An elephant encounter!
We were all excited at the thought of seeing – and touching – a baby elephant. As we arrived, this jolly little creature, with his long, thick eyelashes came trotting along behind his keeper and soul mate Bruce, his carer at Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe.
These two are inseparable! Charlie the elephant and Bruce his keeper
These two have become inseparable. They even sleep together (in a house of course!)
I’d made the mistake of wearing open toed sandals for the day, so I was a bit wary of getting too close to him. In his enthusiasm to sniff everyone with his curly trunk, he trod on the toes of one of the teenage girls in our group – luckily she had trainers on. He may be a baby but he already weighs 153kg!
A right couple of Charlies - Charlie the Muzungu meets Charlie the elephant
You can almost cuddle Charles, he’s so small. He’s a cute little thing – for now! A mere 100 to 120 kg when born, an elephant will weigh an incredible 2,000 to 3,000 kg when fully grown.
I worked in conservation in Uganda for 2 ½ years, written elephant reports, elephant stories and an elephant obituary but this was my first time to come up close with the famous Loxodonta Africana.
To visit Charles or donate milk to feed him, contact UWEC on 0414 320 520 or 0414 320 169. UWEC is open every day from 8 am till 6 pm.
Charles was not born in captivity. Next, read the tragic story behind this elephant-sized bundle of fun… Imagine: elephants swimming to an island!
A ticking off – ringing birds in Kibale Forest
According to Roussouw, “Kibale Forest harbours the greatest variety and concentration of primates found anywhere in East Africa.”
Well, thumbs up to that. Kibale is where the muzungu saw her first wild Chimpanzee, and the apparently ‘elusive’ Red Colobus monkey (although I’m not sure whether the staff at Kibale Forest Camp would agree, hearing them crash through the forest while they’re serving the guests sundowners).
Incredibly rich in animal life, Kibale is a place of many firsts for me. Even after three years in Uganda working in conservation, Mother Nature’s still been holding back on me: my first wild chimp, my first Red Colobus Monkey, my first Green Mamba! But these were all unexpected bonuses – we’d actually travelled to Kibale to ring birds.
The previous day Julia had instructed the boys to hack a pathway through the high grass at the edge of the forest. Four-metre high bamboo poles were hung with a fine nylon ‘mist net’ barely visible at dusk or dawn, gently ensnaring unsuspecting birds. Off with the anoraks and on with the Ipod – there’s as much technology in 21st-century birding as in any walk of life . (Bird calls are stored on the iPod, which is hung strategically close to the forest to attract the birds). Every few minutes, one of the team would disappear into the Bush to check the net, returning excitedly a few minutes later with their feathered booty in a little cloth bag.
On our feet since dawn, ringing birds is harder than it looks: concentrating on the welfare of the birds, not leaving them in the net for more than 20 minutes, keeping them cool.
No-one had slept much the night before. We’d been woken at two in the morning by a gargantuan face-off between the chimps in the forest and three dogs tearing around the compound – all set off by a hungry elephant! It was the chimps that had woken Mandela. He’d then quickly woken Bahati and off they ran to chase the elephants away from the precious pineapple field.
That morning, expert birder and tour guide Malcolm was very excited at rumours of a White Collared Oliveback – “Ooooh, put it back in the bag,” he said, savouring the moment.
Dawn looked nervous when advised she was about to pull ‘a new bird’ out of the bag. It’s a bit like lucky dip really! Or not so lucky in Dawn’s case: she dipped her hand in – and winced in agony as an enormous beak bit her hand! The Blue Breasted Kingfisher was one of the weekend’s top finds, with the most experienced ringer ‘getting the tick first.’ If there was envy, no-one let on!
Malcolm gave Dawn more warning about the Grosbeak (Thickbilled) Weaver: “Beware Dawn, this one has an 80 pound per square inch peck!” i.e. don’t be fooled by the small beak, it can exert a painfully powerful peck!
“The secret is to get the kids involved” said Richard, encouraging Hope and Amos to hold the birds and help identify them. He was less positive about the Marsh Tchagra: “they bite a lot, like all Shrikes – nasty birds.”
Eager to see the birds in the nets (before anyone else!) – I got lost – twice!
Malcolm waved his finger at me sternly as Nathan and I rejoined the group back in the shade by the house.
“Don’t spend so much time by the nets,” he said. I felt embarrassed. (I didn’t mean to get lost!)
Highlights of the two days’ ringing included a pair of exquisite Grey-headed Negrofinches (now known as Negritas), Green-backed Twinspots, a Little Greenbul (I was relieved to hear the experts struggle to identify birds too!) and a Brown-chested Alethe (a species of forest thrush that can only be caught with an iPod and a mist net); a Green Hylia (a type of warbler), an Olive-bellied Sunbird and a tiny White-ringed Prinia.
You can read a full trip report from the visiting birders on the Teifi Ringing Group’s blog.
It was a real treat for an amateur birder like me to see such wonderful birdlife come out of the forest. Everyone pointed out birds flying overhead and in trees around us: an emerald green Diederick’s Cuckoo, Lesser Striped Swallows, African Grey parrots, a Superb Sunbird; a Black Crowned Tchagra (a shrike) in the long grass.
The Roussouw guide says “watch for flocks of rare and localised White Naped Pigeons in-flight overhead or sunning themselves in treetops in the early morning” and lo and behold, the White Naped Pigeons were in front of us.
Fascinating and fun too, the two days’ information collected is baseline data for a study of the biodiversity of the forest edge. The data’s being shared with NatureUganda, one of the partners in a new East African bird ringing scheme.
