After spending 5 days instead of 1 at the crater lakes, it was hard to get back on the road again. I didn't leave Jasiu's place (the polish dude running a camp site on Lake Layontonde) until noon after I had planted a tree. Jasiu has planted thousands of trees around the lake and I was a guinea pig in his plan to have his guests pitch-in and plant a tree if they want. It was a fantastic experience for me being a "professional tree planter" (feels weird to type that) in Canada, used to planting thousands of trees in a day. I spent about 5 minutes planting this one tree, *Cola gigantea*, which is probably the longest I've ever spent planting one tree.
I could just turn right...
...How about NOW?!
Not a bad place to hang.
Not a bad place to sleep.
Lonely road. Fine by me!
The wild winds were howling at times.
Here he is again all by his lonesome.
Antelope!
Bird-filled tree with Ugandan Kob in the background.
My tree!
The ride to Kasese through the crater lake area was gorgeous. Roads were rutted and bad after having had a couple of hard rains, but it didn't matter because it was so scenic. Loads of greenery around and litte hills with the Rwenzori range in the background. Relatively peaceful with very little traffic and few humans. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Beautiful scenery makes up for the shitty road.
Although poor, these locals have a pretty sweet view.
See that hill in the background? One guy left his bike at the bottom, while the two of them pushed one bike up at a time. I can't imagine doing that on a daily basis or at all just to sell some bananas at roughly 3 cents a banana.
They asked for money, I took their picture...after I asked *them* for money. You need to develope a sense of humour over time or else you loose your temper.
Lots of rolling hills made for great riding.
Look closely for the bright colours that caught my eye on the bike.
Small farms with the Rwenzories in the background.
A prison farm.
On the way to Kasese.
The night in Kasese was relatively uneventful. I stayed in probably the nicest place I've stayed in in Uganda. Still I paid less than $10 for a private non-contained room with "hot" (more like Luke warm) water, clean sheets, clean towel, a comfy bed and a rotating ceiling fan. To top it off, I wasn't woken up in the night by screaming people, loud music or early in the morning by someone sweeping -the first thing people do when they wake up here.
The next day I rode passed the Ugandan Equator! It happened to be exactly noon, which I thought was cool, except it was actually boiling hot! I wanted to take a picture of me AND my bike, but only managed to take a couple of lame selfies with my ipad (anyone know if the iPad has a timer on it?). Luckily, two mzungus drove up to me on their boda! Sometimes attracting attention can bring great things at handy times. I was able to have them take my picture WITH MY BIKE in front of the Equator signs. Perfect! Poor things had just been run off the road by some vehicles, but luckily came out of the experience with only a couple of scratches. They asked me a bunch of questions, I asked them a bunch of questions. Turns out they're from Grrmany and they've been traveling all the way from Cape Town, SA. Awesome. They had only acquired the boda in Uganda though. They were on their way to the crater lakes, so I had to tell them all about Jasiu and also about the Lake Nkaruba campsite. They had been told the roads were bad and that they should take the main road to Fort Portal first, which would have been a huge waste of time as Fort Portal is north of the crater lakes and they were coming from the south. Plus they would have missed those scenic roads through the lakes! I told them I had just come from there and recommend it. Coming from a person on a bike, I think they were convinced. Off we went our separate ways, them to the lovely lakes and me to Mweya peninsula through Queen Elizabeth National Park. I rode passed WARTHOG and ANTELOPE and WATERBUFFALO...amazing! I stopped at a water hole on the way to the main gate (i.e. I road 14km in the park before having to pay anything) and through my binos was able to spot a bunch of waterbuffalo, some antelope and FLAMINGOS! Of course no one else was stopping at this water hole (i.e. crater lake) because they were too busy flying by in their Land Rovers, buses, bottomed-out sedans or boda-bodas. I tell you, traveling by bicycle is the BEST! You're able to stop when you want and take it all in. This road, I admit, was even worst than the road to Amudat in that the washboard was INTENSE, but it didn't matter as I was in heaven with all these animals around me. I reached the gate and payed the $40 park fee to continue another 7km to the Mweya lodge and campsite. Thank