Awesome African Adventure. Day 14-April 22, 2025

Wilson’s Safari – Queen Elizabeth NP/Lion Experience.  

NB: Today’s post is Rated M for mature audiences and contains sex scenes.

I’m also taking a different approach to posting. First up will be all the picture and captions for the day, followed by the longer commentary. Please let me know what you think!

Now here’s the blow by blow story of our day…

Up at 5:15am. It was hot sleeping last night. Suzie, Phil and Mary had a poor nights sleep. I didn’t fare too badly. The room has a huge fan, so Suzie and I pulled back the mozzie nets so the fan could blow across us. Power went out twice so no fan till I switched it back on.

While standing with Chris, our security escort to breakfast, Suzie and Chris and I saw THE LONGEST SHOOTING/FALLING star I’ve ever seen. It left a lingering long tail across a dark starry sky. (And for the camping crew, yes it was confirmed by three of us).

Breakfast was a little late arriving this morning and Wilson was waiting to leave at 7:20 for our Lion experience.

I tried Millet Porridge and it looked like brown goop, pretty tasteless till I added my fresh fruits and mashed the banana in – thanks to Mary for the banana tip.

We were greeted by a heard of Water Bucks as we departed the lodge. There was a Piapiac little black bird too and a White Browed Coucal

QE NP has 11 villages within the park.

We crossed the Kazinga Channel into Katanguru Village.

Hamerkop feeding on roadkill, but so far elusive to photograph.

We arrived at the Lion Research Centre to sign in and pick up James, our researcher. There were at least half a dozen other vehicles.

We headed out into the NP grasslands.

James had an antenna and little walkie talkie like gadget attached. He was scanning for the collared animals – namely Lions. We drove a way along the roads and tracks. Then we turned off onto the grasslands guided by James.

Soon after we circled around and stopped beside a huge lion. He was alone. He was stunning and just chilling while we watched and all our cameras were clicking.

Then we drove onto another pair.

Wilson and James shared so much info I hope I can do it justice.

Lion gestation is about 4 months, they give birth to 1-6 cubs. The females don’t conceive until the cubs are old enough to fend for themselves.

In 2019 two of the ejected older lion cubs came back into the area to kill all the cubs, not to eat, just to kill.

Other threats to the lion cubs include disease, humans, and leopards.

Hyenas will feed on the cubs.

Humans are the worst. The villagers within the community are fishermen and farmers. The lions can kill the livestock and then farmers will kill the lions.

The two lions we parked beside were Kyeni and Larissa. They were resting ready to mate.
Larissa got up and gave all the messages but Kyeni was too dumb to read the play. So they both lay down again. No show, so we moved on.

Wilson pays a registration to get offroad and out around the lions (we paid too). The other 17 vehicles are limited to the track. We drove around one lone male, and two mating pairs. We were too close for our big lens! Within 6 metres. Amazing.

We moved onto another pair (Kiarna and brother to Kyeni) and went around the back of them to get the best light. James was sensational at directing Wilson to the best views. There were 17 vehicles watching from the road and we are within 5 metres of the lions. Up close and personal. This pair were resting and then did a quick mate before going back to resting. And yes we are now producers of lion porn.

The collars used to track the lions cost $3500-$4000USD and Kyeni was collared in December and the battery is dead. I’d be activating the guarantee on this device!

This area has 4 breeding males in this large area. Any challenging males are beaten up by these four.

We drove for quite a while cross country. James was finding something interesting while Wilson was juggling 3 phones to arrange our chimpanzee tracking for tomorrow.

Eventually we came upon Grace, a 15 year old leopard. She has been collared since April 16 2019. James knows all of this off the top of his head. He directed Wilson around hyena holes and all other hazards to get us within a metre or two of Grace who was resting in the morning sunshine.

While cruising around the plains we saw many other critters.

Water buffalo – 2 males, one wallowing in the mud.

We saw some mongoose, but they dive and bounce through the grass – hard to capture.

Quite a few herds of Ugandan Cob and Water Buck. All stunning.

A large male elephant, now called Phil. We got so close we can’t quite believe it.

Warthogs and elephants. So many critters- we are really in Africa. The whole experience is surreal.

James is tracking something with the aerial and directing Wilson through the grasslands along the way to something special. We also saw:

Savannah Monitor.

Black bellied bustard.

The landscape itself is captivating and then the wildlife keeps appearing. Birds are fluttering everywhere. Butterflies flitting. So much to see.

The antenna James is carrying has a reach of 8km. Turns out he is attempting to show us Grace’s daughter. But he was not able to get a trace on her collar. They are worried that she has been killed or the collar is dead. She has a cub so doubly worrying.

We headed up towards the Mountains to get to a higher elevation. It’s all a bit mysterious as most of James’ directions are in Ugandan.

I have poll position – my turn for front seat. Suzie’s in the back this morning. So gets the front this arvo.