- African Blue Flycatcher
- African Grey Parrots
- African Yellow Whiteye (R)
- Black Crowned Tchagra
- Blue Breasted Kingfisher (R)
- Bronze Mannikin
- Bronze Sunbird
- Brown-chested Alethe (R)
- Brown-throated Wattle-eye
- Diederick’s Cuckoo
- Dusky Blue Flycatcher
- Green Crombec (R)
- Green Hylia (R)
- Green Twinspot (R)
- Green-backed Twinspots (R)
- Grey-backed Camaroptera (R)
- Grey-headed Negrofinch (R)
- Grosbeak (Thick-billed) Weaver (R)
- Klaas’s Cuckoo (R)
- Lesser Striped Swallow
- Little Greenbul (R)
- Marsh Tchagra (R)
- Northern Double-collared Sunbird
- Olive-bellied Sunbird (R)
- Pygmy Kingfisher (R)
- Ross’s Turaco
- Slender-billed Weaver (R)
- Snowy-headed Robinchat (R)
- Superb Sunbird
- Vieillot’s Black Weaver
- White-naped Pigeon
- White-collared Oliveback (R)
- White Chinned Prinia (R)
- White-headed Sawwing
- Yellow-rumped Tinkerbird (R)
- Yellow-whiskered Greenbul (R)
NOTE 2021: Since writing this blog, the 40 acres of regenerating farmland have developed into Sunbird Hill, a site for birders, ornithologists, lepidopterists, entomologists, primatologists and tourists who want to be immersed in nature. Sunbird Hill supports the work of In the Shadow of Chimpanzees, a small NGO that is training young people in conservation and developing village tourism along the edge of the National Park.
Chimp alert! Muzungu bolthole? Kibale Forest
Three dogs bark excited greetings as we drive up the steep hill on the approach to Julia’s house on the edge of Kibale Forest.
The four hours from Kampala to Fort Portal on tarmac are easy. The last hour of the journey is the hardest: balancing a plastic bag full of raw eggs on my lap, as Julia races down the rutted dustbowl that passes for a road. Cool crater lakes beckon right and left.
I’m having a break from the midday sun. Julia suggests I haul my Jerry can of cold water up into the sunshine so it’s warm for my afternoon shower. Butterflies circle around the water dripping into the washing bowl beneath the Jerry can. Julia’s world is full of her dad’s home-made inventions, contraptions in which Jerry cans feature prominently.
Determined to finish her Ph.D., Julia is spending most of her time in Kampala this year. We arrive in Kibale to find the inverter is broken, so there’s no power; the solar panel isn’t working either. There’s no gas left in Fort Portal, so we borrow a gas cylinder from a local lodge. At least we won’t have to rely on the charcoal stove to cook dinner and heat water for eight people for the next three days! This weekend may be classed as a trial run for future tourism endeavours! (Fast forward a few years and Julia’s place has developed in leaps and bounds: home is now known as Sunbird Hill).
Hope has prepared dinner: it’s ‘Irish’ (potatoes) from the garden, and g’nut (groundnut) sauce. The home-grown groundnuts are stored in a gigantic Ali Baba basket. Swimming in my g’nut sauce is a Lungfish, whole. I can’t face eating it and guiltily leave the fish in the pot. The kids found it in the river when they were collecting water this morning – I guess someone will have the stomach for it.
After dinner, a slither of moon to guide us, we check out the park boundary paths. As we inch past, torchlight reveals spiderwebs suspended between branches. We duck under the washing line. The dogs bound ahead of us into the trees.
Freshly broken branches are evidence of a recent elephant visit.
“Wake up, the chimps are here! Come quick!” Yells Julia the following morning.
Bleary-eyed, I climb the viewing platform and we watch a solitary chimp warming himself in the early morning sun some 30 metres above ground. It’s my first sight of a chimpanzee in the wild.
Julia spent many years living in a treehouse deep in the forest studying Kibale Forest’s chimpanzees.
Baby Dillon points at the sweet bananas. He’s eaten four bananas by the time we arrive at the lodge on the edge of Kibale Forest. I’m covered in banana (there’s no chance of keeping clean around dogs and babies). Ornithologist and bird ringer Malcolm Wilson arrives shortly with five visitors, here to do a bird census and to advise Julia on how to maximise the biodiversity to attract more birdlife from the forest.
Before he arrives, we walk down to the forest boundary a few hundred metres away and check the ‘slashing’ (cutting back of the Bush). Four men have been working all morning to clear an access path for the nets.
We stop for a minute to debate whether to cut down a slender branch hanging over the path.
“Don’t touch that,” says Julia, “that’s the National Park.”
We look up, straight into the eyes of a Green Mamba! It’s a message: he is protecting the forest.
I’ve added four new birds to my bird list this morning; I can’t wait to add more over the next two days.
We notice freshly broken branches across our path – “The elephants must be close,” says Julia.
Next installment from Kibale Forest: a ticking off – ringing birds in Kibale Forest
Slumming it, Kampala style
Rubbish collection is managed privately in Kampala: you pay through the nose for a private contractor to collect your rubbish once a week. Local people just burn their rubbish, and maybe that’s all the private contractors do?
And so, a week after moving house, and reluctant to burn, I asked Alex how I could dispose of my rubbish. “Come – we go,” he said.
We drove to Namuwongo and I was a bit horrified when he said to turn down a steep dusty bank across the railway and into the heart of the slum. I’ve been through the slum many times, but not in a car (there are no roads) and not to dispose of my rubbish. We edged our way through women boiling water in beaten-up old aluminium pots on charcoal stoves, gawping toddlers and boda bodas. “Hello Muzungu, you go back,” one lady said as we squeezed through. Embarrassed, but with Alex focused on our destination, we drove on. Moving forward wasn’t easy; reversing would have been almost impossible.
My heart sank as the tip came into view: goats grazing and Marabou storks stabbing at the contents of hundreds of the demon cavera (carrier bags). Doesn’t the slum have enough rubbish without the muzungu’s?
There was plenty of excitement as Alex threw a knackered old water heater onto the tip. It was quickly salvaged; if anyone can fix it, these guys can.
And the fee? One thousand shillings, less than 50 US cents – although the muzungu price would have been higher had we hung about. “Drive!” commanded Alex, and I stepped on the gas.