god there was accommodation other than this lodge, because a) there's no way I could afford to stay in such luxury and b) it is disgusting! This is one of those 5 star, life-sized animal posed in the entrance, leather everything, fire place, $3 beer kind of places ($3 is ridiculously expensive in a place like Uganda where the most expensive beer anywhere else in the country is maybe $1.5. It's a crime if you ask me). I mean Mzungus are bad enough for not questioning any of the prices here, but Mweya lodge has taken obseen advantage of that and jacked all prices up 100-fold. Nevermind, I by-passed the place to stay at the campsite. However, I expected to be able to do my usual when I arrive at my destination after cycling that day: tent set-up, shower, food and beer. That's all I want to do at the end of the day. But the whole reason I came to the Mweya peninsula was to take the boat tour, which has a reputation for being the best animal sight-seeing in the country and is well known among guides in Kenya even. Upon arrival I'm told the only boat going in the next 24hours is at 4pm, in 40 minutes. I had expected to go in the morning, when I'm not so tired and flustered, but my pass into the park only lasts for 24 hours. Well, what choice did I have, I paid the $26 and hopped on the boat, very hungry and not in the mood for being amongst tourists. In fact, I felt even more out of place than I do when I'm cycling through small Ugandan villages being the only white person for miles and perhaps the first that some of the kids have ever seen. Maybe if I had at least been able to shower or change before hopping on the boat with a bunch of old people carrying giant lenses for their cameras and in the country only to spend hundreds of dollars to chase wild animals with their compensating lenses. Here I was, dirt and sweat-salt-covered, buff-wearing dirt bag, cranky because I'm hungry and not in the mood for gaulking mzungus because they can't even fathom the fact that I'm traveling by bicycle. Of course, my mood changed once I was graced with hundreds of water buffalo and countless birds. SO MANY birds in fact, it was a little overwhelming. I would say it was a good thing we had a boat driver who knew the names of all the species, but the boat driver dictated the names of species is such a monotone manner I thought he was going to jump off the boat and let the crocodiles have him. He obiviously detested his job. I thought this was sad since I'm sure many Ugandans would love to have a job that does not require back-breaking work in the fields and actually PAID. Oh well, again, I was taken by the sights of more birds, giant crocodiles, tons and tons of hippos, a monitor lizard eating a GIANT fish and a few elephants! I was honestly a little dissappointed with the few elephants we saw as I had heard that we would see dozens, but I guess I was a week or two too late as the rains give the elephants less reason to be by the water and are therefore less viewable from the Kazinga channel, where we were touring. The tour lasted 2 hours, which was pretty good I thought! I had a beer before knowing how much they cost and was shocked enough to refuse a second beer once I found out the obsurd price. But having a beer while watching hippo float above and below the water's suface and multiple species of kingfishers fly by a few types of storks sitting by a cormorant who's looking at Egyptian geese waddling by thicknees...I think you get the point :)
Photo taken by German couple on a boda.
Just a ridiculous number of water buffalo, hippos and birds.
Water buffalo and hippo live in harmony.
Yawning hippo.
Chilling waterbuffalo.
The circle of life, a dying waterbuffalo.
Water buffalo chilling next to their buddy's skull.
Beautiful fish eagle sitting majestically ontop of this lone tree.
A stork doing what it does best, eating the creepy crawlees in the murky water's floor.
Can you see it?...
...can you see it now?...
...Bet you can now...
Croc in QE np from Krisztina Mosdossy on Vimeo.
The old wealthy people with their giant lenses checking out a monitor lizard eating a massive cat fish while two hammerheads (the birds, not the sharks) wait for their turn to peck at the kill.
The monitor lizard and hammerheads as we let them dine in peace.
I lost track of how many species were on this particular beach during the tour. I know there are some skimmers in there, a couple of types of storks, cormorants, thicknees, a couple of hippos, etc. Our guide listed them off in his most unenthusiastic monotone voice, but I was ecstatic!
Look closely and you might be able to see a white tusk at the upper edge of the bushes in the middle.
The disgusting, vomit lodge.
There's a fountain *inside* and everything is made of leather...
