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Lions in tree in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. |
With many thanks to Owen Floody, a frequent contributor to The Intrepid Tourist. In 1971, Owen and my husband Art participated in a field course in animal behavior in Uganda. The descriptions in Owen's post below bring back many memories of that first trip to Africa.
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Rhinos. |
This column describes a 12-day June 2025 safari in Uganda that was run by Wilderness Travel and ably led by Robert Sunday, of Classic Africa Safaris. After one night decompressing in Entebbe, we began the first of several long drives, aiming for Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda’s northwest. Fortunately, the drive was broken up by an hour at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. There, we had great fun tracking white rhinos on foot. The high point was a standoff between one male and several females: Dust was raised but we apparently didn’t merit any actual contact.
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Murchison Falls. |
One of the beauties of Murchison Falls is the variety of activities it offers. We took two Nile cruises, one to the base of the falls, the other to the Victoria Nile Delta in search of Shoebills. For balance, we drove to the top of the falls, where we surrendered our barrels and marveled at the volume of water being forced through the tiny opening in the rock.
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Giraffe. |
In addition, we went on several game drives, during which we even managed to tear our eyes off the giraffes for long enough to enjoy the many other animals and birds (e.g., Ground Hornbill.)
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Ground hornbill. |
Of course, experiences of this sort can’t go unpunished, so that we then piled back into the Land Cruiser for the long drive south to the Kibale Forest National Park. This park is one of the relatively few in East Africa consisting of rainforest rather than savanna. Naturally, then, it features rainforest creatures, chiefly chimpanzees and other forest primates. The highlight of our visit was the two hours that we spent alternately crashing through the undergrowth and quietly hanging out with a troop of chimps that seemed to ignore us completely. Out of the forest, we enjoyed a walking tour of Bigodi village, including visits to a coffee farm, banana-beer brewer, and native-plants herbalist.
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Chimpanzee. |
Fortified by the coffee, beer, and herbs, we hit the road again for the mercifully short drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, perhaps Uganda’s best known savanna park. Accordingly, we sought grassland animals, on our own and along with researchers tracking radio-collared lions and leopards.
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Lioness. |
And we came back to the theme of cruises, as we enjoyed a small-boat ride on the Kazinga Channel. Along with the Nile cruises at Murchison Falls, this is among the best known and most pleasant water experiences in Africa. The hippos were impressive and the hyena an unexpected treat, but it was the multitude of Pied Kingfishers and other wonderful birds that stole the show.
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Pied Kingfishser. |
Finally, it was time for our last stop, at the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, near Uganda’s southwestern corner. Like all other visitors to Bwindi, we were there for up-close-and-personal views of Mountain Gorillas. We did the smart thing and hedged our bets by scheduling two gorilla treks on separate days. This was fortunate and speaks to the care with which Wilderness Travel planned this trip. The first trek was difficult and culminated in limited views.
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Gorilla. |
Apparently, no one had told the gorillas of the fans hoping for an audience. But the word got out overnight and resulted in an easy trek and incredible views the next day. It is simply amazing how gratifying it is to see these majestic animals so completely at ease and at such close range. Was it the small plane or gorilla memories that transported us back to Entebbe to begin the long, but satisfying trip home?