“Muzungu, I have a tortoise!” cried a young boy, as we drove past his house. Wild tortoises live in the swamp below the slum. I admit, in my first year in Uganda, I fell for that one. I had a tortoise when I was a kid; they’re great pets, but not easy to look after. The English one died in hibernation one winter; my Ugandan one did a runner! He probably made it back to the slum (just the other side of my old compound wall) – to being sold to another naïve muzungu.
Street dog Baldrick inspects Swampy the Tortoise
Last year I’d been in the same slum for quite a different reason – a party!
VSO friends of mine, Alan and Alison, had agreed to hold a kids’ party in the local church. It’s a big clapperboard type construction right next to the railway line next to the swamp. I’m not a churchgoer but I do like to party! so I offered to help blow up the balloons and do the face painting.
“So how many people do you think will attend?” I thought Alison would say about 100.
“Oh about 400 I expect.” GULP.
Little kids and big kids, wave after wave of them surrounded us for two hours!
The Muzungu’s travel highlights of 2011 – Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Turkey!
Travel highlights – from across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Ethiopia and Turkey
If 2011 was busy, 2012 looks set to be busier still! Here are a few of 2011’s highlights for Diary of a Muzungu, Uganda travel blog …
Nairobi to Lake Naivasha Relay – local Maasai watched bemused as 100 Hashers ran through Hell’s Gate National Park
Travel to Kenya
The annual Naivasha Relay (84 km from Nairobi to Lake Naivasha) is one of the highlights of Nairobi Hash House Harriers’ calendar.
40 Ugandan Hashers travelled from Kampala to Kenya for the week-end party (I mean run!) I ran my share of tghe relay- 3 km to be exact – ‘good enough’ as we say in UG.
The weekend started with a 12 hour bus journey: The real ‘boda boda’ experience – travelling sidesaddle into Kenya.
Travel across Rwanda
A full day’s travelling by bus across Uganda, through Kigali, and onto the fabulous Volcanoes National Park (Parc Nationale des Virungas) to stay at Le Bambou Gorilla Village in Kinigi.
The muzungu travelled with her personal physician
Rwanda’s reputation precedes it in many positive ways nowadays.
The smooth tarmac in Kigali made a pleasant change from Uganda’s potholes; the legal obligation to wear a helmet on a boda boda (motorbike taxi) in Kigali came as a bit of a shock after Kampala’s very relaxed attitude to road safety!
A flight to South Africa via Nairobi
TIP: next time you fly, look at the map before you select your seat – choose a window seat, check which side of the plane to sit and have your camera ready. Some of my most memorable travel moments of 2011 have been from on high (and I haven’t even joined the Mile High Club yet!)
- Mount Kilimanjaro through the clouds;
- Traversing the seemingly endless azure blue of Lake Malawi;
- Skirting around the edges of Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater;
- Seeing volcanoes emerge over the horizon as we approached Nairobi;
- The shot of Kilimanjaro – en route to Johannesburg – is a favourite. Sigh …
Daybreak at 30,000 feet – Mt. Kilimanjaro in the distance
Johannesburg, South Africa
U2′s ‘Beautiful Day’ will forever remind me of a great ten days in Johannesburg, with a great friend and her beautiful daughter, and something deeper – retracing my political and musical roots:
South Africa – Under a blood red sky with U2
Thank you Holly! For the trip, for the friendship and for being a part of my journey as a Voluntary Service Overseas volunteer.
Ethiopia
Hashing – the ‘drinking club with a running problem’ – led me on a very merry dance (hic!) around Ethiopia for two truly memorable weeks. I can’t stop reliving and writing about Ethiopia, here’s one of my posts:
Africa Hash, Ethiopia – Feeling IRIE in Addis Ababa
Traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony overlooking Tissisat Falls
A stopover in Istanbul, Turkey
On a trip back home to the UK, I stopped over in Istanbul for a day. Istanbul looks like my kind of place.
A day in … Istanbul got me thinking about how much I’d like to be travelling and writing about travel full-time.
Travel across Uganda
This year, I was excited to take part in the Uganda Wildlife Authority’s new tourism experience: Walking with Mongooses, a really fun and informative day out in Queen Elizabeth National Park. You may have watched the BBC’s ‘Banded Brothers’ TV series, all about these fascinating fellas.
Muzungu with Mongooses at Mweya, Queen Elizabeth National Park
This year has been a year for:
WRITING – articles for The Eye Magazine Rwanda, Uganda’s Business Today magazine and writing and producing Uganda Matters, the annual newsletter for the Uganda Conservation Foundation.
Diary of a Muzungu has been featuring on Lonely Planet since 2009 (PHEW! no wonder I’m knackered!)
Diary of a Muzungu was a Lonely Planet Featured Blogger from 2009 to 2012
CONNECTING – with published authors, Lonely Planet bloggers and the global travel blogosphere. Thanks in particular to Todd Wassel at Todd’s Wanderings, for the beautiful and fantabulous Around the World with 40 Lonely Planet bloggers ebook; Mazarine Treyz of Wildwoman Fundraising for her boundless creativity and energy; Wandering Trader Marcello Arrambide who dropped by Kampala and shared some awesome tips on travel blogging. Writing and blogging can be an introspective way to spend your spare time – but you guys keep me motivated. Thank you so much!
CHANGING CAREERS – I’ve always said that in Uganda, “business is social and social is business” and I like it that way…
After two and a half years as a VSO volunteer for the Uganda Conservation Foundation, it was time to move on and employ a local man to take over my role. I’m so proud to have been part of UCF (work trips to the Bush – safari yeah!)
A big achievement. Launch of the Pan African Conservation Education training manual, Ggaba PTC, Kampala with the Uganda Conservation Foundation team and Voluntary Service Overseas,
Despite the global recession, UCF’s donors continue to support our work with the Uganda Conservation Foundation. The Uganda Wildlife Authority is so pleased with UCF’s work in Queen Elizabeth National Park that UCF is now working with them to tackle poaching and human wildlife conflict in Murchison Falls National Park. (Damn, that’s one trip I missed out on!) As you can see, I still talk about UCF in the present tense and I’ll continue to do as much as I can to promote this fantastic charity.
