Birding at Engiri didn't live up to the promise of the night before s we set off to see the western part of the park. As we approached the channel I caught a glimpse of two papyrus gonolek. They were gone when we hopefully reversed. The public road across this part of the park, although advertised as "well maintained" was a bit rough in patches and we didn't see much wildlife, although we got a good view of a crater with lake on the right with some buffs at the bottom. The weather was looking promising, so when we got to Kabatoro Gate we enquired about camping and entry fees and after a bit of negotiation got the truck down from $150 to $50 by showing that it is registered as a pickup in the UK! We apid after a bit of a panic trying to locate B's wwallet which he had misplaced in the cab. It was under my kanga on the jumpseat. We had decided to camp where Snufkin had recemmended - Campsite No2 (in fact we had subsequently had it recommended by other people too).
We went straight to the campsite to make sue we knew where it was (lesson learnt from Murchison Falls) and were encouraged to see absolutely no facilities and lion tracks. Then we set off for Mweya as we wanted to take a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel. Based on the Murchison Falls trip we had high expectations. We got good seats at the front by being early and at 3pm off we went. It was slow, very slow - in the end it turned out that it only covered about 1-2km of the channel. Not many mammals to be seen apatrt from hippos. Lots of waterbirds, I was pleased to see African skimmers again and in good numbers. Some looked in a state of near-collapse, but were possibly keeping cool on nests. The cruise was awkward in that the boat was taken far too close to groups of hippos, in fact at one point two that were on the bank were chased for a few hundred metres until the managed to get into the water - all to the cheers of some passengers. Some passengers were very pushy and selfish, we twice had to ask people to stop pushing in front of us blocking our view - their tour guide seemed to think it was funny - a cultural thing probably. Overall I wouldn't receommend taking the Kazinga Channel bout cruise from Mweya - better to take the Murchison Falls one instead.
We drove to the campsite - deserted - so positioned the truck and carefully setup. We ate with the door open watching as the light receded - nothing appeared. Strange, this place comes highly recommended.
We went straight to the campsite to make sue we knew where it was (lesson learnt from Murchison Falls) and were encouraged to see absolutely no facilities and lion tracks. Then we set off for Mweya as we wanted to take a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel. Based on the Murchison Falls trip we had high expectations. We got good seats at the front by being early and at 3pm off we went. It was slow, very slow - in the end it turned out that it only covered about 1-2km of the channel. Not many mammals to be seen apatrt from hippos. Lots of waterbirds, I was pleased to see African skimmers again and in good numbers. Some looked in a state of near-collapse, but were possibly keeping cool on nests. The cruise was awkward in that the boat was taken far too close to groups of hippos, in fact at one point two that were on the bank were chased for a few hundred metres until the managed to get into the water - all to the cheers of some passengers. Some passengers were very pushy and selfish, we twice had to ask people to stop pushing in front of us blocking our view - their tour guide seemed to think it was funny - a cultural thing probably. Overall I wouldn't receommend taking the Kazinga Channel bout cruise from Mweya - better to take the Murchison Falls one instead.
We drove to the campsite - deserted - so positioned the truck and carefully setup. We ate with the door open watching as the light receded - nothing appeared. Strange, this place comes highly recommended.