Queen Elizabeth National Park

After a long day in the field, Kent, Sarah and I headed out to Queen Elizabeth National Park to meet up with Dr Seifert, a wildlife expert from Markere University in Kampala. We arrived in the morning after a 2.5 hour drive. It was amazing how drastically the scenery changed as we drove. Mbarara is FULL of matoke plantations, but as we drove, these became more sparse and soon we hit tea country - hundreds and hundreds of acres of tea crops. They are actually really beautiful. They look like golf course grounds from a distance.

Once at the park, we met up with James, Dr. Seiferts assistant, and he took us out on our first safari drive. Because they are both part of a large predator project at the park, we were permitted to off-road in the park. The plan for our first trip was to radiotrack a lion. On the way, we saw many water buck, many different types of birds and of course, loads of wart hogs.

We also had an amazing encounter with some elephants. While we were driving on the road to access a different part of the park, we watched as 10 or so elephants crossed the road, quite near to our vehicle. It was the start of a very good day.

As we drove, the lion's signal was picked up and we located her, with her cub, in a heavy thicket. She and the cub were sitting half way up the tree. Apparently the lions in this region like to climb. Because of her location, I was unable to get any decent pictures, but it was still amazing to see the curious head of the cub peaking through the foliage.

That evening, we went on a night drive to track for hyenas. The hyena population has taken a serious hit in this park and their numbers have dwindled. Surrouding villagers poison the hyenas to prevent predation of their livestock. We drove out to the air strip on the park and within minutes we had found a hyena. James threw bait to the hyena while we madly snapped photographs. It is amazing how close the hyena came to the vehicle. For me, that was the highlight of the day!

The following day (Friday) was when the streak of bad luck hit! In the morning we woke up early to go to the crater explosions and track lions. We had just made it to the edge of the crater and had picked up the signal of the lion when the rains hit! I had been riding on the roof of the land rover and so had to retreat to the inside of the vehicle. At first, I didn't think the rain was a big deal until we began driving. The top layer of dirt on the roads became like grease and we slid off the road multiple times. After a slow drive, we made it back to the hostel. Once the rain let up, a few of us decided to explore the grounds and came across many warthogs. Because of the wire gate, I was feeling brave and decided to talk to the hogs. Unfortunately, they took this as a challenge and I quickly moved on.

We also came across a tortoise that had been run over. His shell had been repaired a few days earlier and he was recovering in a bush outside the park offices.

Once the rains finally let up, we headed out on another safari drive to track lions once again. We were driving away from the park, near the salt mines, when the fan belt on our vehicle fell off. The land rover overheated and we were unable to continue. James hitched a ride back to the park and brought back the other land rover that then toed our vehicle. Again, it was a slow, long ride back to the park. Once we arrived, we ate some supper and then headed out for another night drive. This one was very uneventful. We did not see much besides some buffalo.

The next morning, we headed out on, you guessed it, yet another safari drive. Little did we know, this one would be quite exciting. The first part of our drive was interrupted by a stubborn hippo who refused to move off the road. After a few minutes of reving the engine, he finally continued on into the bush.

On the first part of the drive, we saw many beautiful Ugandan kob.

And a baboon...

We had been driving for quite sometime when we came across a group of 5 lions. It was amazing. There was one male and several cubs.

We were on our way to track the mother to the cubs when we crossed the paths of 2 poachers. Earlier in the day, we heard news that a buffalo had been killed by a poacher, but that they were chased off. We then saw 2 poachers with rifles and our vehicle chased after them in hot pursuit. Luckily we were travelling with an armed ranger. However, the poachers jumped into an area with heavy bushes and we were unable to catch them. We then traced their path looking for something that they had dropped. It turned out to be a hippo snare. We then informed the park rangers in that area and they went out on the lookout for the poachers. I hope they get caught! We then headed to the hostel after an exciting morning and left to go back to Mbarara. It was a very interesting trip!