Untamed Land

Untamed Land
Untamed Land

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Gary's Photos, Bigodi and Beyond

Although I posted a few similar photos as this one, African Grey Parrots are an awsome treat to see in the wild. It's certainly worth a second look.
The same goes for the Great Blue Turaco. We also saw a Black-billed Turaco in the Bigodi Wetlands.

The Bigodi Wetlands was the only place that we saw, Central African Red Colobus Monkeys.
Africa's largest vulture, the Lappet-faced Vulture.
From Bigodi we headed west, then north again. The photo above shows a typical highway in Uganda. Bad roads, full of livestock.
Of course the roads were full of pedestrians as well. There is a great lack of public transportation in Uganda, and most people can't afford even the few pennies that local mini buses charge. They just walk. Even children do their part, hauling water daily.
The scene above illustrates why it took so long to drive, even relatively short ditances. We averaged about 20 kmph. We greeted thousands of people per day as we drove along, and gave many people rides. Some did'nt ask for a ride, they just got in. Everyone was friendly.

We saw many White-browed Coucals on the trip. This individual was in Semliki Toro Wildlife Refuge.
Semliki Toro was also where we went on a Chimpanzee trek. We paid $50.oo for the vehicle entry fee, $30.oo per person, per day, park entry fee, $20.oo a day guide fee, and $30.oo per person Chimpanzee Permit.
That's all on top of car rental, and  fuel, lodging, meals, etc. I'm still paying for that trip. The most expensive vacation I have ever taken. Certainly worth every penny.

This chimp ponders the meaning of life from it's leafy perch in a big tree.
This chimp is content to play with a Tamarind seed before eating it. Gary managed to get much better chimp photos than I did.

Semliki Toro was where we first saw the beautiful Red-throated Bee-eaters.
It is also the only place where we saw the wonderful, Red-headed Weavers. Too bad the light was so bad on that day. We really loved our stay in Semliki Toro.

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