Trip report - Kenya & Uganda Oct/Nov 2006

Old Dec 4th, 2006, 03:52 PM
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Trip report - Kenya & Uganda Oct/Nov 2006

Here’s a trip report from our safaris to Kenya and Uganda. The trip to Uganda was actually an 18 day birding tour. We then decided to add a week in the Mara with hopes of catching the migration. Thanks to all for helping us decide where to go for the migration. It was a great success!

I didn’t keep a journal, so this truly is a summary report and is not in any special chronological order. I’ll put our thoughts about accommodations at the end which might be helpful to those of you who are thinking of visiting Uganda.

We’re still working on pictures and will post a link when we get them uploaded. Our trip home was uneventful and we’re finally getting over jet lag. So of course we’re already contemplating our next trip to Africa!


ITINERARY:

Oct 23-24 Chicago to London Heathrow (overnight)
Oct 25 London to Nairobi (Holiday Inn Mayfair)
Oct 26 – 28 Rekero Tented Camp (Masai Mara)
Oct 29 – Oct 31 Governor’s Il Moran (Masai Mara)
Nov 1 Masai Mara to Nairobi to Entebbe
Nov 1 – 2 Imperial Resort Hotel (Entebbe)
Nov 3 – 4 Masindi Hotel (Masindi)
Nov 5 – 7 Sarova Paraa Lodge (Murchison Falls National Park)
Nov 8 Masindi Hotel (Masindi)
Nov 9 – 10 Mantana Tented Camp (Kibale National Park)
Nov 11 – 12 Mweya Lodge (Queen Elizabeth National Park)
Nov 13 -15 Gorilla Forest Camp (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park)
Nov 16 White Horse Inn (Kabale)
Nov 17 Mantana Safari Camp (Lake Mburo National Park)
Nov 18 Gately on the Nile Guest House (Jinja/Mabira Forest)
Nov 19 Imperial Resort Hotel (Entebbe)


KENYA MASAI MARA:

It was good to visit Kenya again. We were thrilled that we got to see our wildebeest migration in the Maasi Mara, as we knew it would be iffy at this time of the year. The migration was at the tail end when we first arrived, but the wildebeest started to stream back in droves from Tanzania. The Mara had gotten rain before we arrived and grass was sprouting.

Our first stop, Rekero Tented Camp, is situated on the Talek River in the Mara. One morning we were treated to our own private river crossing about 100 yds from our tent. The staff set up a table so we could have our breakfast and watch the wildebeest, zebras, and topis cross the river. Sadly, no crocs or cats to make the crossing interesting. This was the only place we saw a cheetah and got great views two days in a row.

At the second camp, Governor’s Il Moran, we got to see another river crossing but this time on the Mara River. In typical wildebeest style, they crossed the Mara…then a few minutes later crossed back…then they crossed back again. These critters are definitely not playing with a full deck! Unfortunately for us but fortunately for the wildebeest, predators weren't interested because they were already stuffed.

We dipped on rhino and leopard. Bella, the leopard from Big Cat Diary, was seen near camp the day before we arrived at Rekero. As it happened, one of the families staying at Rekero included a 12 year old girl whose nickname was Bella. So Bella got to see Bella! She was so thrilled and couldn’t wait to get home to tell all her friends. I’m sure that memory will stay with her forever.

Unlike our previous Kenya birding safari in 2002, we saw a lot of lion cubs this time at both camps. One cub was barely 4 weeks old and still hadn't completely mastered the art of walking...what a little cutie!

We also had an interesting experience at Il Moran watching a pack of hyenas hunting wildebeest. Our guide said they hunt if they can't find anything to steal. The pack got a wildebeest surrounded and down. From what we were told, the hyenas don't really know how to kill their prey so they just start eating. It was a gruesome sight but made for some colorful photography. The British couple with whom we were sharing a vehicle, kept saying "where's the blood and guts?" Well, they got more than they bargained for!