Once the tour was over, I set up my tent and noticed there was an elephant across the channel! I could see an elephant from my tent! Amazing! I watched him for a while then had a real shower with running water (amazing for rural Uganda let alone a campsite!) and went back to the vomit lodge because this is where the beer is at. I am hopeless for beer. I only had one more though, I couldn't justify spending $3 on another beer when I know they usually cost $1. The sunset was gorgeous lighting up Lake Edward and the Kazinga channel with it's oranges and pinks while hippos called out in the distance and I watched as the silhouetted water buffalo faded into the night. The sun fell behind the Virunga mountains in Congo -so tantalizingly close I could get up and sprint there right there and then. Somewhere I've always wanted to explore. One day. At least I'm finally seeing that wild place for my own eyes, even if it is from such a distance. Suddenly I noticed the old tourists getting excited about something in the grass and shining flashlights eagerly to find it. I was obviously curious and went over to see what the fuss was about. "A mongoose!" the man and woman exclaimed. Well that seems fun, I got my light out to help relocate it. We found the supposed mongoose, but were quickly corrected by a MONGOOSE RESEARCHER that it was not a mongoose and perhaps a small cat or something in between. Well, I thought the mongoose researcher was more interesting than the mongoosy-kitty-cat-thing. Let's talk biology! I had no idea extensive ecological researcher was going on in Queen Elizabeth, but this masters student from England was part of a long-term mongoose project run by her supervisor for the last 30 years or so! Awesome! I didn't even know people studied mongoose to that extent anywhere to be honest. So we chatted for a while about ecological things, turns out mongoose are ridiculously interesting. For example, they can synchronize births to confuse the alpha female! What?!!! Wicked. Also turns out that besides one other long-term project on lions and hyenas, there's not much else in terms of research going on in Queen Elizabeth, at least not on Mweya peninsula. The occasional butterfly-enthusiast has touched on flutter-by identification, but sounds like nothing extensive has gone on. One more potential field site for entomological research! Something to think about indeed. I wonder why people don't study the insects in places like Queen Elizabeth or Kibale National Park. These seem like ideal research sites: research stations already in place, trained local field assistants, infrastructure and plenty of insects!
Sun setting over the Kazinga channel.
Warthogs at the campsite!
Surly looking out over the Kazinga channel.
Cool bird-filled tree woke me up in the morning :)
When re-entering the puke lodge earlier that evening I was told I should not stay long, in fact I should consider going back to my tent ASAP. Walking by yourself 200 meters to the campsite was not advice at night. I told them I was not going to stay in my tent from now (around 6pm) until morning, that's absurd. So they said I should leave no later than 10pm and they'll have a guard escort me. Sounds good to me. So my curfew came and the guard escorted me. Along the way I decided to ask him what were the exact dangers faced when walking solo at night on this particular route. His response was vague: wildlife. How enlightening. I pursued a more fulfilling answer, begging the questions: "Is it lions? I know they're rare here. Is it hippos? Although they're the most deadly animal on the planet, we've passed several already that are a mere couple of meters away and you barely shine your light on them to take notice. Elephants?" His answer, of course, was "Yes." Ah, the frustration. I nagged further. "It seriously can't be the hippos you're worried about, we've passed about 5 already, one being a group of three with two adults actively huddling around a baby to protect it and there was no immediate danger, you barely flinched. The driver to the marina boasted about seeing two lions over the number of years he's been working here, so I can't believe that the gun you are carrying is to fight off lions. The answer must be elephants, but have they ever hurt anyone in the campground before?" His reply was "All of these animals are dangerous." I personally do not believe that I was in any danger. And if I was, it would have been because of elephants. But who here thinks that one unarmed person walking alone is different from one unarmed person walking with an armed police officer who is NOT a ranger and even if he could hit the elephant in the dark with his bullets, who here thinks he would fire off enough rounds before the charging elephant got to us? Raise your hands....Needless to say, I thought this whole entourage thing was a big waste of time. To top it off, once we reached the campsite, the policeman was stunned that I was in the campsite alone....no, I have a whole posse of people waiting for me in my 2-man tent while I had to get an escort from the resort. What did you expect?! "Well, this is just too dangerous, you can't camp here alone." He exclaimed in the most matter-of-fact manner. "I was told there would be an armed guard here at night." I said truthfully, although, as you may have gathered, I didn't feel the need to have one. The police man could not handle it, he said he'd guard me throughout the night. OK, whatever, no skin off my back. However, he expected me to get into my tent right away. Well, dude, I still have to take a leak, brush my teeth, organize some of my shit, look at the moon and stars and then think about whether or not I want to go to sleep just yet as I am in no hurry in the morning and I want to soak up this paradise I'm in. I've dreamt about sleeping among wildlife in my tent since I was a little girl, I'm going to enjoy it damn it! So he huffed and said he'll wait to retrieve his jacket from the lodge until I get into my tent. So, I brushed my teeth and pretended to get into my tent to make him happy. Once I heard him jog away, I got out to enjoy my stargazing leak and the sound of hippos in the background. The night was truly gorgeous, moonlit waters, starry background to the Virunga mountains. I was reluctant to get back into my tent after a while of taking it all in, but I suppose sleep is in order at some point. I was happily woken up periodically throughout the night by the booming growls from the communicating hippos. I love you guys too.
