THE CHRISTMAS SAFARI

Well, this has been a while in coming I know, but it has taken some doing, reducing over 700 photographs to a few chosen ones to illustrate our grand tour of several of the most stunning game parks in Uganda.  We started in a small, but superb, park at Lake Mburo, then made our way via the gorillas at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, the tree-climbing lions in Ishasha, many elephants and a more grounded pride of lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, chimp tracking in Kibale Forest, crocodiles and hippos and an amazing leopard sighting at Murchison Falls, and finally ending with a slightly nerve racking close encounter with a family of white rhino at the Ziwa reserve, returning home to Kampala late on Christmas Eve.   We have both agreed to let the pictures tell their own story; they are not in any particular order, but I have tried to group them so they make some sort of sense.  Remember, you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them to get the best from them ...

Sunrise over Kasenyi plains; plus two examples of our 'spartan' safari accommodation.

Clockwise from top left: Topi; Jackson's hartebeest; Waterbuck with calf; another Waterbuck;
Uganda kob; Impala.

The highlight of the trip - the gorillas.  We were briefed that we were to stay at least 7m away from any animal
at all times - fortunately our family didn't seem to have received the same briefing!

We observed a family of six, all of whom seemed more interested in their lunch than in us.
We were very privileged to spend an hour in their company, taking some great pictures.

The unusual tree-climbing lions of Ishasha didn't disappoint.
No one seems to know why they do it, but they looked amazing!

We nearly ran into one elephant on one of the safari tracks, literally, as the top two pictures show.
The others we saw from the relative safety of a boat on the Kazinga Channel.

We think it was an immature bataleur eagle that we saw; but we are pretty
certain of: a woodland kingfisher; a saddle billed stork; a spotted thicknee; two grey crowned cranes.

The Chimpanzee Guest House didn't have any primates resident but was very comfortable and had
great views over tea plantations.Chimp tracking in the nearby Kibale rain forest was a proper adventure.
We only saw one chimpanzee who gave us the slip after an exciting chase on foot through primary jungle.
On the way back we discovered why the rain forest is so called.

The Rothschild giraffe were a little camera shy but the zebra made up for it.

We stopped over in the town of Masindi on our way to Murchison Falls.
As it happened the President called in on the same day - the local cattle were unimpressed.

Murchison Falls, where the Nile drops down the escarpment of the Western Rift Valley.

We saw lots of hippo from our 2 boat trips and were lucky to see one on land in Lake Mburo.

Viewing from the river was a great way to spot elephant, hippo, buffalo and at least one very large Nile crocodile.

Buffalo (one of the big five) abounded.  The one in the river didn't seem to mind sharing his wallow with a croc.

More birds: a yellow billed ox-pecker; the huge, ubiquitous marabou stork; a brown snake eagle.
However, despite much searching with the help of our guide, Jimmy, no sign of the shy shoebill.

The most adventurous day of all - tracking a leopard cross-country in the Landcruiser.  Sadly because of the all
the bumping around the only picture Ronnie managed to get is in the top left (you can see a leopard there if
you really look hard!).  Unfortunately the adventure ended abruptly when Ian grounded Lucy with all 4 wheels
almost in the air (bottom left).  The photo on the right shows Ronnie and our guide waiting to be rescued - I think she
may be wondering if things might have turned out better if the photographer and driver had swapped roles that day!

Some random photos: Relaxing after our river trip along the Kazinga Channel; Ronnie discussing the merits
of various deployment options with a local Ugandan soldier (the DRC border in Queen Elizabeth National Park
versus Somalia for example!); an extremely long example of a giant amphibian, the monitor lizard.

Sadly there are no rhinos left in the wild in Uganda any more as they were all poached to extinction a while ago.
However, they are being successfully re-introduced in a 70 sq Km reserve in Ziwa which we called into for
some rhino tracking on the way home.  We were amazed how close we were able to get to a family of 3
- closer than we were comfortable with at times if the truth be told!

A random selection of photos that couldn't be missed out.  The satnav records the exact moment we cross the
equator; school children getting off the cross-Nile ferry clearly getting into the Christmas spirit; Bajja may
not be spelled in the usual way, but Mark couldn't miss the photo opportunity; a superb caterpillar at our last
safari lodge - no idea which moth it belongs to, any ideas welcome.

And finally ... of course the statutory badger photos.  Only the 3 came with us - Exodus, Levi and Mark.

The day after we got back to Kampala we enjoyed a characteristically enthusiastic Christmas service at All Saints Cathedral in the morning and a barbecue with school colleagues and their families in the afternoon.  We were relaxing after an intensive 10 days behind the camera lens so didn't manage to get any good pictures of either event!  Below is the best we could manage (it is of the barbecue not the service).

Our thoughts now turn to work after a holiday of a lifetime.  We are looking forward to the challenges of the year ahead and wish you all a happy and fruitful new year too.