On a few occasions during this trip I noticed women herding cattle, which is almost exclusively a job assigned to boys and young men throughout East Africa. My hunch is that this is a product of the still tremendously high prevalence of HIV/AIDS leading to changes in family roles depending on who in the family survives.
While I enjoyed a four course dinner on the patio of Mweya Safari Lodge, this gecko feasted on a one course meal of lake flies. The flies were so numerous that in some spots, not a single portion of the walls could be seen. Thankfully, they don’t bite and aren’t strong fliers so all in all I would take these any day over mosquitoes or tsetse flies.
After raiding a termite mound and not doing a good job of hiding the evidence, a dwarf mongoose scans for any predators before making a getaway.
A man walks his bicycle loaded up with carefully stacked sugar cane stalks back to his village.
Just outside Lake Mburu National Park, a flock of cattle egrets roost in one of the few remaining trees not cut down for firewood.
Under threatening skies, a Ugandan kob looks up from grazing on a windy day near Pelican Point in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Kob number in the thousands in QENP and are the main prey species for lions and leopards
I have done the boat trip up to Murchison Falls several times and each time there is something new. From nesting bee eaters to a crocodile feasting on a floating hippo carcass (photos to come!) the trip up the Nile is spectacular. This year the water level was extremely high which limited the ability of wading birds to find suitable habitat to fish. To compensate this little egret perched on an almost completely submerged boulder adjacent to some turbulent water. With the bird and foreground lit up by the late afternoon sun and the background shaded by one of the adjacent cliffs the bird really stands out in this photo.
With the boat only a few inches above water, two fisherman attempt to catch Nile perch and tilapia in Lake Victoria.
With thorns up to 4-5cm in length, the leaves of the acacia tree are somewhat protected from grazing herbivores. By using a slow shutter speed I was able to get the raindrops streaking through the photo during a downpour in Lake Mburu National Park.
With an audience of one, a young girl puts on a dance show in a small village adjacent to Queen Elizabeth National Park.
I’m not a big fan of Mitsubishi vehicles but I took this SUV through everything and it never once got stuck. This photo was taken from Pelican Point in Queen Elizabeth National Park. It is very infrequently visited and so the ‘road’ had grown in with grasses and acacia thorn trees, but the view was well worth the trip. In the distance is the Rwenzori mountain range which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and still on my list of places to visit in Uganda.
Even from a 50 meters away, this matriarch of the herd was not satisfied and made it known with her ear flapping and trunk waving. I moved further up the dirt road to give her more space to safely cross with her baby and the rest of the herd.
All afternoon the skies were threatening to put a damper on my game drive but thankfully they held off until I was under a patio at Mweya Safari Lodge overlooking the gorge and peninsula. The lodge was much too expensive for my budget but they served an excellent 4 course meal for a reasonable price to anyone that wondered in. The place I was staying was just down the road and the food was not nearly as good, nor was the view anything to marvel at so the lodge was perfect. I didn’t have room to bring my tripod on this trip so when the storm hit I used the dinner table to set the camera on and set the shutter speed to 20 seconds. The first few tries I was unsuccessful, but eventually I got lucky. At least seven different bolts of lightning can be seen in this photo.
One of my favorites…four men and a boy sped past me on a motorbike along a narrow dirt road in the western tip of Queen Elizabeth National Park near Pelican Point. It is doubtful that they were late for an appointment as there never really are exact times for anything in Africa! The two long sticks carried by the guys are used to herd cattle and so maybe they were heading out to herd their livestock. As I snapped off a few photos the man on the back and the little boy turned to have another look at me, causing the driver to firmly grasp the handlebars and try to keep the bike on track. Thankfully the delicate balance was maintained and they continued on up the road. It never ceases to amuse me to see the various means of transporting people and possessions in Africa, and likewise Ugandans never cease to be amused by seeing a “mazungu” (Swahili for European).
Owen Slater Photography 