Watching the sun set over the Virunga mountains in CONGO while I sip on an expensive beer.
Cool thread snake I found where I was keeping my bike at the vomit lodge.
I never noticed the gun-man coming back that night, so I assumed he changed his mind and didn't. I woke up to what started out as some light rain to violent raindrops, which was fun! I stayed dry in my tent (my thermarest got a little wet as it has been when heavy rain hit muddy ground and the splash-back enters my tent under the fly and through the mesh. Watch out MEC, I'm returning my Volt for this reason) and just enjoyed the sound of the storm and the rising sun in the distance through my window. I love the classic African scene where you could be under a black storm cloud, but clear skies await in the distance. Then you watch the once menacing cloud bother someone else in its distant path. Love it. As soon as the rain starts stopping, birds start-a-chirpin'. I noticed, the man-with-a-loaded-gun did actually come back and he walked solemnly back to his post now that morning has come and I am safe. A sweet thing to do, stay up all night in an environment that scares you just so a silly mzungu can enjoy her childhood dream (albeit he didn't know that it was a childhood dream of mine) when she didn't even ask you to. I never got to ask him if there was any danger in the night, but I bet you it was all good or else I would have heard some commotion.
Making tea on your camp stove when you're outdoors anywhere is a joy, but having so much wildlife all around me, being able to see the Congo and having a beautifully bright yellow bird come steal some bread crumbs off your breakfast table made morning tea ever more blissful. The bliss was interrupted with having to argue with some of the staff about my plans for the day, which originally consisted of taking a fishing boat across the Kazinga channel so that I could continue to ride within the QE park toward Ishasha at the Congo border rather than going back the way I came to continue on the main road, which eventually leaves the park and is much less direct to the southwest where I want to go. However, thankfully a woman staff member advised me that a) there would be no where to stay on the other side of the channel as the fishing villages are cut-off from the rest of civilization essentially and therefore could potentially rob me and get away with it and b) there are tree-climbing lions in the southwest of QE. The latter reason I had heard before, the former, however, was what I was trying to get out of the other staff members over the phone. My main concern was that I would not be crossing the river until the afternoon ( as I wanted to milk my 24 paid hours in the park), therefore would not make it to Ishasha today, therefore would need a place to stay on the other side of the river, i.e. a fishing village or a campsite. Apparently there is a campsite on the other side of Kazinga channel, but it charges $18 for camping with your own tent! HAHAHAHAHAHA. No. That's stealing. Rotten crooks. I don't know why it was so difficult to convey my concerns to the male park staff, but this woman totally got it and I'm very grateful to her. Although taking a local fishing boat across the Kazinga channel and continuing to ride through the park was obviously the more attractive option, I agreed with the woman in that I would be putting myself in unnecessary danger if I decided to stay in a fishing village where my safety is not guaranteed as there are only the local authorities, which probably wouldn't give a shit if someone stole my iPad or worst, hurt me to steal anything and the unspeakable: someone stealing my bike. I'm still not sure what the big deal is about the tree-climbing lion thing because I thought all lions climb trees...I'm with Mom: animals don't scare me, people can though.
