The Queen Elizabeth NP, Lake Bunyonyi, and Me

Well I guess when you are someone important then you get things named after
you! I am not aware that HRH has set foot inside 'her' park since her visit
some 50 years ago although Prince Phillip was here only a couple of years
back (probably to shoot some animals) but I would think she might be a bit
sad at the current state of the place. Now don't get me wrong it is nice and
will potentially one day be great again but there is a long way to go until
then. The wildlife is still recovering from the bad years in Uganda and the
infrastructure is still somewhere short of perfect. But despite all that we
had a great 3 nights there.
Leaving Semliki on the Sunday morning after much deliberation of whether to
stay or not was quite easy in the end. It was a great spot up at Ntoroko and
we felt we could have stayed there a few days. However Sunday morning came,
another bright sunny morning, and we felt we had to move on. The disturbance
of staff from the Semliki Lodge preparing a boat for guests to 'hunt down'
the Shoebill made it feel like we had lost our perfect spot, so we set of to
the QENP. Stopping off briefly in Fort Portal again to buy beers and visit
the market we then took the good tar road all the way to the park via
Kasese.
Our first stop before reaching the park, the Equator again. No song and
dance at this crossing, no shops, no buckets of swirling water, just a
couple of signs and a photo opportunity. Then we stopped off briefly at the
QENP information centre to chat to Moses, yep he works there, and try and
glean some information on the available campsites. Suitably armed with the
required information, we then proceeded to the Kabatoro Gate to pay our fees
and head for camp. As usual we can never fully decide on a plan so we paid
fees for a single night with the option of topping them up if needed. Our
destination was a bush camp just down the track from Mweya called Campsite 1
(S0 10.678 E29 55.104). Good name, and the one next to it is called, yep
Campsite 2. Despite the unimaginative name the site was perfect. Just us and
the bush, positioned high up above the channel that links Lake Edward and
Lake George. Facilities, pit latrine. It was a delightful place despite the
annoying little flies that pestered us. After a peaceful night, no wild
animals in camp, we popped along to Mweya to pay for the camping and also
top up our park fees as we had made a plan to stay in the park for 3 nights.
Whist there we topped up the water tanks, had some breakfast, and then set
off to see the wildlife. The Queen has a couple of tracks named in her
honour too, and the Leopard track was presumably named after all the
Leopards in the area, assuming there are actually any there as we saw none.
The bush is quite dense in that area of the park and spots were few and far
between. Quite a few birds were around, and we saw one nice herd of
Elephant, a few Cobs, and the odd Warthog. After exiting that area of the
park at the Katunguru Gate we headed east across the main road to the
Kasenyi area with the possibility of lions. This area is not gated so we did
wonder if you actually needed to pay to drive in it at first but then we
were stopped by two UWA rangers who checked our park fee receipt. It was
much more open in Kasenyi but still fairly quiet on the animal front. There
very well might be Lions but alas we saw none, just average numbers of Cob,
Waterbuck, and Buffalo. It was a pleasant drive but as time was pushing on
we made tracks back to the main road and crossed the Kazinga Channel that
divides the park north / south and before entering again popped along to see
the Kyambura Gorge and have lunch. The gorge is quite impressive but not awe
inspiring. Driving up to it you would never know it was there as it is a
huge rift in the fairly flat landscape. It is best described as a sunken
forest and is home to some habituated Chimpanzees.
Re-entering the NP our aim was initially the Jacana Camp but we never saw
the turning. The road that passes thru this section of the park is a public
road and thus busy with trucks in transit between Uganda and the DRC. We did
get stuck in a traffic jam at a bridge. A road work water tanker that had
filled its belly from the poor dwindling stream had broken down where they
had parked it blocking the bridge. Thankfully only about 30 minutes later
normal service was resumed and we managed to skip past the queue of trucks
that had built up. As Jacana was not an option we amended our plan to stay
at Ishasha Camp instead (S0 37.154 E29 39.668). Blimey the place was busy,
probably 3 separate tour groups, and not our peaceful bush camp from the
previous night. The facilities were not much better, pit latrine and a cold
shower, but it was just fine. This is where our visit to the park hit a
downturn. That night I slept for only about 10 minutes, nothing to do with
the warthogs and Hippos snorting and snuffling in the camp. (Sue's comment -
loads of hippos were munching around the car and she got to watch them -
brave me, Matt was too knackered to look). The following morning I was
knackered and had no energy. I initially put it down to dehydration and we
relaxed for the day and I drank plenty of water. It was quiet in camp as
everyone else had packed up and left so we had a nice day despite my
ailment. Peace and quiet was briefly interrupted in the afternoon by a
thunderstorm, but thankfully come nightfall I had managed the odd doze here
and there and caught some good sleep overnight too.
Feeling somewhat better the following morning we packed up camp early and
went for a game drive. Plenty of Cob, Elephant, Buffalo, and some good new
bird spots, but not a sight of the alleged 'Tree Climbing Lions' that live
in the area. So instead of staying another night we hit the road just before
lunch to Kabale and Lake Bunyonyi. Mufasa's belly was getting a touch light
as we had not filled up since Kampala some 1200km ago, so a quick splash and
dash in Kihihi, and then the slow road thru the hills down to Kabale. All
was going so well and then we hit a snag. As usual we passed all sorts on
the road and most of the people wave and gesture as if they want you to stop
so they can hitch a lift of ask for 'gifts'. One chap was most insistent but
we just passed on by. About 10 minutes later we found out why, the road was
shut. A river had flooded the road and the main road we needed was only
about 2km past the river. We had seen no other road for miles and had
visions of having to drive most of the 100km back to where we had come from
before finding an alternative. Backtracking up the hill we this time stopped
at the chap who had tried to stop us previously. 'Why didn't you stop' he
asked 'I was going to tell you the road is closed!'. We tried to explain
that if we stopped for every frantically waving person we would have only
travelled about 100km in 4 months! Anyway, he kind of explained that there
was a 'new' road around the problem and we eventually found it. Road, or
narrow muddy track down the side of a hill? Things came to a halt briefly
when we met a pickup coming up the track. After some negotiation and
manoeuvring we managed to get around it and continued down the 'perilous'
descent. Things were not much better when we eventually reached the main
road as that was under repair.
Eventually we managed to reach Kabale and looked for bread and beer. The
muffins from the Hot Loaf Bakery were dry and more like biscuits, obviously
not a Ugandan staple, and the beer very expensive. So armed only with a loaf
of bread which we hoped would be more like bread than the muffins were
muffins we set off down to Lake Bunyonyi and the Bunyonyi Overland Camp (S1
16.314 E29 56.276). Again the night was not good and I was up several times,
now with diarrhoea, stomach ache, more than my usual quota of flatulence,
and what Sue described as 'eggy burps'. Managing to eventually make daylight
we consulted our 'what you might be dying from' medial book and diagnosed
Giardia, a form of bacterial diarrhoea. We did bring some antibiotics with
us, but not the specific one we needed. Thankfully after chatting with one
of the staff at the camp he offered to mercy dash to Kabale and try and buy
some for us, which he managed. Hopefully now I am on the mend, and we will
depart here over the weekend and head to Rwanda relatively fit and healthy
ready for the chance of spotting the Gorillas.
Our spot at the Bunyonyi camp is right on the waters edge and is very nice
indeed, and thankfully we have flushing toilets here and not a pit latrine,
what a nightmare that would have been!!!