Life as a VSO volunteer in Uganda has certainly had its ups and downs. It’s been a truly incredible three years so far. I love life in Uganda – but it does sometimes get the better of me:
Shotgun wedding – a surreal and intense day
Here’s a bit more about life as a volunteer in Uganda –
Still counting myself lucky! 2 years on …
So why am I still in Uganda? Here’s one reason – one of my favourite blogs from last year:
Early morning sights and sounds
Happy New Year everyone!
Party with your closest relative!
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary – the Flagship project for the Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust (CSWCT) – is fundraising to refurbish the sanctuary enclosure / electric fencing system for the sanctuary. The electric fence – erected about 10 years ago – today helps staff, visitors, students, local communities and tourists view the Chimpanzees with minimal or no contact.
The forested island of 100 acres is located 23 km offshore from Entebbe and provides a safe haven where orphaned chimpanzees are free to roam. It offers a unique opportunity for close viewing of chimpanzees in their natural environment. Prearranged supplementary feeding brings the chimpanzees within metres of the raised walkway, specially designed for easy viewing. It’s a fantastic vantage point for photos and to appreciate the almost chimps now resident on this small island.
Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary is a fantastic experience. If you live in Uganda – or are visiting – it’s a must-do experience and a great day out (you can even stay overnight on Ngamba Island!) I’ve visited twice and can’t wait to go again! CSWT’s CEO Lilly Ajarova has been a volunteer Director of UCF (the Uganda Conservation Foundation) for many years and it’s always an honour to support such a committed lady, a fellow marketer and conservationist. She’s been a inspiration to me.
UPDATE: This event was a great success!
To find out about upcoming kids events, fundraisers and more at Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary, email reservations@ngambaisland.org
or call +256 414 320662 / +256 758 221880.
The photo was taken at the cafe in the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC), also known as Entebbe Zoo. Free entrance to the zoo is included in the entry ticket to Ngamba Island and it’s a lovely place to chill out.
Have you visited Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary? What was your favourite part of the experience?
Lessons in parenting from Mweya’s Mongooses!
A morning with the famous Banded Mongooses of Queen Elizabeth National Park
I often forget when we go out on safari how – even on short distances – a vehicle is necessary. And so, armed not with a gun or a machete, but a long radio antenna, we jumped into the back of a pickup truck and headed off the main track and into the scrubby bush.
The sun was shining as we watched Pink-backed Pelicans sailing down the Kazinga Channel towards us. Within just a few minutes, our researcher guides Solomon and Francis had tracked down our family, one of six habituated groups of Mongooses* living on the Mweya peninsula in Queen Elizabeth National Park, western Uganda. Over two decades of research have given Solomon, Kenneth and Francis an intimate knowledge of Mweya’s nine families of Banded Mongoose.
Our job for the morning was to weigh each of the 32-member family. But where do you start?
With a call of “coo-coo-coo-coo-coo” the mongooses come trotting out of the bush, snorting, sniffing, whistling and chirruping.
Well, would you believe it – these guys can be identified by their different haircuts! Every two weeks each mongoose has a number clipped into the fur onto its back to identify it. Regular monitoring is invaluable in monitoring their health.
As the mongoose family rolled up, we set to work. Each mammal was individually weighed and its personal number and weight noted. (What impressed me was how Solomon managed to remember which individuals he’d weighed). Later, the data is compared to check that the mongoose pups are growing healthily and to monitor any pregnancies.
During the weigh-in, the researchers told us about Mongoose society
Known as ‘cooperative breeders’ the female mongooses all give birth on the same day. Incredible! As many as 15 pups will be born in a day. A pup can be suckled by any of the females. Pups will then choose which male – the babysitters of the species – will care for them. According to Solomon, a pup can distinguish between a good or a bad parent. (These fascinating creatures could surely be good role models to a few men we could mention!)
If a subordinate female becomes pregnant, when the dominant four females aren’t, she will be “beaten up” in Solomon’s words, and forced to abort. If she’s lucky, she will then be allowed back into the group (the risk is that if subordinates keep getting pregnant, they threaten the dominance of the group). Examples of this behaviour were captured on the BBC TV series Banded Brothers, aired in 2010.
When I commented on how healthy the mongooses looked, Solomon replied “Yes, these are rich guys. They live near the Lodge!” Rubbish from Mweya Lodge and the Uganda Wildlife Authority hostel is collected and taken to a covered pit, but with so many tourists passing through Mweya, it’s inevitable there are still scraps of food to be scavenged.
When they find a rat “they go crazy and make a lot of noise” to attract the rest of the group to the hunt. We watched as a Mongoose (carefully) attacked a giant Millipede, bashing it against the ground to first remove its poison. The others were quick to dive in and help him eat it.
When they’re not busy foraging or fighting, mongooses can be seen removing the ticks and lice from compliant warthogs. Did you know this behaviour only happens in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park? Other unusual behaviour witnessed here was the Mongoose who took a dip in the lodge pool!
To get closer to the action, I sat on a tuft of grass at the edge of the track. Note: sitting down on the bare grass is not recommended. By afternoon, my legs were itching like crazy!
As we talked, we heard a car pass along the track above us. Every Mongoose was on high alert, heads turned in the direction of the noise, on their back legs, scanning the horizon. With a piercing shriek, the crew scattered. They headed for cover, as one.
“If they see a Leopard they will just freak and run. Even if they find the dung of a lion, they run!” (And so might I!)
The Mongoose’s greatest enemies are the Leopard and the Python. Just recently a Leopard had attacked their den and eaten five of them. At Kabatoro Gate, a Python had eaten a mongoose wearing the radio collar. They’d tracked the perpetrator of course!