The road between the Mweya lodge and the park gates strateling Lake Edward.
Savannah type scenery on the road. Who knows what animals are out there beneath the meter-high grasses.
Elephant tracks by the road. Bound to be around here somewhere! Looks like someone slipped.
An elephant trail!
He ol' Surl hang in' out while I take one million pictures figuring I'm not going to be in a national park again this trip.
Really, my options were not bleak, going back the way I came still meant passing by warthogs and antelope and then, it happened, a lone ELEPHANT not 50 meters from me! WOWEEWOWERSONS. Picture it, me, on my bike, alone in the middle of savannah-type vegetation watching this giant elephant (I assume male) browse on a tree. It felt like a dream. That's it, I'm ruined, I'll never be able to safari any other way now. Safari by bike is the only way to go. Hell, screw doing anything without a bicycle ever again. There's nothing like having nothing between you and an elephant but a few hundred blades of grass and "The Air" as Johnny Gogolak would say in The Whole Nine Yards. I took out my binos and just watched as this majestic creature stood there sometimes just chomping on whatever was already in his mouth, other times almost playfully raising his trunk to grab some more leafy grub. I'm sure he noticed me, but didn't give a shit since I was a speck to him and he could crush me in the blink of an eye if he felt like it. But I wasn't bothering him, so why stress? I'm sure he thought ;) I felt bad for the lonely dude though, where was his family? It's not like they had anywhere to hide in this environment.
Me and the bull elephant, just chillin'. Too bad all I had was my iPad, so I couldn't zoom in, but maybe this gives you an idea of just how close/far I was from him. EDIT: Actually, I'm a moron and just discovered that I *can* zoom in with my iPad camera...fuck. Wish I knew that while I was still in Africa. Good thing I'm going back!
Although overexposed, this photo might give you a better idea of where the elephant is -under a tree.
I stopped at the same waterhole I had stopped at on my way in. I saw the same animals, lots of water buffalo, some antelope, those same flamingos were there in the same spot! This time was different though, I kept hearing lots of vocalization and branch-breaking. I looked around in my binos to see if any of the water buffalo were vocalizing, they all looked to be sun bathing or actually bathing in small pools of water. I kept hearing crashes in the trees though, what was going on? After a few minutes scouring the edge of the water, there it was! Another elephant! He was breaking branches obtaining his lunch off the trees! Wow! What a great day, so glad I came back this way. I watched this elephant for a while through my binos, he was much further away, probably 150 meters or so, but my binos are amazing and I had no probably seeing what he was up to. I admired how well camouflaged this giant animal can by in the trees. I can't believe how long it took me to find him originally seeing as how these animals weigh a couple of tons. Starring through my binos, I notice there's some movement behind the elephant, what's that? Woah! Another one! Wait a minute, those bushes in front of the elephant are moving...oh my! There's a baby elephant! Hold on here, there's a MASSIVE dude roaming in the background. Woohooo! Dont' mind me, just watching a small family of elephants as I straddle my bicycle! Yes. Time of my life. It took maybe 5 or 10 more minutes for me to realize that there were actually 8 elephants in sight in those trees and probably many more that I couldn't see. I was watching a HERD of elephants on the edge of a waterhole from my bicycle, alone. No land rovers, no old people with massive lenses, no human noises, just me some elephants, water buffalo, antelope, probably a few crocs, flamingos and my Surly Troll. Fuck. Yes. Two tiny cars loaded down with a bunch of goods sped by over the course of probably an hour having no clue (or not caring) that there was a slew of life to be viewed just yonder, while I stood there enjoying this glory-full moment. I seriously was solo with these creatures, living a childhood dream. The washboard road didn't seem to matter as much on the way out as it did on the way in. I wonder why.
The waterhole.
Here's the first of the herd spotted. Yup, that fleck is one of at least 8 elephants! The others are in the trees behind this one.
Waterbuck!
These pictures do no justice to just how many antelope were in this scene. There were at least 50. All of their beady little eyes were looking right at me and nd my Surly Troll.
Antelope road block!
Click to watch Ugandan Kob and Waterbuck play around: http://vimeo.com/90770730
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