Gorilla Trekking


Gorilla up-date: June's trip was very successful with two good gorilla sightings and no rain! The Habinyanja Group were in food heaven as they gorged themselves in a banana plantation! We got a perfect sighting of their new 6-week old baby. The Rushegura Group proved a far more difficult trek and had bizarrely hot footed it close to the Congo border. Congrats to my guests - what a challenge!



Breaking News: the 30th May saw the official opening of the shop in Ishasha. Thank you to everyone for your contributions, they are much appreciated. Please continue to support our worthwhile project. The shop is filled with local curios which we hope to expand on soon. I will be departing again for Uganda on the 31st July. Anyone wishing to sponsor a ball, pens or pencils, please contact me by the 25th July.

 Tulabagane omwezi ogujja (see you next month),
Agandi!

Apologies for the absence of June's newsletter, but safari season is now underway and the network from the Heart of Uganda was not to be.

The Queen Elizabeth National Park 1,978 km 2 in size, Uganda's most popular savanna reserve. Just ask anyone who has visited this remote wilderness area and they will agree; it's scenically spectacular!

But it's in Ishasha located in the south-western sector of the park where it all happens. By-passed by many en-route to other sections of the park, the abundance of wildlife in this remote corner of the park is incredible.

Large herds of elephant pass along their migratory routes from Uganda to the Democratic Republic of Congo and back, hundred's of buffalo laze in the lush grasslands and if you do a 360º turn and scan the horizon as far as the eye can see, you will be surrounded by hundreds of Uganda Cob and Topi. However, if you think that the park is only about game, it's also a birders paradise and home to 606 recorded feathered species.

Yet each time I visit the park, I find myself driving around the park in awe of its incredible sycamore fig trees. Not in search of fruit, but more it's famous inhabitants ...tree climbing lions who can more often than not be found dozing for hours up on its shady arms, oddly perched in the nook of a branch.

For a truly extraordinary lion experience, a few days in Ishasha is not to be missed!


Ishasha Fact File:
• It's home to roughly 32 "tree-climbing" lions.
• Lions can spend up to 10 hours in a tree before they descend to hunt.
• The explanation for this localized behavior is open to conjecture, but according to Ishasha's resident lion researcher, ticks and flies found in the long grass are a major contributor to this phenomenon. My opinion is that this behavior has been passed over generations.
• Lake Edward Flats, off the northern circuit, currently rates as one of the most reliable spots in Uganda to view the rare Shoebill bird in its natural environment.

All pictures copyright Lisa Marsden