How to book the Mongooses Experience
A few hours – or longer – in the presence of these knowledgeable researchers, who so obviously love their subjects, is a great way to get up close to nature, support conservation and see the park from a different angle. Unlike some other wildlife experiences, you can get out of the car and even let the Mongooses run between your feet.
The experience can be booked with the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
What is so special about mongooses?
There are 32 species of Mongooses in the world, of which only four are social: the Meercats, the Dwarf, the Yellow and the Banded Mongooses.
The Banded Mongoose Research project is run by the universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Zürich (and has links to more photos and video footage). And why are they studying Uganda’s Banded Mongooses? “These ‘cooperatively breeding’ societies pose a challenge to evolutionary theory because natural selection is expected to favour selfish behaviour that maximises an individual’s reproductive success. The banded mongoose population at Mweya provides an opportunity to answer questions about the evolution of cooperation and the resolution of conflict in wild mammals.”
*One Mongoose (singular), several Mongooses (plural).
Have you taken part in the Mongooses Experience?
A close encounter with lions!
One of the incredible benefits of working with UCF, the Uganda Conservation Foundation, has been work trips to the Bush – and free game drives. Friends and family back home may be under the impression that’s all I’ve been doing for the last two and half years! Unfortunately, once I’d got the hang of the projects, trips and wildlife encounters (in the Bush at least) were few and far between and I spent as much time chained to the laptop as I did in any other office job I’ve ever had, writing one funding proposal after another.
Feline like a quickie in the Bush – then time for breakfast
Yet the Bush is still within a day’s drive from home, UCF has given me some wonderful contacts in Queen Elizabeth National Park, and I am indeed a very lucky girl to (continue to) have this experience. I make the most of every day I have in Uganda – here’s a highlight from last week:
The driver had promised us the earliest of starts (although I was disappointed that the agreed game drive would happen in a bloody saloon car!) I’d insisted that we should go in a 4×4 but come 6.30 in the morning, I’d buttoned my lip, deciding to make the most of the cheap price and trusting in the fact that a locally based guide should be able to find all the wildlife straightaway.
Eddie the driver gave us the normal tourist platitudes, and I switched off. UCF has spoiled me. We’ve travelled with rangers off the beaten track; we’ve followed the lion researchers at night and heard all kinds of wildlife close-encounter stories round the campfire.
At the famous Kasenyi track, south of Lake George, we headed for where the lions had last been seen. With the grass long, thanks to the seasonal rains, spotting a lion can be near impossible. Sometimes all you see are the tips of their ears or a flick of a tail.
Awesome, truly.
“Look, he’s just finished mating! Now he will want to hunt.”
Three handsome adult lions, a female and two brothers, were in a lazy, playful mood and Eddie anticipated their next move.
I was captivated: I had never seen male lions at such close quarters. They really are magnificent.
The males casually sauntered off to our right and the female lay down to drink water. As we slowly drove past her, I suddenly had a tight feeling in my stomach, realising what a powerful, and potentially lethal, animal I was approaching.
We stepped on the gas to head the lions off, further along the track. And there they were, not at all perturbed by our presence, two magnificent male lions walking directly towards us (walking directly towards us?! Hang on a minute shouldn’t I be scared?) Admiration turned to fear right at the last minute as the two enormous lions walked the length of our car just a metre from us. I grabbed the camera.
What a handsome creature!
As the big pussycats and I made eye contact, I felt myself slide down my seat (much to the delight of my friend, who giggled and poked fun at me from the back of the car). The lions crossed the track heading for the Uganda kobs’ mating ground (their favourite place for breakfast). I’m just glad it wasn’t me on the menu…
These aren’t the best wildlife encounter photographs. To photograph wildlife requires a good zoom lens and more than an impromptu five minutes with the animals in question. I’m pretty pleased with my x10 optical zoom but hey, when wildlife gets this close – who needs the zoom anyway?
Kampala to Nairobi by bus – 14 hours of speed bumps!
Travel by bus between Uganda and Kenya – with tips and links to some of my favourite travel stories!
It was a terrible night’s ‘sleep’ – a 14-hour bus journey from Kampala to Nairobi: the speed bumps shuddered us awake every few minutes. I swear I woke a hundred times. I awoke cold, shivering and aching.
A few glasses of Waragi – it was my birthday after all – would have knocked me out, but I daren’t drink too much when I know (from the equally long bus ride to Kigali in Rwanda) that the bus drivers have bladders like camels and only stop once, twice if you’re lucky, on the whole journey.
Cowhides for sale along the road to Nairobi from the Uganda border
As night became day, I heard Chinese say “Nagawa, look!” and she pointed to a beautiful caldera (volcano), tinted pale brown, with a pale blue sky and mist in the distance. What a magical sight.
An hour before reaching Nairobi, I watched people walking to work: a man carried enormous lidded baskets over his shoulder, donkeys trailed box carts, a man lay on the ground inspecting his bicycle. Stalls sold cowhides displayed at the roadside.
The bus sped past the ‘Master Kitchen Hotel’ and ‘Hotel Paradise’, two-room shacks painted in bright vertical stripes. Despite their simplicity, I enjoyed the variety of the architecture, in contrast to the uniformity of Uganda.
As we passed tree plantations, I thought of Professor Wangari Maathai founder of the Green Belt Movement and wondered whether they were her work? She died just a few days before we travelled. Since 1977, the Green Belt Movement has planted over 45 million trees in Kenya, and thousands of women have been empowered to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. In 2004, Wangari Maathai became the first environmentalist and African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I’d been thinking about her all week and what an incredible role model she was so it was quite moving to be racing through Kenya and seeing plantations of young trees.
In Nairobi, street sweepers’ brooms have handles! – unlike the back-breaking work in Kampala where the ladies are bent double, laboriously sweeping the roads by hand, as rush hour traffic speeds past inches away from them.