UGANDA:

We survived the mountain gorilla trek (hurray!!!) and have some fond memories of the experience. We got the "easy" group, but as it turned out it was the hard one! We scrambled straight up a steep, "impenetrable", slippery, muddy mountain for 3 hours in a driving downpour before the trackers finally located the gorillas.

Luckily, the rain stopped just as we met up with the gorillas. Unluckily, the silverback had just had a run-in with a wild silverback who was interested in swiping some females from the family. We got to hear the run-in but not see it...pretty cool sounds...grunts, growls, screams and chest thumping!

As a result of the run-in, instead of sitting in one area eating, sleeping or playing, the gorilla family was on the move a lot. We spent a good portion of our 1 hour viewing time chasing them. We did get decent views from about 20 ft when the family stopped moving. However, they stopped only 3-4 times for 5 min each. Each time the gorillas stopped, the tracker/guide kept telling us to "take many pictures now because the gorillas will move if the rogue silverback comes again." And move, they did.

Photographing the gorillas was difficult because they never stopped in an open area so it was quite dark, and we were huffin' and puffin' from chasing them. We had to move at a fast pace in order to keep up with them. So, I was out of breath most of the time and usually one of the last ones to catch up to the gorillas. Even though Dave was able to stay at the front of the pack, he had to use a high ISO and so his photos are grainy. I gave up trying to take still photos (shutter speeds of 1/2 second at 400 ISO!) but did get a few OK movie clips from which I made some stills. Thank goodness for that movie function on my camera!

The others from our tour group went to see the “medium difficulty” family. Ha! They drove about an hour to get to the area where the trackers had spotted the gorillas, got out of the vehicle, and the gorillas were waiting just off the road for them! In fact, when they finished viewing the majority of the family and returned to the vehicle, there was a second silverback lying on the road waiting for them!!! Well, we got the “true” gorilla trek experience (can you tell I'm training for a job as a spin-doctor?!!!)

Although we did get to see the largest primates, we unfortunately did not see the chimps...a long and still painful story to tell. But it’s not all bad news since it gives us a reason to return to Africa!

Uganda is a beautiful country. Our Ugandan drivers and guides were wonderful companions, and the locals were so friendly and accommodating. It’s sad to think the average lifespan of the gorillas (50 years) is longer than that of the average Ugandan (40 yrs). While at Bwindi, a doctor and a midwife from the local clinic came and talked with us...very sobering statistics.

ONE STRONG WARNING RE: MONEY - Make sure you bring large denomination US bills ($50 or $100) which were printed in 2001 or later and are in excellent shape (no tears or markings). Some places will absolutely not accept any bills dated 2001 or earlier. Some will accept them, but will give a lower exchange rate. Smaller denomination bills even if printed after 2001 were also given lower exchange rates. ATMs didn’t seem to work anywhere and travelers checks were not accepted. Cash is King in Uganda!


ACCOMMODATIONS:

Holiday Inn Mayfair (Nairobi) – OK for an overnight, but a bit pricey for what you get. Rooms were very “worn and tired”.

Rekero Tented Camp (Masai Mara) – FABULOUS!!!! We loved the relaxed, unpretentious owners and homey atmosphere. The food was the best we had, our Maasai guide and tracker were excellent, the 7 tents were comfortable and well appointed, and the owners’ 18 month old son Charlie, a budding birder, was as cute as a button. The camp site was stunning…right on a bend in the Talek River. They knew we were keen birders and gave us a tent where we would see the most birds. We also ended up with a private vehicle without our asking for one. The only downside we can think of is less game than the area around Governor’s camps. However, there are also virtually no other vehicles in sight. Can you tell we liked this camp? We are already thinking about returning and staying much longer.

Governor’s Il Moran (Masai Mara) – Very different from Rekero. Aside from huge, luxurious tents with hot running water, it was everything Rekero wasn’t…and that isn’t necessarily good. Although Il Moran has only 10 tents, it had the feel of a large impersonal lodge. Hands were not outstretched, but it sure felt like the staff was always looking for gratuities. The food was mediocre and I actually got sick the last day there. Here at Il Moran, each group was seated at a private table so there was no interaction with others except on game drives. We missed the communal dinners around a big table at Rekero. But, to each his own.

