I have taken 3
weeks furlough so Steve and I can show our friends Lou and Rob Drummond around
our favourite bits of this beautiful country.
The map shows where we have been – first Mabamba Swamp, then Lake Mburo
NP (LMNP), down to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest NP (BIFNP) in the far SW corner
and Queen Elizabeth NP (QENP), then back via Lake Mburo. After another trip to Mabamba Swamp we went
to Murchison Falls NP (MFNP). We’ve had
another trip to the swamp before a night in Kampala and then Lou and Rob’s long
flight home.
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| Where we went |
As you can see, we
have been back and forth over the equator, theoretically dodging from summer to
winter and back again but, in truth, enjoying warm days and mild nights so
different from the cold weather Lou and Rob had been experiencing at home and
have just returned to.
Uganda is a small
country – about the same land area as Victoria – with some spectacular
geographical features. The western side
of the Great Rift Valley runs down the west of the country and there are traces
of the volcanic past in craters, both wet and dry, in QENP. Some say Uganda is the source of the Nile
(you’ll get an argument on this from Ethiopians, Rwandans and Burundians who
also each claim to have the source!) and there are certainly many extensive
papyrus swamps and rivers with thundering waterfalls. The Murchison Falls in MFNP are “the most
powerful in the world” measured in terms of volume of water through a
cross-sectional area (or some such).
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| World's most powerful waterfall! |
Rob and Lou lived
in Zimbabwe for 2 years in the 1990s and this was their first return trip. Rob, like Steve, is a birder but also a
magnificent photographer. Lou came for
the Africa-ness in general and gorillas and shoebills in particular. Everyone was very happy with what they saw.
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