We were fully expecting a "throw away" day today because it was mostly travelling by jeep on arguably the worst roads we had encountered to date. It was anything but starting with the vehicle to take us on this hallowed journey.
This was not a garden variety, dilapidated jeep but instead an army green, 4 rows, 3 seats per row covered by a canvas top in mint condition. The two sweet little "Jean Guy's" were in heaven. Our driver Mudimba (girls corrected me at the end of the day that his name was Mueima - they're wrong) was a treat and although shy, easy to engage and had the eyes of an eagle. So the ladies got themselves perched high up in the third row to enjoy a panoramic view of what was to become a day full of wildlife viewing. Sometimes you're just lucky.
We were not even in Queen Elizabeth park 2 minutes when we came upon two Tree lions sleeping peacefully high up in a tree. Apparently sighting them at all is infrequent so we figured we were on a roll. Sighting animals was non-stop for the entire 5 hour journey. We saw, elephants, baboons, crested eagles, black & white colubus monkeys, water bucks, water buffaloes, Kob, Topi, wart hogs, traditional monkeys, etc. In all, 12 different species and multiple sightings. The ecosystem is quite different than Bwindi and the Savannah elephants evidently are much larger than the forest elephants. Nonetheless, their "dumps" are just as gigantic which they often do on the roads. Only the baboons and monkeys got loud when we were close to them and our driver, Mueima (maybe the girls were right) would see wildlife well before we did so it allowed us to take at least 200 to 300 photos/videos during the drive.
The roads, if you can call them that, are hilarious. We literally drove on the shoulder of the road because the main roads, be it dirt or some form of asphalt, were incredibly bumpy. The driver jokingly referred to it as the "African Massage". Try that for 5 hours! Believe me though, we really didn't notice it. The Savannah is beautiful, wide open with trees here and there and you can see for miles. It is dry season and the forest rangers were burning a lot of the grasslands to rejuvenate for the animals. We saw lots of armed rangers with their handy AK-47's because poaching is bad in the park. The savannah elephants have large tusks and we know who likes those tusks.
So finally we leave the highway in Katara and take what apparently is a road (which seems more like a run-off) to our hotel. We're thinking...what the hell have we gotten ourselves into? Two kilometers later we pull up to the front of our lodge and our fears are allied. The vista is incredible overlooking the Great Rift Valley and you can see literally for 50 miles. If you stare long enough, I'm sure you can see animals on the plain. Not for us....we wanted a nice cold Nile Special beer. Our beautiful huts were on the side of this somewhat gentle sloping mountain overlooking the valley and the huts were open-sided on the front and one side giving you the feel of a tent. (These sides close at night with industrial strength screens that look invisible). Because the huts were open to the outside world, we discovered a few spiders lurking around. Louise suffers from arachnaphobia so over turn, I got the waiter to re-spray our rooms without her knowing. A little preventitive medicine.
No rest for the wicked. It was off to the Kazinga Channel a mere 1 1/2 hour drive. Oh well. But again, we were not to be disappointed. Driving to the boat launch, we ran into several hippos, elephants, brother Jeff's favorite, the "wart hog" and baboons by the hundreds. Like, was this being staged for our benefit? We got on to the boat, seats 10, which was very comfortable, clean and much like a mini, open houseboat. The wildlife was incredible and for the two hour journey, non-stop wildlife very comfortable mingling among each other. The water buffalo numbered in the 100's if not a 1000 and we saw at least 150 hippos, mostly in the water but some beached ones that reminded me of an old girl friend (Herbs, I think you dated her as well). We saw herons that were 3 times as big as the ones at the Marshes Golf course. I could go on about this for another few paragraphs but suffice to say, you'll see the pictures...and the videos.
Okay...back in the jeep for the return 1 1/2 hour journey. Within minutes, we ran into a Savannah elephant feeding on a tree by the road. His ears flaired out and our dirver in his wisdom, came to an abrupt stop. We waited ofr him to finish before proceeding. The girls decided to sit in the top row on the way back to take in the sights as best they could and take in the cool breeze. Right. They were literally orange from the dust on the way back with "racoon" like eyes. Me and my buddie Mueima busted a gut. It turned out to be a terrific day but in hindsight, we would have arranged the day differently and gone straight to the boat cruise to save 1 1/ 2 hours of 8 hours on the road.
We topped off the night with white wine and chateaubriand overlooking the Rift Valley. Sigh.
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