Last year I got a call from two of my repeat guests, Annette and Patsy, saying that after they had a magic safari here in South Africa with me, they were ready for another trip to the continent. The ladies themselves are very well travelled, and so I knew something adventurous would be on the cards, and so I suggested that we have a look at Uganda, for chimpanzees and gorillas. The ladies loved this idea, and so planning got underway.
Later on, friends of theirs, Jim and Beth, heard about the trip and were keen to join us. This was great news, as it was their first trip to Africa, and so we all quickly decided that we had to add another safari section to the trip. After some thought, we came up with the idea of jumping across to Tanzania to visit Ndutu Conservation Area, where the large herd of wildebeest would be at around that time. We had our plan, and in February we headed to see the Great Apes and the Great Migration!
The start
The group arrived a few days before I joined them and spent the time in Kampala, acclimatising and getting rid of any jet lag. They met up with our local guide, Caesar, spending one of the days exploring Kampala itself. I believe they had a bit of an eye-opener, as a downtown local market in East Africa is very different from that of America. The next day was spent enjoying the spa, all anticipating my arrival! We had a great reunion and meeting dinner, with stories shared and expectations of what was to come over the next week spoken about.
The first Great Ape
With packed breakfast in hand, we met Caesar at 6:15 the following morning to begin our six-hour car drive to our first lodge. As we drove towards the area of Kibale National Park, Caesar told us all about the local villages, their histories and how they made a living. We drove through a massive tea plantation at one point and started adding birds to our trip list already. About halfway through the trip, we got hold of Crater Safari Lodge and were pleased to hear we would be in time for lunch. We put through our lunch order and were glad to know we would have a good meal on arrival.
We arrived at the lodge earlier than we thought, and it gave us all the opportunity to see our accommodation before we had lunch. Overlooking the crater, we enjoyed our first meal before all peeling off to have a siesta or take in the gardens and views of the lodge. Kingfishers and hornbills flew through the lodge grounds, while views of palm-nut vultures down at the water were also good. Dinner was short and sweet, but we did run through things again of what could be expected for the following day in the Kibale forest. With chimps in mind, we headed off for an early evening.
After a nice early breakfast, we headed off to the Kibale National Park. Here we met up with other groups of people also coming to look for the chimpanzees. We had a briefing about the forest and what we could bump into in the forest. We were then assigned to our guides and the trackers that would be helping us in the forest. We all split up and headed in different directions. The search had begun!
Although we managed to find where parts of the chimp community had spent the night before (nests built in the trees), we had no luck in locating them in our part of the forest. We were kept busy though, with numerous monkey species, birds and some other forest inhabitants. We took our time looking at some of the ancient fig trees and the smaller life in the streams. Eventually one of the other groups had a briefing sighting but lots of audio of chimps. To our dismay, it was far away from us in another part of the forest.
Caesar to the rescue! Fortunately we had cellphone reception where we were, and the road was not far from us, so we got hold of Caesar for help. He fetched us and dropped us off in the same area where we had started earlier in the morning. Just shows, it’s all about timing.
By the time they caught up with the chimps, other groups of people had moved on, but more and more chimps were joining the group. As we walked with them, they were vocalising and playing, attracting chimps from other parts with all the commotion. The sighting itself just got better and better, as we had youngsters playing, high-ranked males grooming one another and two different breeding sessions! It didn’t matter where we moved or stood; there was something going on with the chimps.
The group was constantly moving, and by the time we had had our hour with them, we had ended up almost where we had started again. We had done almost two full circles in different parts of the forest. Needless to say, lunch went down very well, and everyone disappeared for a well-earned afternoon break. Dinner was full of smiles, as although it had taken us a while to get our chimps, we truly had an amazing time with them. Plans for the next morning were discussed, and we called it a night as the adrenaline started wearing off.
The second of the Great Apes
After a scenic drive through the hills and views of the other craters, we headed to a small airfield where we were to catch a flight to an area of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. As we flew over the forest, the excitement of getting down there and looking for gorillas started kicking in. We were greeted by our lodge transfer and headed up to Gorilla Safari Lodge, our home for the next two nights.
