Roadtrip Uganda - Part 5
Ishasha National Park The drive to Ishasha is through and past beautiful tea plantations. After about 80 km, we reach gate south at the Queen Elisabeth National Park and into the Ishasha section. Ishasha is in the Kanungu district in western Uganda, just along the Democratic Republic of Congo border. In this part of the park, we can see the tree-climbing lions if we are lucky. We look for an overnight spot and do a quick check at Camp 1. It is very basic but there are toilets and showers. But the dozens of baboons and hippos make it a great spot.
In the afternoon, we drive into the park in search of the tree-climbing lions. No matter how we look no lion is to be seen. But not to worry, we see lots of wildlife. Buffalo, Topi, Impala, wild boar, lots of beautiful birds and, as the cherry on the cake, a herd of elephants. Really fantastic less than 10 metres from the car!!!!!
At dusk, we drive back to the campsite. When we arrive, there are several campers. Pitch the tent, light a fire and have a nice meal. In one word, "Delicious". It remains special when you sit like this in the earth dark with only the light of the campfire, some waxen lights and a large number of humming and coughing hippos in the background. And to think you are sitting on your camping chair in the middle of dark Africa. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!
Up early today and once again in search of lions. The lions prefer to sit in fig trees. To our mind, we have looked at every fig tree but unfortunately no lion to be seen. We enlist the help of ranger and guide Godfried. He keeps saying he cannot guarantee anything but when we offer him a fat tip he smiles encouragingly. Godfried makes a few phone calls and has us drive straight to the target. Exactly to the same spot we went to that morning. But now we are going off track. The joker!!! Tourists risk a $150 fine if they go off track.
We can already see the lion heads in the tree from a long distance away. Three metres above the ground in a very thick old fig tree. We stop at the tree and we get goosebumps from head to toe soooo beautiful this is!!! There are three of them, Godfrey tells us they are sisters of about six to seven months old and that their mother is somewhere in the field keeping an eye on her cubs, and us. Unfortunately, we were unable to spot the mother lion anywhere.
After this amazing experience, we brought Godfrey back to the gate. We decide not to stay longer in this area of Queen Elisabeth National Park but to drive north to the crater area. The road is reasonably good so it goes smoothly. On the way, we turn off at a small fishing village called Kisenyi, it lies on Lake Edward which lies between Uganda and Congo. We get off at the village and go to see the fishermen with their fishing boats and have a chat. A post of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is present in the village to inform locals about the occurrence and consequences of Ebola. This place is at higher risk for Ebola outbreak because fishermen are in daily contact with residents of Congo on the other side of the lake. Our intuition tells us not to stay here too long and it is better to drive on.
