This story from the bush is one of many I’ve written in my 15+ years traveling across Uganda and East Africa. It all started in Queen Elizabeth National Park…
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 (2009 to 2011)! Unfortunately, once I’d got to grips with the projects, field trips and wildlife encounters 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.
Yet the Bush is still within a day’s drive from home.
My years with UCF have 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. With them, we’ve gone off track with the rangers; we’ve followed the lion researchers at night, we’ve heard all manner of thrilling wildlife encounter stories around the campfire.
At the famous Kasenyi track, south of Lake George, our saloon car driver 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.
“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 pedal 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.
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 but hey, when wildlife gets this close – who needs the zoom anyway?
Oh yes and lions mate every half an hour for two weeks, we happened upon several couplings of the same lions over a two hour period, wow!
Your a great story teller, and have a sense of humor. I am glad your enjoying your time in Uganda, and those lions are gorgeous! Nice pics.
Hi Marlon, thanks for the appreciation! Those lions were just incredible – and a lot bigger than I’d imagined! Respect to Mother Nature!