Bigodi Wetlands and Farm Hike
Trip Start
Jul 30, 2009
1
10
21
Trip End
Aug 19, 2009
Fort Portal, Kabarole, Uganda
Saturday, August 8, 2009
There are over 100 species of birds living in this area, and the jungle is alive with many distinctive calls, which our guide is very good at imitating. I should take notes about all the various species we see, as I have a hard time remembering the names afterwards. The Hornbills are most dramatic for me, with their huge wingspans and their prehistoric-looking heads.
Black and White Casket Hornbill
Returning to the lodge for lunch, one of the vans hits a sharp rock and needs a tire changed. Several of us decide to strike out walking in order to be able to take photos of the local people more easily. They truly are camera shy here, and can become quite upset when you snap a photo without permission because they believe we are all going to come home and sell their image to make a lot of money, and they get no benefit from it. Our guide is patiently trying to educate them that it is actually very good for them to be photographed because it encourages more tourists to come, which increases the standard of living for everyone with new roads and other infrastructure improvements.
Our van is repaired before we reach a village that I really want to walk through, and we ride the rest of the way back to the lodge for lunch. After lunch several of us take a guided walk through the thousand-acre property attached to the lodge, which is a plantation growing plantains, bananas, papaya, mangoes, and vanilla. Our guide describes the painstaking process required to produce vanilla, and we tour the place where it is processed finally into the two sticks that are inserted into glass tubes and exported to Europe and America. A very arduous undertaking that is capital and labor intensive!
Colobus Monkey
Having walked all the way down the hill from the lodge, I decide to take a motorcycle taxi back up the hill, and enjoy the ride immensely. I'm in time to shower and pack and prepare for tomorrow’s departure before our evening entertainment. Our guides have arranged for some members of the Batoro (of the Toro Kingdom) to sing and dance for us on the lawn of the lodge. It is a delightful presentation, and of course we are all invited to join in a dance with them at the end. Didn’t take long to get me thoroughly winded at this altitude (about 4,000 feet).
Our final dinner at the lodge is fantastic as always, and I get a photo of the dining room so you can get an idea of how romantic this place is by candlelight. I know all of us feel wistful about leaving here tomorrow, but we are looking forward to the adventures ahead.