After some more great meals and an early breakfast the following day, we headed to the southern headquarters of the Bwindi Forest, the Rushaga sector. We enjoyed the traditional dancing of the Pygmy Tribe before we had our briefing with the rangers, and we were split up into groups to look for our family, the Kutu family. I myself was very excited, as this would be a new family for me as well.
While we were heading in the direction of the Kutu’s, we learned that their silverback had had a confrontation with another silverback and needed some time to cool down. This worked out perfectly, though, as the family was moving along the river and so made for an easier hike for us…or so we thought. We followed a forest road for some time, which was the easy part, but then we had to cross the river to get into the forest, the interesting part. After some great balance and help from the porters, we all crossed safely into the forest and almost straight into the gorillas.
By the time we joined up with the group, the silverback had relaxed, and the whole family was at ease. We had a magic hour with them, as we watched the adults feed along, while the youngsters all decided it was playtime. There were 8- and 11-month-olds in this family, and they put on a great show for us as they wrestled one another and any other gorilla that got close enough to them. Even Dad wasn’t safe, and at one point we watched as they played around him as he ignored them and continued to feed. As it did with the chimps a few days before, our hour went by quickly. We left the family as they looked like they were bedding down for a rest, and we made our way back out of the forest.
We had a magic afternoon and evening, as everyone was on a buzz after our amazing sighting again. Two different ape treks and two very special sightings. The following day we headed back to Entebbe, where we spent the day before heading off to Tanzania.
The Great Migration
After a few delays before the flight, and at one of our stops, we made it safely to Kilimanjaro Airport and headed through to Arusha for the night. After a short rest, we met for breakfast and headed out to our airport, where we would be catching our flight to our next lodge, Olakira Migration Camp, found in the Ndutu Conservation Area. We were greeted at the airstrip by our guide Daniel. Just on the short drive to the lodge, we could tell we had a great guy leading us this leg of the trip, and boy were we right. The lodge itself was also spectacular, and we were all more than happy to make this our home for the next four nights.
We found out that afternoon safaris were a lot shorter than the morning drives, which suited us just fine. We spent the first afternoon drive exploring the area around the lodge, including the two lakes. Flamingos were plentiful, and we managed to get some incredible scenes with them in it. The first afternoon also produced a sighting of a female leopard and her two cubs resting up in some trees close by. They had finished off a large meal during the morning and were all now in a food coma.
As was explained, the mornings were spent out on the plains, spending time with the great herd of wildebeest and seeing what predators were following them around. February is the time of year that the wildebeest give birth in the Ndutu area. Unfortunately we were a little late this year, and most of the youngsters had been born already, but it meant there were a whole lot of cute wildebeest calves around all the time.
The number of spotted hyenas out on the plains with the wildebeest was a surprise to us all. There was not a morning drive out there where we did not see at least sixty or seventy hyenas around. Golden jackals, honey badgers and a serval were the highlights of some of the smaller predators we saw. A great interaction between a golden jackal, a marabou stork and a group of vultures fighting over a carcass was a great sighting.
Out on the plains, though, the main predator you are looking to spend time with is the cheetah. We achieved this goal well! We had numerous sightings, with the standout being a female hunting and catching a Thompson gazelle. Along with this, we saw a large male feeding on a wildebeest calf, a female with four cubs, and then on our last morning, six cheetah in the same sighting, not something many can say they have seen.
We were lucky enough to spend more time with the female leopard and her cubs one morning as she moved them from one area to another. The two cubs were very playful, and we watched as they chased one another around and stalked Mom at every opportunity. Lions were also great in the area, and we saw the dominant males around camp on a few occasions. These males belonged to a coalition of five, and we lay in bed every night listening to them roaring to one another. We did catch one pride out in the clearings, but it was the pride that climbed trees that we were most interested in. We were lucky enough to see four members of the pride resting up in the trees.
Generally game and birds were also plentiful in the area. We could not believe how seven-hour morning safaris just absolutely flew by. We did get rained on once or twice, but we all wrapped up well. Getting stuck out on the plains was also an adventure, but we got out very quickly after some interesting engineering from the local guides.
The ending
After four magical days at Olakira, we left well fed and happy, not only from the game viewing but also from the staff we got to meet as well. We really had a magic time, and it was the perfect way for me to step out and head home. As I travelled back to South Africa, the group headed to Zanzibar, where they enjoyed a well-deserved break and downtime after over a week of full-on safari!