Imperial Resort Beach Hotel (Entebbe) – A huge “luxury” hotel. One of the 2 elevators didn’t work so we had quite a hike each day. Most of our group’s rooms had very low water pressure or showers that didn’t work at all, and air conditioning (no ceiling fans) that didn’t always work. Other than that, the rooms were quite large and well appointed. The food was OK, but it took forever to get served. Some folks waited over 2 hours for their meals, and only got them when they said their tour was leaving in half an hour. The ground agent said the usual hotel, the Windsor Lake Victoria Hotel, had gone downhill and they wouldn’t recommend staying there. So we ended up at the Imperial Resort.

Masindi Hotel (Masindi) – Masindi is a stopover town because the driving time is so long to the parks. The rooms in this hotel were a bit basic, but fine and the food was quite good. The Democrats in our group got the election news while at this hotel. They screamed so loudly, the security guards ran to their rooms to see if they were OK!

Sarova Paraa Lodge (Murchison Falls) – A very nice lodge with fantastic views of the Nile. The rooms were large and comfortable and the food was very good.

Mantana Tented Camp (Kibale National Park) – This camp is on par with the seasonal camps in Kenya. The tents were on the small side but comfortable with en suite bucket showers and long drop toilets. The staff was very accommodating and the food was quite good given the camp was out in the middle of nowhere. We tried very hard to conserve water since it has to be bicycled up from the main road.

Mweya Lodge (Queen Elizabeth National Park) – Another very nice lodge with fantastic views of the Nile. Large and comfortable rooms, and good food. There are no fences around this lodge and we had resident warthogs and mongooses right outside our rooms. A friend who stayed at this lodge a few years back, was greeted by a lion when she opened the door to her room one morning!

Gorilla Forest Camp (Bwindi Impenetrable National Park) – FANTASTIC!!! Tents are on par with Il Moran, but the staff was much more low key and genuinely friendly and helpful. A very nice place to relax after an arduous gorilla trek. This camp is close to the entrance of Bwindi so it was an easy walk to/from the gorilla trek starting point. This is the camp from which the tourists were taken hostage by the Rwandan Hutu rebels and killed in 1999. The camp closed not long afterward and only reopened a few years ago. There is now a soldiers’ encampment between the camp and the park, and you cannot enter Bwindi without armed guards. I felt safer there than in my own house.

White Horse Inn – This was the “best” accommodation in the area. Yuk. Need I say more?

Mantana Safari Camp – Sister camp to the Mantana Tented Camp, but not up to par with it. The setting is spectacular, overlooking Mburo National Park, but the staff always seemed annoyed with us.

Gately on the Nile Guest House – The best place to stay in Jinja! A nice guest house with beautiful gardens and large but fairly basic rooms. The food was some of the best on the trip, and the manager was wonderful.
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Old Dec 4th, 2006, 07:18 PM
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what a great report! thanks for sharing, it brought back nice memories of uganda.

that is a very sad point about the lifespan of gorillas being greater than average ugandans and really puts our travels into perspective.

kerikeri
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Old Dec 4th, 2006, 08:50 PM
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Ovenbird,

Rekero sounds like my kinda place....so, not too many vehicles?

Hari
 
Old Dec 5th, 2006, 03:31 AM
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kerikeri: Thanks. Our two driver/guides in Uganda were in their mid-30s and we got to know them quite well over the 19 days we were with them. Both expect to live a maximum of 10 more years. One is raising 3 kids from a brother who recently died, in addition to his own 2. It was heartbreaking and you're right...it really did put our travels into perspective.