As we drive James is excited he has tracked her again right beside the blacktop I think. Nope. We are on the blacktop and the leopard is still a bit of a way off to the left.

Each collar has a different frequency that James can tune into.

We found her. I spotted her behind a bush. Shan, 6 yo daughter of Grace. She was in hunting mode (not resting) so no cub, they would be hidden elsewhere. She was so sleek and stealthy. She came straight at us and almost under the car. Circled us, looking at Elephants behind us. Then back into the bushes again. Simply sensational.

Then it was back to the gate to drop James off and back to the lodge. What a morning!!!

Saw a Palmnut Vulture. Wilson pulled over and backed back for us.

Tipped and dropped James back to the gate at 11.05. A damn good mornings research for him and an indescribable privilege for us.

Wilson explained that James is paid by Wilson, and Wilson always opts to contribute to the community as well. The research project gets no govt funding it’s all by donations. James has been working here for the past 23 years.

As is standard we had to order our lunches at breakfast. Back to Buffalo Lodge for Lunch at 12. Wilson wants to head off again at 1.00.

We arrived early so Wilson set departure for our arvo boat cruise for 12:40.

There were elephants in the grasslands in front of the resort pool, along with buck and boar. The elephant had been right up on the grass in front of balcony earlier on.

Suzie and I shared a chicken breast stuffed with vegies and a beetroot hummus dip. Dessert was a delicious Orange Mousse.

Then Wilson had us off again, out through the village over the Kazinga channel to our boat. Once again there was plenty to see on the way.

Yet more elephants. Bigger herds with some babies and the more aggressive teenagers.

Lake Edward is shared between Uganda and the Congo. The Bazinga Channel connecting them is 45kms long.

The trip out to our boat cruise was full of elephant herds and warthogs and buck, a crested eagle, some monkeys and the views to a storm approaching over the Bazinga Channel.

We drove into a lodge. In 1952 the Queen visited and stayed in the Royal Cottage near the gate. While visiting Uganda she learned of her father’s passing.

We were required to register at the gate and again into the Mweya Lodge. Just as the rain hit. The guard told us it wouldn’t last long.

Into reception for the loo. Then back in to look at the views as the boat won’t leave in the rain.

On leaving we saw a Nile Monitor splayed in front, getting heat from the roadway.

The Kazinga channel has the highest concentration of Hippo’s in the world. They are nocturnal spending the day in the water to avoid the heat and coming out to graze at night. Evidently there was one in our resort next to the restaurant and car park at 3 am this morning.

Our Boat guide today was Yasim. He was very knowledgeable and we’ve tried to keep track of what we learnt. Over 3000 hippos call this area home. The channel is up to 8m deep.
2 hour cruise.

We saw:
so many birds today starting with a huge group including Grey Gulls from Europe, Red Beaked African Skimmer, Black Headed Tern, Yellow-Billed Stork.
More African Water Buffalo,
Nile Crocodile – second biggest after Australia’s.
Black-Winged Slilt, African Spoonbill, (feeds by moving beak in the water in a zig zag fashion)
Grey-Headed Heron. Elephants – two young males. They are excellent swimmers and can cross the channel very fast. Poor vision, always see in Black and White and excellent sense of smell.

Hippos sleep together is social groups called a school of hippos. During the day they rest in readiness for 5-10km walk during the night to forage and feed.

Nile Monitors raid the kingfisher nests, also eat crocodile eggs.

The Female Sea Eagle is bigger the male.

Loser water buffalo been kicked out of the herd and there were several groups of loser males along the shores today.

Albino Female hippo and calf. Gestation 8 months. Mother always moves away from the group with Male calf as other males will kill it. The mother and calf separate from the group for 2-3 months in order to determine the sex.

Malachite Kinfisher just sat and posed. Yasim had the boat lease ha. A metre away.

Hadada Ibis and Red-Billed Stork.

Hippos are poor swimmers so
they stay by the edge to walk and run. They can hold their breath for 5-6 minutes.

Hippos hang in a school led by an alpha male in groups of up to 25.
The babies can hold their breath for one to two minutes.

Black-Winged Stilts.

The fisherman of Bazinga Village fish at night when the hippo’s are grazing.

Saddle Billed Stork.

Biggest heron in the world- the Goliath Heron.

Back to shore and Wilson poured us a G&T and a beer for Phil.

While driving back we saw yet more critters
Grey- Headed Kingfisher
Red-Billed Hornbill
Young African Rock Python – so well spotted by Suzie.

We returned, exhausted, to the resort around 5:30, just as the rains came again (a short lived shower). We dumped our gear and were set to charge all our devices and batteries (only to have no power at the resort)

Into the lounge we went to review and download pics.

Then to dinner at 7:30 – our meal tonight- Caesar Salad, Smoked Beef, curried vegetables and rice and finished off with Chia Pudding Custard. All quite yum.

Then to rooms to prep for our Chimp experience in the morning.