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5.30 am reveille - quick breakfast, and on our way to Entebbe, where we were to take a trip on Lake Victoria to visit Ngamba Island, a chimpanzee sanctuary. First of all, we visited the "zoo" at Entebbe. This was in fact more of an animal rescue centre which had been formed by animal welfare groups. It would however put many a zoo to shame. There was certainly plenty of room for the animals, and all appeared to be in good health. It was here that we saw our only "croc" (The photo here, by the way, breaks my website rule of not featuring captive animals - For this once only !) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Having visited the zoo, we boarded our "slow boat" to Ngamba Island. As we made our way across Lake Victoria, it was hard to believe that we were in fact on a lake, It was more like being at sea, such was the scale. Victoria covers in fact, an area the size of Wales. As we made our way across, Marcell pointed out some dark clouds in the distance. These were in fact clouds of small flies. We had encountered some at Entebbe. Similar to the Scottish Midge, inasmuch that they are somewhat irritating, but these don't bite. At times they are gathered from local trees in huge numbers, and cooked up in a porridge. |
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We arrived at Ngamba Island, and after an introductory welcome, had lunch. An hour later we started our walk around the sanctuary. There are currently 39 chimpanzees here, which is virtually at the limit of the island's capacity to support a healthy population. The chimps come from a variety of sources, from neighbouring countries of Africa. Many are orphans, some of them recovered from poachers, some recovered having been exotic pets. There are two compounds within the enclosure. The outer compound supports the younger chimps, whilst the inner compound within the |
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trees houses the more mature ones, as they tend to spend much of their time amongst the denser foliage of the trees. It was amazing to study such a large troop of chimps at close quarters. Every chimp seemed to have its own character. As they were being fed, some hid the food they had received in an effort to be given more. Other chimps were constantly being chased and "mugged" for their food, though none seemed to be any the worse for it. All appeared fit and healthy. We had a pleasant afternoon relaxing on the island shore, before returning. On route back we monitored our GPS as we |
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crossed the equator for the second time that day. Marcell and
Abby elected to swim across and duly dived in. It must have been
welcome on such a hot day, though the remainder of us opted to
stay dry. We got back to Entebbe at 5.30, for a drive to Kampala, arriving at 6.50 at the Backpackers Camp Site - This was a late change in the itinerary. We were due to visit Mpana Forest, but the heavy rains of the previous day had made the journey too risky a prospect, as the steep road was reported as being quite treacherous. We got the tents up, had our evening meal - finishing the evening again with a drop of Talisker, in the company of David and Debs, hoping that that the recent wet weather would not jeopardise our trip to Lake Bunyoni, which Marcell described as being somewhat special. Fingers crossed!! |
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Other Photographs of The Day |
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