Safari

After leaving Kisoro on Friday morning we headed north towards Ishasha and the Queen Elizabeth Game Park for a safari break. Our first stop was Ishasha,very close to the Congo birder and the home if the unique tree climbing lions . No-one knows why they do this here but they do. When we arrived we had no expectation of seeing them – there are only 20 in the whole vast park – but then our driver Uvan received a phone call to say they had been sited.

In the late afternoon we set off to see them. It was a mixed experience as they were so far away as to be only visible through binoculars or Sally’s relecohiti lens – my phone was certainly not going to do it. Sally dies have pictures that I will get eventually – there were four them with less and rails dangling from the branches. Nevertheless we were very happy to have seen’ them.

Over the next two days in the game park we were lucky enough to see a wide variety of game including a lion very close up, loads of elephants especially along the channel between the Lakes Edward and George, buffalo,Uganda kob, crocodiles, hippos, buffalo and topi.

Suddenly we were in the land of tourists which did seem a bit strange. When we went on the boat trip in the channel there were very smart staff!

And lots of tourist buses and posh land cruisers. It felt a very different world from Itambira.

But we lived our time looking st these extraordinary animals in their natural environment. I didn’t realise that crocodiles, hippos and buffalo would all be quite happy together Ali f the river bank and that elephants would appear down there early evening to drink

and feed. We were very lucky indeed

At the end of our boat trip we headed out towards Lake Edward ( which looks as big as a sea) just as the fishing boats set off for the night. It was magic though difficult to get the horizon straight on my phone.

Our stay at Bush Lodge was perfect with a wonderful outdoor shower and, once we had sorted out the hot water, it was perfect.

We could see elephants just across the valley from us and had monkeys in the garden. Each night we had to be escorted to our room due to the proximity of hippos and elephant. Altogether a magical experience – the sunsets were great, the stars very bright and the savanna and it’s animals totally memorable.