ROAD TRIP DAY THREE: Queen Elizabeth Park to Mweya's boat tour, Kilembe mines and then Kasese

Again, it was an early rise before dawn to catch the night roaming creatures out in the park. Might I add  that the food at Jacana Lodge was not only beautiful but wonderful (especially after 5 months of beans and rice). I also appreciate this chain of lodges as they belong to the Eco Lodge chain. Solar, water saving techniques and eco friendly policies make it a pleasure to stay there.

We hit the gate before dawn and right away spotted beady little eyes glowing at the roadside. Turns out they belonged to a family of Hyenas! Again, too dark and too fast for pictures but wonderful to see! Things slowed waay down on the viewing scene after that...it was quite awhile driving on that road (passing safari vehicles going in the other direction) that we decided to turn around and follow them. This turned out to be a good move as on the way back we were privy to the first spotting of an elephant! It was a mother and her calf. She made it clear she did not want us anywhere near her, so we obliged and moved on.

Mom, none to happy that we were close!

We entered at another gate and managed to hook up to a ranger by following the car ahead of us (again...frugal to the end). On this near guided tour, we were privy to uganda Kob, Topi, waterbucks (all dear-like creatures). We also saw cape buffalo (what we know has water buffalo), every kind of bird you can imagine, warthogs and bushhogs, and even lions (from about a mile away seen as small specks with tails out in very tall grass)

A herd blocking the road trying to scratch on an old termite mound

A "posing" DLC

ask Bob or John

an ancient native of some sort

People, watching lions faaar faaar away!
(could have been paper cut outs as far as we knew)

We did manage to look into the Kyambura Gorge for a quick view. This is where the Chimpanzee tracking tours start. They would not allow us to even do a small hike without paying the fee, so we opted to head to lunch instead. Fine by me as it was hot and I was getting sleepy.

Looking into the Kyambura Gorge

We then headed off to lunch at Mweya Lodge...pretty fancy digs I might add! The views were spectacular looking over Kazinga channel. This is where the largest concentration of hippos resides and where our boat tour was going to take us. (on a threee hooourrr tourrrr...just kidding)

This could almost be the Columbia River Gorge! 

We finished lunch and headed down to take our 2 hour boat tour of the Kazinga Channel. We could see the elephants heading down to the water while at lunch, so we knew we would have a fabulous view of them. The channel is 36 km long, home to over 100 species of birds (most of the boat was filled with birders and their HUGE cameras) as well as the largest concentration of hippos (good because I had yet to see one...only hear one and needed to get a picture for my niece Allie who LOVES them). The channel opens up into Lake George which is about 97 sq miles in size. This is NOT included in Uganda's Great Lakes though.

A posing water buck at the boat ramp for our
viewing pleasure

For you Allie!
they were all submerged the whole time to stay cool

Cape Buffalo

More elephants!
let me tell you, even in a car, you don't feel safe. We saw many a car back up
as an elephant shoed them away to get to good eating. 

This was a fabulous trip...we also saw crocodiles, birds of every color and size, and the distant mountains of DCR Congo (from the mouth of the channel) It was now REALLY hot. Eric picked us up (he stayed back and swam in the pool instead) and off we went to head to Kasese for our last night's stay at the foothills of the Rwenzori Mountains!

Eric was bemoaning the fact that he has been coming to the park for over 10 years and has never seen a leopard. Well...someone must have heard him and planted one at the roadside on our way out. It was crazy! It just sat there in the shade by the roadside panting. Eric was so overtaken, he was shouting "TAKE IT! TAKE IT!" (meaning the picture) for fear of missing this opportunity. The leopard obliged our snaps for a minute and then meandered away into the bush. THAT was the highlight, I have to say!

The highlight of the trip! 

OK. Let it be known that Eric Arts likes to jam more "activity" in a single day than even my sister Anne (now that says a LOT). We still had a few hours to go to reach our destination in Kasese. If you remember from the Jan blog, this is where I dropped off the climbers.

