eat and scratch himself for half an hour before heading off to locate the rest of his troupe (normally around 20), they were nowhere to be found but we met troupes of red-tailed monkeys, L’Hoest monkeys and Black and White Colobus monkeys before finding him again on the way back as he hunted for Zafara ants.
On our way out of the forest we stopped off at a pool for some sunbathing and then on the way back we met a herd of elephants trying to cross the highway. We watched them for about half an hour as the matriarch tried to shepherd the infants across to safely while cars flew past at high speed (they made it of course).
We have just arrived back in Bwindi now and have a busy week planned with more surveys and Helen is finally getting some cash to renovate the camp, over to you Helen………
I think Simon has just about covered it, but missed out one of the most important things….for 5 days we actually had a flushing toilet….yes a real one you can sit on and not see your own poo! So other than all the highlights Simon mentioned, Lions, Hippos, Elephants and Monkeys there was also the flushing loo…. We had a lovely 10 days holidays enjoying the wildlife and sun and have just arrived back in Bwindi which is now also hot and sunny and it was nice to come back to a lovely welcome from the team…feels a bit like coming home…. Hello bucket loo in all your finery!
Hope all is good with everyone
Lots of love Helen (and Simon!) xxx
And yes Ross, Simon is a bit grubby but I’ve managed to trim the red beard so he looks slightly less vagrant like….