Despite the grubbiness of downtown Nairobi (why do bus stations always take you to the shittiest parts of town?) I had to smile at the wonderfully named shops ‘Recovery Pharmacist’ ‘Arise and Shine Fashions’ and ‘Best Care House Girls.’
Our group stumbled, bleary-eyed, out of the bus and jumped in a matatu (slightly less battered than the Kampala ones!) and headed to our hotel in a leafy part of town. I couldn’t believe it when we pulled up next door to the HQ of the Green Belt Movement! The Hashers made for the bar; I made my way to the condolences book and paid my humble respects, alongside tributes from governments and politicians from across the world. I couldn’t believe the timing – I confess I’d only recently known of Professor Maathai’s work and here I was staying a few metres from the base of this fantastic operation, during the week of condolences.
Paying respects – condolences book. late Professor Wangari Maathai
This cross-border bus journey marked the start of the epic Nairobi to Naivasha Relay which Kampala Hash House Harriers have emulated with our equally awesome Kampala to Jinja Relay!
I love the Hash – together we have travelled all corners of East Africa – and beyond – to Hoima, Kigali, Addis Ababa, Malindi and even to the border with South Sudan (where some silly muzungu got rather lost!)
If you enjoy my cross-border bus journeys, read The real ‘boda boda’ – Nagawa travels sidesaddle into Kenya and MASH-tastic the muzungu’s bus tips from Kampala to Nairobi.
Save Mabira Forest! we can live without sugar
To everyone’s horror – but few people’s surprise – the President has decreed that ‘the degraded part’ of this ancient and fabulous forest, protected under international law, should be cut down. And for what crucial development project?
The president says the current scarcity of sugar warrants giving away the Forest. Ugandans aren’t silly (and they love discussing current affairs); everyone thinks that the President is just using the high price of sugar as an excuse.
The Mabira issue is in every paper and on TV every day. Conservation organisations have come together to issue a statement with Nature Uganda supported by Friends of the Earth and Uganda’s National Association of Professional Environmentalists.
So, the President (against the wishes of many in his Cabinet) plans to give away one third of the 30,000 hectare rainforest to SCOUL (the Mehta Group’s Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd), a producer with significant operations in the area, near Jinja. A planned giveaway was opposed in 2007, culminating in a demonstration that left three people dead and a boycott of Mehta sugar. The victim people often talk about was Indian, the same ethnic group as Mehta’s owners. This man strayed into the angry demonstrators and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and beaten to death. Thus not only do we have the very real possibility of violence, but I’d hazard a guess that increased racism against Indians is likely, and will last well beyond this debate. Rumour has it there are soldiers guarding Mabira forest.
The President claims opposition politicians and activists who supported the giveaway in 2007 are to blame for the current sugar scarcity. On August 13, he said “how can Uganda import sugar? This indiscipline should stop. We have defeated armed terrorists. We cannot accept to be defeated by unarmed terrorists.”
In the last few weeks, the price of sugar in Uganda has risen dramatically, from 2,500 shillings* / kilo to a high of 7,000 shillings / kilo and has since dropped to approximately 3,500 shillings / kilo and today the inflation rate is at 21.4%, the highest in 18 years. The rising cost of living is affecting everyone and everything: high fuel costs, high commodity prices, a badly weakening shilling and economic strikes, walk to work campaign, and strikes by taxi drivers, traders, teachers and doctors. *(Normally I’d convert this into dollars / sterling but that’s losing meaning as the shilling continues to fall).
This deceptively beautiful green is a tea plantation. The two trees are all that remain of this section of Mabira Forest
The most obvious challenge (well, to me with my conservation hat on) is environmental: Mabira is home to 300 bird species, including the endangered Nahan’s Francolin, the Papyrus Gonolek and nine endemics (species not found anywhere else in the world). Mabira is the only remaining large natural forest on the northern shores of Lake Victoria.
Uganda has 4.9 million hectares of forests and woodlands cover, according to the National Forestry Authority. Mabira is categorised as a ‘protection forest,’ crucial for safeguarding watersheds and catchments, biodiversity, ecosystems and landscapes. In 2007 the World Bank, the National Forestry Authority and an inter-ministerial committee all advised against the Forest giveaway.
Environmentalists say the revenue lost to government by giving away part of the Forest for sugar growing, in terms of carbon credits, is estimated at US$316m. The value of the land is estimated at US$5m and the value of the wood at US$568m. That means the Ugandan public stands to lose almost US$890m, about 1.5 trillion shillings, equivalent to 25% of the 2011-2012 national budget, as a result of the government’s plan to degazette part of the Forest, according to the NGO, Environmental Alert.
Note: this is just valuing the land and the timber, how do you value a catchment area for Lake Victoria, Lake Kyoga and three rivers including the River Nile? What about the lost livelihoods of local people who are dependent on the Forest? How do you value biodiversity? A species? What will the impact be on tourist dollars?
If the President gives away this Protected Area, what about the others, where will be next? In 2010 he announced he would let the Madhvani Group build a golf course right in the middle of Murchison Falls Protected Area. “Where is the pollution from golf? Where are the fumes?” He is reported to have said. Thankfully that idea got mothballed.
The Mabira issue is not just an environmental one, it gives a fascinating insight into Ugandan society. Some of the other issues, discussed in this week’s media:
Alternative solutions to addressing the lack of sugar have been offered:
Let the president take the land offered by the Baganda kingdom offered as an alternative to Mabira in 2007. This isn’t the first time the Baganda kingdom has offered alternative land for sugarcane growing. If the issue is to increase sugar production, then the kingdom’s offer will suffice. Otherwise, insisting on Mabira would imply there are ulterior reasons to giving away the natural forest land, since sugarcane can grow almost anywhere.
The Church of Uganda is also said to have offered land for the same purpose.
Other people have suggested plots of land right across the country; in fact many say that Mabira is not good land for sugarcane growing: there is too high a water content in the cane and a comparatively low ratio of sugar extracted (all while polluting the local rivers and using disproportionately higher levels of electricity).