We were all very hot and tired by the time we arrived though the sun was setting and we were hitting the now cool mountain air. The directions (or so we thought) were, "Take a Left when you hit the main road in Kasese". We assumed this would be the road heading into the hills towards Kilembe (an elevation of just over 5,000 feet). We headed up and up towards signs saying Kilembe mines. The housing degraded into row houses reminiscent of old military bases. The people became poorer as we headed up in elevation as well.

heading up the valley

The views, however, were spectacular! There were farms on steep hillsides and green lush plants and trees. The sun was casting an orange hue into the steep valleys we were driving in and white water rivers cascaded down from distant unseen peaks.

We still had not seen any signs for the Eco Snow Lodge which was to be our next stay. We stopped to ask people but they smiled and kept going. Turns out they don't speak English or Luganda (like my simple vocabulary of "sit down", "stand up" and "walk" would help much). The road then looked like it ended (or became one of those mountain biking paths made form an old logging road). We asked a young man standing there and he nodded that the he knew the Lodge and pointed up the hill. So "UP" we went!

mining camp row houses 

AND UP AND UP AND UP...to the point the road was only wide enough for a car as well as strewn with boulders at least 2 feet high and HUGE potholes that could swallow up a wheel and axle with pleasure. It turned quickly from "Adventure" to "Holy crap, we're in trouble now!". Overlooking the edges of these drop offs would make a hight fearing person yack! (well...we were probably only about 600 feet high BUT STILL).

The poverty evident

Young men were walking down the logging road (for lack of a better term) with surprised looks on their faces....as if they were saying to themselves..."What the Hell are these crazy Muzungus doing up here in a car???" It was actually not a big deal as we ended up stuck in probably the ONLY spot big enough to turn around (with a  lot of back up, go forward, back up go forwards).

Beauty despite the poverty...such a rich country and such poor people

I can hear Eric saying "You are exaggerating!"....I say...ask John or Bob.

Turns out it didn't take long with the help of the boys, old trees and rocks thrown into the HUGE pits to avoid being stuck and lots of direction (to avoid driving off into the void). Coming down was a nice walk and Eric could navigate in peace without 3 other back and front seat drivers telling him where to go.

More beauty

I had a nice conversation with a young man in his senior year. He had to walk from his village to the mining camp to stay for school at the beginning of each week. He wanted to become a journalist. Getting any funding for University is a long shot for him and for all of these eager young people. How lucky we are in the States to have the access we do.

SOO...no luck. It was getting late and the sun was starting to sink below the tops of the hills. The drive was long and hot and we were ready to be done. We decided to chance the fact I remembered seeing the signs for this Lodge when dropping off the climbers before. This was the main road to the major peaks of the Rwenzoris. Turns out the hunch was correct and it wasn't that far out of town either!

I think I blogged about how bad this road was back in January. Let's just say, it hasn't changed much though was much easier to navigate with a Land Rover....what I mean by that is we could all stay IN the car on the way up! The Eco Lodge must not have been open when I was there in Jan. It was actually another 350 meters farther from where we stopped last time (I had no idea the road even went farther!)

We bumped our way to the gate and to a greeting party of men who carried our things up to the Lodge.
Let me just say that for those of you (like me) who LOVE mountains...this is the most ideal dream place I could EVER imagine!  It is the last stop on the road nestled in the foothills of the largest mountains in Uganda. Built on the cliffs overlooking a roaring white water river...hidden by tall old growth trees and moss covered boulders. Built with stones and timbers with an open patio restaurant and large roaring fire. The cool mountain air was also welcome and devoid of little vampire mosquitos.

My little cabin in the woods

My DIGS! complete with porch overlooking the river! 

We all enjoyed a beautiful and thoroughly delightful dinner next to a roaring fire, read on the deck at the edge of the cliff by lamp light, and then reposed to the sounds of the river below.

Cool looking shower, solar powered, hot water on demand
(after about 5 min that is) 

fireplace open to both the bathroom and living room! 

nighty night!