Monday 11 November 2019

We left at 8am today, a fairly short driving day. Down to Queen Elizabeth national park. Another pretty drive – though villages and farm land.

We were getting close to our camp. But it was pouring rain and the run off onto the road was heavy. We had already seen one car swept off into the ditch by the side of the road. Then we came up to a river. The river had completely burst its banks and was gushing out over the road, having washed some of the (brand new) road with it.

There was quite a queue for trying to cross. Some smaller cars had got stuck. 4x4s were making it over. We waited for around 15 minutes, but it wasn’t getting any better. So the driver just decided to go for it! Driving straight through the river/road! Quite an adventure.

We arrived at our lodge around 1pm and had lunch here.

After lunch, we headed off into the National park. But first, a stop at the Equator. I was last at the equator 2 years ago in Ecuador. Although rather disappointing here that they have removed the monument as they have been rebuilding the road. So we had to have a photo with a photo. Kind of ridiculous.

Then into the park. Driving along dirt roads, finding animals.

Immediately we saw some warthogs, just hanging out by the side of the road. Then a couple of lions lazing in the grass, Ugandan kob (like impala / antelope) wandering around the lions.

We saw some water buck. And elephants in the distance.

It was good, but as we had arrived at nearly 5pm, it was low light, so not so good for photos.

Tuesday 12 November 2019

Up early to head back into the park.

We spent the morning driving around. Lots more animals. We sat as a large herd of 20 elephants came closer and closer to us. So cool.

Just a shame there are no giraffe or zebra in this park. Which I hadn’t realised previously!

There was a craft village in the park, looking out over a crater lake. We have seen a few crater lakes around. They were formed by volcanos and have very salty water inside them. Animals visit them when they are cut, as the salt helps them to heal.

After a few hours of driving around we headed off to mweya lodge (a rather fancy hotel) for lunch. They rather failed at vegan food here and could only provide plain vegetables and chips! There was a good view though – across the Kazinga Channel, animals in the distance at the edge of the water.

The Kazinga Channel joins the two lakes – lake George and lake Edward. And this was where we were going next!

We were on a boat for 2 hours, sailing along the banks of the channel. The number of animals all together was insane. The first section of the channel had elephants, water buffalo, hippo, Nile crocodiles and a huge array of birds all just sitting together. And so many of each type.

We saw lots more birds – fish eagles, king fishers, geese, herons. And hippos mating!

We passed by one of the villages which live in the national park. And could see Congo in the distance – we were only 10km away.

The whole boat trip was so amazing.

It was 4pm by the time we were back on land, for the 1 hour drive back out of the park to our lodge. Again we saw lots of animals – monkeys, elephants, water buffalo – but we had all seen so many by now!