Here are key parts of an interview with respected commentator Godber Tumushabe, Executive Director of ACODE (Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment).
Q. What will be lost and gained if the Forest is given away?
Apart from being a vital water catchment area from Lake Victoria, if you’re building dams around River Nile* you do not want to do anything in the hinterland that will disrupt the hydrological feature. Forests are considered to be one of the major carbon sinks, if you then destroy a forest like Mabira you would have destroyed a very important sink very close to the capital city with a fast-growing industrial sector. We have not developed the technological capacity to cope with adverse climate change and ecological disruptions. We would lose the climate modifying element of an important forest like Mabira.
*The new Bujagali hydropower project is being constructed close to Mabira, due to come online within the year. Currently, the country is experiencing major power outages throughout the day. Lack of capacity, inefficiencies at the providers, high cost of fuel, increasing population size are all blamed.
Economically, agricultural communities around Mabira depend on the forest’s resources, and are therefore highly vulnerable.
*NEWSFLASH*
In an interesting twist, today Mehta say they don’t want the forest land and never asked for it. The Indian business community are understandably worried about how the proposed giveaway affects them and have come together to form their own lobbying group. Even without any protests, Indian businesses must have been losing revenue these last two weeks.
We watch the news with interest! Now what will the President do?
Information sources
Extracts from The Independent magazine Aug 26 – Sept 1 2011
Bwindi – eye to eye with my totem
Nagawa meets the Red-tailed Monkeys of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
THUMP!
THUD!
CRASH!
If ever there was a rude awakening, this was definitely it.
It’s early.
It’s been one hell of a journey to get here (a whole day’s public transport from Kasese to Buhoma). The house rat has kept us awake half the night and I need my shut-eye… I turn over and try to get back to sleep.
But it’s not to be.
Above my head it sounds like the gates of hell have burst open!
At any moment I feel the tin roof will give way and whatever’s out there will land right on top of us. I can’t imagine what’s making such a racket.
The noise seems to move from one side of the roof to the other.
“What the hell …?” I shout loudly at Steve above the noise.
The unholy din subsides. They’ve gone.
Woken from my deep sleep, I’m not appreciating the hullabaloo created by the family of Red-tailed monkeys – locally known as Nkima – emerging from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to clamber across Stevie’s little tin-roofed shack in search of their breakfast.
Nagawa’s totem, the gorgeous Red Tailed Monkey, nkima, clan totem of the Buganda Kingdom. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
There’s a rat in the rafters, what I’m a gonna do… [to coin a popular UB40 song].
Across the field of pineapples, tucked away in a damp corner at the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, stands my home for the week-end. It’s a typical Ugandan house construction: a coating of plaster covers a wattle and daub box; wooden shutters cover the two paneless windows. There’s no electricity, no running water and the toilet, an earthen pit latrine, is a two minute stumble in the dark from the house.
My first night in Bwindi, mosquito nets tucked in tightly, we take bets on “whose bed the rat will scamper across in the night.” We snuff out the kerosene lamp.
As our laughter subsides, the house comes to life. There’s a definite pitter patter of small rodent feet. It’s getting louder.
“It’s in the rafters above us!” Steve cries. “IT’S COMING OVER!”
The house has two rooms. The wall that separates them only extends two metres high. We’ve attempted to pull the warped wooden door shut to keep the rat out of the bedroom but rats make their own rules. They love height. It will obviously climb over the top. I try not to snigger; I secretly look forward to a rodent encounter.
The morning after
With “the upstairs neighbours’ party over” – but unable to sleep again – I get up to make my morning tea. As I strike a match to light the gas ring, the rat leaps out from its nest inside (yes, inside!) the stove’s metal casing. It’s a WHOPPER!
Tea mug in hand, I wander outside to investigate the bird-like ‘tut tut’ coming from a nearby tree. I twitch, ready to reach for my binoculars.
A blue face peers down at us. He sports a white, heart-shaped patch on his nose. Pure white cheek whispers frame his distinctive features. Seen straight on, the effect is quite alarming.
Resting to feed on some leaves, the Red Tailed Monkey’s sumptuous long copper tail loops suggestively around a branch. He quietly chomps away. His thick tail fur glows russet in the sun’s early rays.
Red-tailed Monkey on roof. Bwindi Forest
“He must like women,” Steve comments. “He’s never let me get this close before,” he says, sounding slightly put out. (I can’t help but smile at my luck for such a close encounter!) Steve has lived a stone’s throw from Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for months. We are fellow VSO volunteers.
Wildlife enthusiasts like me thrill at the chance to get so close to nature. However, my work with the Uganda Conservation Foundation has shown me what a grind it is to deal with noisy, foraging animal behaviour every day. It’s hard to imagine how the average poor Ugandan farmer copes, especially when you have your own family to feed. But, I admit to a real soft spot for these forest guenons.
The early morning sunshine glow of a Red-tailed Monkey in Bwindi Forest
Protecting my totem, morning tea in hand. Nagawa meets Red-tailed Monkey. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Nagawa, protector of Nkima, the Red Tailed Monkey
At an exhibition by the artist Taga, I bumped into a Ugandan lady called Nagawa in front of this painting of our totem! Nagawa, enkima clan, protector of the Red-tailed Monkey
“If you stay in Uganda, you must have a Ugandan name,” my tour driver friend Rashid had insisted one day, and so I was named Nagawa, protector of the Nkima (or Enkima) clan. In Buganda culture, each clan is represented by a totem, which can be an animal, bird, fish or plant – even a mushroom! You are not allowed to hunt, eat or kill your totem. I am honoured to have been awarded custody of such a fabulous creature.
Back in Bwindi, our red-tailed observer follows us around the forest clearing as we finish our tea.
The sunlight picks out a spectrum of colours in the grizzled brown fur of his back. The white fur on his belly looks as soft and downy as a baby rabbit’s. I imagine how it might feel to brush my face against it.
