OnSafari Archive
Another Safari Ends
After a gala farewell dinner preceded by raucous limericks about the trip, the group began the journey home.
Sarah Taylor summarized the trip during dinner, and I was impressed! From the surprise backstage visit to the Entebbe Zoo, through chimps and lions and gorillas, we covered much of Uganda and a bit of Rwanda.
Of our [...]
So Who’s Smarter?
Posted by jimheck in Mountain Gorilla, OnSafari, Rwanda on August 13, 2010
Sixty-four people with broken legs and open wounds gather at Kinigi headquarters everyday to see 8 mountain gorilla families. We were no different.
I love Parcs de volcans. I love the guides, the organization, the scenery, and most of all I love the artifice we guides bring to the daily planning session with the [...]
Long Trek into Rwanda
A new road was supposed to be completed from Bwindi into Rwanda by now, and so a year ago that’s how we planned the trip. Oops.
When the new road is completed, it will be hardly a 4-hour journey from Bwindi to Parcs de volcans in Rwanda. In fact, it will be easier for [...]
Impenetrable Rides
Posted by jimheck in OnSafari, Planning Travel, Uganda on August 10, 2010
Particularly in Uganda where charter flying remains in its infancy, a comprehensive safari has to include long drives. Today we traveled from Ishasha to Bwindi.
Forget about asking me how many kilometers we had to travel; that’s useless. Consider that Alex calculated that for much of our safari from today on we were averaging [...]
Lions before Gorillas
Lions, hyaena, topi, waterbuck, warthog, and of course lots of kob, filled our two days of game viewing in the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP).
This is the closest it came to rivaling game viewing in Kenya and Tanzania. This group – like the vast majority of travelers – come to Uganda [...]
Kyambora Gorge
Like Alice walking through the Looking Glass, we stepped down into the magical Kyambora Gorge for our second chimp trek.
Only 40k from Mweya, Kyambora is a world onto itself. It stretches 21 km into the Kazinga Channel and is at no point more than about 200m wide and often much less, but about 150-200m [...]
A Scenic Wow : QENP
Beautiful scenery, weird and abundant localized wildlife, and great fun on the Kazinga Channel headlined our day in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
QENP wraps itself around the Ugandan side of Lake George, and all of Lake Edward, and includes the famous Kazinga Channel which connects the two. Because of the on-again, off-again disturbances in Uganda’s [...]
Chimp Wonderland: Kibale N.P.
Kibale National Park is the best place in the world to view chimps, and today our expectations were met and exceeded.
The majority of us trekked today, waiting for longer than we expected at park headquarters, for the trek which began around 11 a.m. Aston was our guide, one of the better; he’s been there [...]
Forest Magic
We left Semliki very impressed, but I put the chances of it ever recovering to the outstanding game reserve it once was as very low.
Monday night we were dumped on big time by a Ruwenzori thunderstorm when we were still 3k from the lodge and it was getting dark. Our second sundowner in the [...]
Both Sides of the Moon
The Cleveland Zoo safari spent several days in the Semliki Reserve adjacent Lake Albert right on the Mountains of the Moon. We were lucky to see both the dark side and the bright side.
We flew from Entebbe to the Semliki Reserve in one of the few charter planes that exists in Uganda. Unlike [...]
War on Security
As we were traveling from the Entebbe (Uganda) airport late last night, the first topic we discussed was “security.” Security against a catastrophic 9-11 is better in Africa than at home.
My first clients, the Pomerantz family, (Roger and Cathy Colt and son, Daniel) remarked first that they had recently been to Egypt where it [...]
Tanzanian Driver Strike Called Off
The planned strike this month by Tanzanian driver/guides has been called off. You didn’t know about it? Thank goodness!
I’m not one to oppose industrial action, almost anywhere. Workers of the World have taken a huge hit during my life time, while Managers of the World have grown fat on their sweat.
But I [...]
OnSafari onVacation
Dear Friends and readers.
That woesome time has come: I’m going on vacation! Keep your eyes on East Africa, for there’s a lot happening: elections in Rwanda and Uganda, referendum in Kenya on a new constitution…
I’ll be back with you in early July!
Thanks for reading!
- JIM
On Safari: Homeward Bound
Posted by jimheck in OnSafari, Planning Travel on June 10, 2010
There’s no easy way to get home. You just have to grunt and bear it!
But before leaving Debbie enjoyed a final view out our dining area deck over Muhabura to the volcano Gahinga that she and the others had conquered the day before!
The electricity of having completed the trek and been so close to [...]