Hari: No, not many vehicles at all. Once or twice we saw another Rekero vehicle if there was a good sighting. But it was usually when we were leaving and they were arriving, or visa versa. We had only 3 sightings of vehicles from other camps. This section around the Talek is not usually used by camps other than Rekero, and our guide thought the non-Rekero vehicles were tracking ours. We are also interested in their new seasonal tented camp, Rekero Kidogo. This was their first year in operation and they've already had amazing sightings of a cheetah with 6 cubs!

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Old Dec 5th, 2006, 05:52 AM
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Ovenbird,

Thanks....that puts Rekero and Serian on the top two choices for my next visit to the Mara. may do a combination of both......i just dont knwo when!!!

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Old Dec 5th, 2006, 07:42 AM
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Your itinerary looks wonderful.

Table for 2 and hundreds of zebra wildebeest. What a breakfast floor show! Then to be treated to numerous crossings again, compliments of some confused wildebeest and zebra is amazing.

A tiny lion cub would be a highlight.
So Bella got her leopard and the Brits got their blood and guts.

Your gorilla tracking was certainly exciting and I like your description of it as the “true experience.” A sliverback lying the road waiting just can’t compare with 3 hours of ascent in a downpour. Was the “easy” group the M group? If so, the same thing happened to me. The supposedly easier M, turned out to be harder.

I’m sorry about your chimp experience. But if it means you get to return to Africa, then it’s not all bad.

When you mentioned the less wildlife around Rekoro, couldn’t that just be luck? Some days they're over here, some days over there?

Could you state your driving times from Entebbe to Masindi to Murchison Falls?

Can you elaborate on your Jinja stay?

Thanks for the report and welcome home.

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Old Dec 5th, 2006, 08:06 AM
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Thanks, very nice trip report (I also stayed at Mweya when I visited QENP). How was the game viewing in Queen Elizabeth and Kibale? Thanks, Michael
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Old Dec 5th, 2006, 08:18 AM
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Thaks for the report. I, too, was struck by your sad statistic about the life expectancy of Ugandans.

Glad you had a good time--and excellent spin-doctoring!
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Old Dec 5th, 2006, 10:58 AM
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to elaborate and to enlighten bat (and others) when i worked in uganda, my colleagues in their 30s mostly had all lost their parents to routine diseases that are very treatable in the developed world. the hospital, although the finest in the country, has a 50% success rate "in the theater." in other words, when you go under the knife there, there is only 50% chance you will emerge alive, that's not because the surgeons are particularly unskilled, but because once they open you up, the little things that would have been spotted at home, have grown and become untreatable. it is a very sad statistic.

then you have hiv/aids and malaria as well.

once you travel to a country such as uganda that is not tourism dependent and see the average lives of people such ad ovenbirds' drivers, people who do live in homes (not huts) and have jobs and cars, you begin to see the magnitude of "africa's problems."

it's not only shoeless hungry children, but well educated working poor people who are in dire need of assistance from the west.

yestersday i received an email about the skyrocketing costs of sugar in the marketplace in uganda. can you imagine sugar being unaffordable?

sorry for "lecture" it's just that this time of year our luxuries seem so excessive when you remember our friends in far off lands.

sorry to go on like that, i'm sure oven bird left out a lot of things she saw that were not travel related...but that she will remember, as we all do.

kerikeri
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Old Dec 6th, 2006, 06:45 AM
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atravelynn: Thanks! We had the R (Rushegura) group which is supposed to be the "easy" one. The other folks had the "medium" or H (Habinyanja) group. I believe you had the most difficult group, M (Mubare)!

As for Rekoro and game, you're right about it's always just being dumb luck. However, I suspect there is a reason Big Cat Diary routinely films in the Governor's area?

Sorry, but I can't give you accurate driving times in Uganda. As it was a birding tour, we always made numerous stops along the way from one park to another. We usually had half or full day drives on travel days, stopping along the way for picnic lunches. Two of the 3 really long drives (Entebbe/Masindi, Lake Mburo NP/Jinja, Masindi/Kibale NP) went through Kampala...traffic was a nightmare and can add 2-3hrs if you get stuck in the city.

