We are staying at Pakuba Safari Lodge, which was once the personal lodge of Idi Amin; although the main lodge is now in ruins and we're staying in what was once the staff quarters. The Australian lady I got chatting to at Rwakobo Rock told me there was a leopard which regularly visited the ruins and she showed me some lovely shots she'd got early morning so I'm hopeful we might be able to visit the area.
We headed off again just after dawn and as I said yesterday, the sightings are getting a wee bit repetitive - yet again, elephant with Piapiacs, Rothschild's giraffes, Water Buffalo and Hartebeest.
Those few pictures are all I have for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the Falls.
Parking the truck we saw this male Red-headed Agama - very colourful.
This is a Tsetse fly trap - apparently Tsetse have colour vision and whilst black is roughly as attractive as blue to them, they land on black in preference to any other colour. So blue is used to attract tsetse to an object and black (which has insecticide on it) to get them to land.
You can imagine I took an enormous step over this line of bullet ants, so named because the bite they give feels like being shot - ouch!
As usual we picked up a local guide and fortunately it was only our little group at the falls.
The noise was quite deafening (maybe turn your sound down before playing)
The vortex reminded me of the Devil's Throat at Iguassu Falls
It was our final full day exploring Murchison Falls National Park, so we made sure to get up and out early to
maximise our chances of finding good wildlife to photograph. We left the hotel at 6.30am and travelled back to
the main park’s through-road, as this has great visibility on both sides of the road with plenty of wildlife. With the
sun peaking over the horizon, we located African Bush Elephant and Rothschild Giraffe, which both made for
pleasing early shots. We continued on towards the falls, stopping periodically for different mammal species.
At the falls, we were met by local ranger and guide Davis, who gave us some background information on the park
and the falls themselves, before taking us on a very short hike to the top of them. The sight was something to
behold and we could not quite believe the power and intensity of the waters flowing over the top, dropping some
45 metres to the river below. The spray created a permanent rainbow which was nice to photograph too. Rock
Pratincoles flew around in the background, however as the water levels were very high, most of their rocky perches
were submerged.
We walked to a higher viewpoint but were warned not to take cameras (or at least to cover them well) as the spray
literally soaked us through to the skin! It was quite the experience and something we’ll never forget.
We were given the option to walk up a very slippery, rocky path to a higher viewing platform and warned that we should cover our cameras well as would get wet and boy, did we. We were all literally soaked to the skin by the spray but it was rather good fun.
Can you see a face in the rock?
The water drops about 45m over the Falls and the calmer water you can see in the distance is where we were yesterday on the boat.
The tiny droplets of water on the local guide's hair sparkled like diamonds (and in a refreshing difference from the UK I was actually able to voice that comment without "offending" anyone)
The journey back to camp was uneventful with just a few elephants,
Dark Chanting Goshawk
This is our little semi-detached cabin on the left; Charmaine and Frederick were next to us.
A very modern design building, the restaurant is upstairs and the bar below.
There are a few tables set up on balcony on the far side of the restaurant and overlooking a small floodlit waterhole.
Cheeky Vervet Monkeys
Olive Baboon in a favourite pose.
These two warthogs put on a good display; it seems like the one lying down was in the way and so the other one barged at it until it moved, whereupon it flopped down into the mud.
The Marabou Stork seemed very tame.
And obviously enjoyed pickings from the restaurant bins.
I think even Olly and Gerald have realised there isn't much to see here and so we actually had about 2 hours downtime after lunch. We made a start on the packing as we leave tomorrow and then Ian and I had a little wallow in the pool - it was lovely and warm and very refreshing.
I also had time to stalk a variety of agamas.
Red-headed m.
And f.
Red-cheeked Cordon Blue
This is a lovely sitting area but unfortunately nowhere near the pool or restaurant and so it doesn't really get used.
There is a family of almost tame warthogs near the carpark. Lovely whiskers.
Silverback
Obviously a Bee-eater but I'm not sure which and Olly's Species Checklist doesn't help me.
African Grey Hornbill
Patas monkey
It rather looks like it's having a wee!
I know Flanders & Swan wrote for the hippo but the song could just as easily been about Cape Buffalo.
Now this was an exciting find and I even managed to get all its tail feathers in - Pin-tailed Whydah.
More Oribi
The black spot below the ear is a gland.
The sky is looking a little threatening, maybe we're in for a storm.
I guess it's started raining somewhere.
I love the patterns on giraffe and on Rothschild's are more like Reticulated than the untidy Masai species.
Another dose of Ugandan Kob f.
And a very handsome male
Driving along a quiet track we noticed a few buffalo crossing ahead at great speed.
On the right was a huge herd and so we waited for more to cross.
It's pretty near dusk now so Olly did well to spot this Vereaux Eagle Owl up in a tree we were driving under. You can't see its distinctive pink eyelids though.
This it out of sequence but probably my favourite shot of the day, I like the clouds.
Back to the lodge now for final packing, dinner and bed - another early start as we have a very long drive ahead, poor Gerald.