Author: rabbitsv

Leaving Uganda behind us, we crossed the border into Kenya, en route to one of the highlights of Gerrit’s and our trip: Lake Turkana, the Jade Sea.

Our first stop along the way was at a wonderful place just outside Eldoret town, called Naiberi. Situated at almost 2000m, the altitude adds to the beautiful surroundings of riverine forest. We spent two nights here, enjoying the spectacular birding, the great food and the lush tranquility surrounding us.

The next day we left the good roads far behind us and the further we traveled, the worse the corrugation and dust got. We did have a slight reprieve driving along the edge of the Kerio Rift Valley though. At the Kenyan athlete’s high altitude training centre, the (thankfully!) tarred road descended a thousand meters down the escarpment.

The slalom road with the hairpin bends and overfilled trucks and buses presented a new problem to us. Our brand new brake pads were overheating. Having stopped at a spectacular view point, we were quickly forced to jump back into our cars and keep going, as our smoking brakes could only be cooled with air flowing over them. We spent the rest of the drive down the escarpment trying not to use our brakes… Hair raising to say the least. Very relieved, we reached the dry scrubland and savannah of the Kerio Rift, before ascending out again on a thankfully less steep escarpment.

Soon after we got our first sight of Lake Baringo and settled into a lovely lakeside campsite. For reasons unknown, the water level of the lake had risen so drastically, that the campsite ablution blocks were only accessible to the hippos and the crocodiles! While enjoying the view over the lake, we managed to get back into our bush rhythm and ended up watching both the sunset and the following morning’s sunrise. After chasing the monkeys away from our breakfast we started off on the next leg of our trip. We were very happy when we found that they had tarred a section of road. We were cruising along at 80 km/h when Chris’ spider senses kicked in. We pulled over, checked the GPS and the maps and sure enough, we were going in the wrong direction. This tar road was not for us. Terribly disappointed, we backtracked and discovered that the road to Maralal gave us more of the same. Dust and terrible corrugation.

Slowly bumping along the road, we came across the first real evidence of coming close to northern Africa. Camels! Driving along the road where we would usually expect to see Zebra, there now appear Somali Ostriches and Camels. Very cool!

Maralal was our last reliable refueling opportunity before the remote loop of Lake Turkana, so we made sure we got every last drop into all available tanks and containers. Filled to the brim, we camped at Yade Camel Camp, where the annual camel derby is held. We had prepared some T-Bone steaks for dinner, which turned out more interesting than expected, as a thunder shower overtook us. We found some interesting methods of preventing our very meager fire from going out and ruining our dinner!

Although we successfully rescued the steaks, they turned out to be extremely tough. Oh well!

The following morning was quite chilly and we quickly made ourselves some hot coffee before getting back onto the road. Gerrit had discovered our next stop; The End of the World. Although we had only found a single reference to this viewpoint, we were adamant to find it. After trusting in Gerrit’s GPS we drove down a lonely two track, with no signs or indications that we were heading in the right direction when we approached a rather intimidating archway in the middle of a field. Having passed through it, we really were presented with the World’s End. This is the single highest drop along the entire length of the Rift Valley. 2000 meters straight down. Wow!

Beyond this drop the foreboding and unknown area of Lake Turkana began.

Driving along one of the worst stretches of road so far and a mild concussion later, we arrived at our next destination. Mount Elgon and the Sipi Falls.

Beautiful views, dodgy nightcaps and steep hiking trails are the order of the day…  

When we met up with Gerrit in Kampala a few weeks ago, one of our goals for traveling together was that we would go and see the Kidepo National Park. Because of its remote location on the South Sudanese border, very few people know about it and its awesome beauty.

When we arrived at Fuglys in Kitgum, Patrick made sure that we would be staying at his Wilderness Camp Nga’Moru. Leaving Fuglys that morning, we found the brand new road between Kitgum and Kidepo to be extremely good, showing that this area is slowly opening up and that it will soon not be as remote any more.

When we crested the last few hills and saw the open plains of the Narus Valley in Kidepo in front of us, we knew it would be spectacular!

As Nga’Moru is a Wilderness Camp, all animals can roam freely between the unfenced park and the camp. At night we heard the alternate calls of hyenas and lions, paid close attention whether we could hear the elephant’s footsteps and avidly tracked whatever footprints were left in the mud the next morning.

Because of the freedom of the Wilderness Camp, we only felt it necessary to drive into Kidepo itself for one day. We are very glad we did though, as it was another spectacular game drive. With the uniquely beautiful scenery as a backdrop, even the most mundane becomes beautiful.

On our day into the park we travelled along the Narus Valley up to the South Sudanese border, here we stopped for lunch and a truly memorable selfie!

Over the time that we spent at Nga’Moru we got into the fantastic habit of watching the sunrise, sunset or both with either John or Patrick. We would watch the sun rise/drop over the mountains and marvel at the colours displayed and the wonderful sight of the entire valley in front of slowly changing appearance.

Kidepo is currently still very unknown and remote. During our stay we found out that Protea Hotels (a large hotel chain) is interested in building an establishment within the park boundaries. Once this happens, the isolation disappears and the fear is that we are left with another touristy and overcrowded park. Our hope is that the park management will be able to balance the necessary progress with caution, so that that which makes Kidepo special remains for many, many generations to come.