Takeaway chicken
A little later, Nkima pauses on the dry banana leaf roof of Steve’s chicken shed, peering beneath his front feet into the empty shed below. (The chicken was carried off by the Safari ants one week-end when Steve had left Buhoma).
Safari ants can be vicious – and put the organisational skills of the average human to shame! As we leaned over them to take photos, the big guy waved at us menacingly. His job is to protect the worker ants
The chicken may have gone but a bag of chickenfeed remains to tempt a hungry monkey. He quickly climbs down the outside of the shed and hops inside to grab a handful of feed before he jumps away across the tin roof of Steve’s house, back to his family group waiting in the larger trees.
Monkey business done for the day, a cold ‘bucket shower’ and a breakfast chapatti beckon the bazungu!
The celebrated Ugandan artist Taga Nuwagaba has dedicated many years to researching and painting Uganda’s totems, in order to preserve their culture and promote conservation.
African Elephant painting by Taga
Visit the Buganda Kingdom web site for more information on clans and totems. (The Baganda are not the only tribe in Uganda to have clan totems, but their system is the most complex and best documented).
This story took place on the edge of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, south western Uganda. It was my entry into this year’s BBC Wildlife Nature Writer of the Year competition. Alas I was unsuccessful – fingers crossed for another year then!
Warning – this blog contains snakes!
Entebbe’s Reptiles Village has been on my list of places to visit for ages.
Chameleon, Reptiles Village Entebbe. Close-up of one of the world’s most fascinating creatures!
When I suggested to the team that we all have a day out together at the Reptiles Village in Entebbe, organised by Nature Uganda, we were equally split down the middle: two for, two against. Enid’s words were in fact “No way, I’m not giving up my Saturday to see snakes!”
After the office was repainted, I noticed that she put back the posters of birds, butterflies and mammals – but not the one of the snakes. Patrick is equally averse to snakes – I remember his look of disgust when we walked past the enormous python at UWEC (a.k.a. Entebbe Zoo). To be fair though, last year a cousin of theirs was killed by a notorious Puff Adder out in the bush towards Tanzania; he was dead within a few hours.
It’s run by a Ugandan who is passionate about snakes in particular and reptiles in general. All the animals he rescues are native to Uganda. He rescues reptiles that are in danger of being killed by humans, and tries his best to ‘sensitise’ people (as we seem to be doing with elephants, dogs, birds, you name it)…
The message is generally: “you don’t have to kill it – it’s unlikely to harm you unless provoked and there are measures to deal with elephants, dogs, birds” [complete as appropriate]. Today at Reptiles Village, I couldn’t stop myself telling people off. I was tired, I wasn’t very gentle, I just said “stop doing that.”
Each reptile has a story. The Monitor Lizard only has one claw on its left paw, as a result of the fight he had with the humans who wanted to use his skin to make a drum. The shell of one of the Leopard Tortoises seems to have melted, where it was rescued from a fire. “I hear they are very good for traditional medicine,” one lady said. “Some people eat them,” someone else said.
Monitor Lizard and baby crocs – cute – at this size!
If you turn a tortoise upside down, it will panic and wee itself. If it does this too often it will become dehydrated and eventually die. I didn’t know this myself until last year. I bought a tortoise from some boys down one of the back roads in Muyenga (I shouldn’t have, I realise now). Anyway the tortoise (who didn’t hang around long enough to get a name) tumbled over a step and overturned. I turned him the right way up – and he did the most enormous turd (a sure sign he was scared!)
Being on today’s trip reminds me how much people need to be sensitised. These are not even your average Ugandans; these are people with a proven interest in conservation, and yet they were letting the kids pull leaves off the young saplings and getting too close to the animals. It was a fun and interesting day out but it just reminds me how much work there is to do in conservation in Uganda.
The lady guide was very informative but admitted she won’t hold a snake! We were lucky enough to have a HERPS (herpetology / reptile) specialist, Mathias, on our group. He was a mine of information.
Watching us without moving. An African Rock Python, Reptiles Village, Entebbe
Like a sentry on duty, the first snake we saw was the Forest Cobra, head up and in aggressive mood. Reptiles Village Entebbe
The three metre (?) long African Rock Python is a constrictor. Apparently this is the only snake large enough to consider eating a human but attacks are very rare, although their long teeth can inflict painful wounds. These beasts are often found in caves.
We couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw a small manky-looking puppy curled up asleep in the same cage. “Breakfast,” we asked? Twenty minutes later it had gone, nowhere to be seen! The snake hadn’t moved though so we can’t blame him…
Jackson’s Chameleons at Reptiles Village, Entebbe
Holding the pretty Von Hohnel’s Chameleon was a highlight of the day. Its black tongue is coiled tightly like a spring enabling, it to PING into action and trap insects half a metre away! Its eyes are hilarious, constantly rotating, one looking forward and down while the other looks backwards and up! “How does the brain process all that information?!” Erik asked.
Everyone loved the Twig Snake. It was the thickness of a twig, brown and only a foot long. Amazingly, however, this tiny little snake can give you a nasty death, poisoning you over the course of a week.
Death by other snake bites can be much quicker, especially if you’re in a remote area without access to the anti-venom injections, which is most likely. To put this in perspective though – assuming you’ve had the courage to read this far – only 10% of the snakes in Uganda are venomous. You’d be incredibly unlucky to meet one of that 10% and if you were to get bitten, they don’t necessarily release their poison either. I do love seeing Ugandans interacting positively with reptiles. (There seems to be so much fear around them, even though most are harmless).
Frankly I’ve hardly seen any snakes in my first two and a half years living in Uganda: two dead grey ones in the road and a couple of harmless Grass Snakes in our compound.
I had to wait a year before I saw a decent snake: and there it was stretched across the whole length of the road ahead of us, an enormous black snake (not a Black Mamba, they’re actually grey), on the road to Uganda Wildlife Authority campsite in Ishasha. It was a beauty!