We had only one night's stay in Jinja and spent the day at the Mabira Forest. What else would you like to know?

thit cho: Compared to Kenya, Tanzania and Botswana, the game viewing was OK but not great at QENP and Kibale NP. Predators were scarce and when seen, were very far away or just fleeting glances. Grazers were plentiful, and there were a number of elephants. Lake Mburo NP was almost as good as QENP and Kibale NP...we even saw the elulsive eland there.

kerikeri: Thank you so much for elaborating. You are right about the middle class needing help as well as the poor. Our guides said they and their peers are trying desperately to make sure the next generation is educated because they see that as the only way out of their current conditions. Unfortunately, it is an uphill battle and so far not very successful. Cultures and mores are difficult to change.

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Old Dec 6th, 2006, 08:48 AM
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Thank you for the interesting report. I'm looking forward to your photos.
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Old Dec 6th, 2006, 06:08 PM
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Thanks!
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Old Feb 1st, 2007, 12:36 PM
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We finally muddled through our pictures from Uganda and posted them at www.pbase.com/deseml/uganda_2006. We're still working on the ones from Kenya and hope to have them up soon.
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Old Feb 1st, 2007, 01:30 PM
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Great photos. Where did you see the shoebill (I was unsuccessful on my trip, but we didn't really visit their well known stomping grounds). Its a really nice shot.
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Old Feb 1st, 2007, 03:52 PM
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Those are some excellent pictures. I know how hard it is to get good bird pictures, so I am especially impressed with those. Congratulations.
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Old Feb 1st, 2007, 04:33 PM
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Great shots! Beautiful birds. The baby vervet was so cute.
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Old Feb 2nd, 2007, 06:52 AM
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Thanks all!

thit cho: We saw shoebills on the Victoria Nile and at Murchison, but none nearly this close! Our pics were taken at the Entebbe Zoo where almost all of the good pics of shoebills you see in print are from. They have a hide that allows you to get really close. I call this one Unicorn Shoebill: www.pbase.com/msteffen/image/73862255 -- I think I was about 3ft away.

Chris: My SO is the one who likes taking pics of birds, especially the small fast moving ones. I'll pass your comment on to him...he'll really appreciate it.

atravelynn: That little vervet was so cute. I took some movie clips of it bouncing around and on top of its mother. I find I'm using movie mode on my camera almost as much as taking still photos. It captures behavior much better.
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Old Feb 5th, 2007, 11:58 AM
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Can you tell me more about your chimp story? I know you said it was a long and painful story, but if you could help others to avoid your misfortune, it would be very appreciated.
Where were you trying to see chimps, and what happened?
Thanks,
hef
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Old Feb 5th, 2007, 01:19 PM
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Ovenbird,

Shoebill Interrogation:

Did you take any photos of Shoebills at Muchison Falls? Did you need binocs to see the Shoebills? How many shoebills did you see there? Did you see them every day or just in one spot? Did your guides say it was common to see Shoebills there or were you extra lucky?

Thanks.
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Old Feb 5th, 2007, 02:35 PM
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cat lover: Our chimp misfortune had more to do with us and our tour group than anything else, although we did think our guide at Kibale was not very good. We missed seeing the chimps at Kibale Forest and also decided not to do the Kyambura Gorge trek because it was the day before our gorilla trek. I'm a bit of a couch potato and didn't want to jeopardize our seeing the gorillas. Sorry, no words of wisdom other than train so you are in good mountain trekking shape and don't pass up any opportunity to see the primates.

atravelynn: OK, I feel the heat of the lone light bulb and am blinded by the glare...The lone shoebill we saw at Murchison was much too far away to take pics and you absolutely needed binocs to see anything more than a small grey blob. It also helped if you were tall and could see over the papyrus. I got the impression you are lucky to see shoebills anywhere. I don't think they're always in the same place; the guides look for them in "good habitat", meaning open areas hidden by lots of tall papyrus. It is a thrill when you do find one...they are quite special!
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