Our heartfelt thanks to Patrick for being an exceptional person and allowing us the freedom of invading your camp and to John for the sunrise and sunset company, as well as the fascinating stories!

www.ngamoru.com

After an easy mornings travel we found ourselves driving through the most beautiful, thick canopied forest. This was the Royal Mile, a section of dense forest belonging to the king and thus protected. It is not a national park, there are no entrance fees and no wardens or rangers. No trees are allowed to be cut down and no hunting is allowed within its perimeters, creating a “real” ecosystem surviving on its own.

Next to this forest we found a campsite for the night. Unfortunately the campsite was very run down and nothing was working, but the forest was so beautiful, that we decided to stay the night.

After setting up camp we set off down a trail into the forest, and as so often is the case, we wanted to look for birds. However, the forest is extremely dense blocking out sunlight and sound equally effectively, making it very difficult to find and identify any birds at all. We were still fascinated though, as there are 389 different species of butterfly to be found. All we did was follow one beautiful butterfly after the next, leading us ever deeper into the forest. We had to make sure to remember the right path back though, as all paths look the same in the little light that filters through the canopy.

Here we also spotted our first Blue Monkeys, as well as the Red Tailed Guenon Monkey. Although this was not the first time we saw them, the Black and White Colobus were very vocal and prevalent, almost seeming to shadow us through the forest. There is also a very large family of Chimpanzees that can be tracked, but we saw no sign of them.

We enjoyed our walk through the forest so much, that only the rain forced us to return to camp. Here we huddled under a small shelter waiting for the rain to stop.

During the night the noises of the forest kept us awake for some time. Most notably we heard a primal scream. Sometimes increasing in volume, then dying off, then starting all over again. Considering the forest we were in, we weren’t sure what could cause this shrieking. In the morning we learned that the noise was created by the Tree Hyraxes, with the pitch of the scream changing when the hyrax either climbs up or down the tree.

Fascinating and beautiful as the forest was, our goal was Murchison Falls National Park. So after a fascinating day and an interesting night we set off once again.

Leaving Queen Elizabeth National Park behind us, we came across the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary on the Masindi – Kampala road.

Circumstance had led us to the Sanctuary and we were very surprised to find ourselves going on a guided rhino tour. Admittedly, the idea of a joining a group of foreign tourists and tracking rhino was (to say the least) strange, but still we did it.

Despite it being very touristy, we really enjoyed ourselves. The experience of watching a very large and fearsome white rhino dozing in the shade, while her calf plays around her in the bushes, is quite spectacular.

Shortly after, we found ourselves back at the headquarters, where we discovered that the Sanctuary also offers Shoebill tracking. Having failed so miserably in Ishasha, we decided to give these prehistoric looking birds another chance.

One unanimous decision later, we found ourselves camping in the Rhino Sanctuary, with a bonfire to keep us warm, delicious dessert to maintain our high spirits and endless discussion on whether we would or would not see the Shoebill the next day.

Knowing we would be tracking through the swamps at an ungodly hour of the morning, we made sure to get up early enough to get some hot tea and breakfast first. This sounds OK in theory, if you don’t consider the fact that when the alarm went at 5 in the morning it was cold, dark and raining. If anyone has ever camped in the rain, then you understand the reluctance to leave the warm, cozy and especially dry interior of your tent for the miserable world outside of it.

However, we were doing it for a good cause and so we got up, grumbled a bit, had our coffee and breakfast and went off to track a bird.

All of us packed into the car, we were driven along the muddy and extremely slippery roads to the swamp. Taking the first few steps in our borrowed gumboots we felt quite good about the whole experience. The rain had stopped, it looked like the clouds were thinning and the swamp didn’t look too bad.

Unfortunately our hopes weren’t too last. We soon found out that the Shoebill is so difficult to find because it spends it time catching it’s food in the nastiest section of the swamps and thus, if we wanted to see it, we had to go into these nasty areas as well.

Pretty soon we realized that the gumboots were only there to make us feel better and not for any practical purpose. By stepping onto what we thought was a patch of dry grass, we soon sank to below the knees into some very unsavoury looking (and feeling) water. Then, thanks to our gumboots, we had no way of getting rid of said unsavoury water… Oh well.

Luckily for us, Annemarie soon spotted our reason for being in the swamp. Our first Shoebill was sighted!

Our first glimpse was quite far away, so deciding to get closer, we ”crept” (i.e. sloshed) our way to a clump of bushes and soon had a great view of what turned out to be a particularly evil-looking bird.

A shoebill has a wicked hook at the end of its large beak; bright, beady yellow eyes; an overall rather scruffy and dirty appearance and to top it all, a set of eyebrows that give it a permanently scowling expression.

We didn’t care though. To be able to view in its own environment one of Africa’s most enigmatic, elusive and above all, rare birds was something that made up for any amount of hardship or discomfort.

Bubbling over with the experience we were on our way back to the car, when Annemarie again proved to have the sharpest eyesight.

We had almost missed a second Shoebill quietly sitting off on the far side of the papyrus. Again we crept closer to the bird and hunkered down in the floating vegetation to attempt to get a few good shots.

Now completely over the moon with our double success, we really did head back to the car, keeping an eye or two open in case there was another Shoebill lurking in the bushes.