Awesome African Adventure. Day 19-April 27, 2025 by

Murchison Falls NP to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary and on to Entebbe.

A big day of travel and the continuing saga of Kenya Airlines complications.

Alarms set for 5am. We need our bags packed and at reception by 5:40. Breaky at 5:45 and departure by 6:40.

Our plans were foiled however by a ‘no show’ by Steven our Security escort. We waited 30 minutrs to be collected to walk to breakfast. We blew our ‘safety’ whistles but no response. Eventually a fella came and explained Steven was sick. (There is no way to make contact with staff – no phone etc)
Anyway we left about 10 minutes late – Wilson wasn’t too stressed but he and Suzie are not fans of this lodge – no power in rooms or wi-fi and no Tonic!

Baboons on the road in large groups on many occasions. They do get off – excellent road sense. Wilson explained you can’t hit them. As kids they used slingshots to scare them away but the Baboons were very good at moving out of the way of the rock shot.

Our MFNP permits expire at 9am so we need to be out of the park, while maintaining 40km speed limit and slowing (slightly) for Baboons.

Saw many people (mainly women and children all dressed for Church) waking along the roadside. All the roadside shops and stalls are open on a Sunday.

Through Masindi and passed the prison. Lots of men in bright yellow, doing hard labour too some of them.

Water is not ‘on tap’ here. People are walking, riding bikes both motor and human powered carrying empty Jerry cans (plastic) and varied water containers to community watering points. Then big lines waiting to fill from a slow tap/tank/or sometimes a hand pump. It seems some is filtered water, some rain and some bore water. The kids carry 20 litres. Women carrying 20 on their head and more. Such hard yakka just for clean water that we take for granted (and whinge about the cost!!!)

The Toyota Troop Carrier which has been our ‘Safari Truck’ has power and USB points on board but their operability has been patchy. Thankfully they worked yesterday when our cameras were going OFF left right and centre and no power at the Lodge. The chargers are working again today so we are good to go for Rhino Sanctuary

We passed over the River Kafu which flows West to East and joins the Nile 4 kms away. (East to West is unusual/wrong way)

At the Ziwa Ranch Sanctuary we met our Rhino Guide – Nelson. He briefed us before departure. Explaining that Rhinos were declared extinct in UG in 1983 after poachers and hunting killed them. Ziwa was established in 2001 to provide a sanctuary and try to rebuild Uganda’s population. The owner is an Ugandan man and the Government also are part of it. Nelson explained there are 80 guards working around the clock protect the 48 Rhinos in Ziwa. To date they have lost ZERO rhinos to poachers. The Chinese still covet the Rhino horn (believing that it provides sexual stamina) which is actually keratin – so the same benefit might come from chewing your nails!!!!

The rangers are out tracking the Rhino families so Nelson led us walking for about 30 minutes through scrubby woodlands and through some swampy patches following Rhino path.
We did see some of Suzie’s favourite starling – a Rüppell’s Long-tailed Starlings.

On the way in we saw:
Lizard Buzzard
Euphobia ( cactus tree) the sap is no good for eyesight it can send you blind.

After picking our way across a couple of swampy wet bits we came upon a group of 11 rhinos.
Enguzo was a younger male standing in the shade, then lay down for a rest.
Augusto is the Alpha male 15 years old, he strode in a stood apart from the others
9 rhinos moving from grazing into the shade to rest.
Augusto has wallowed in the mud to cool off and is not so much in the shade as the mud protects from the sun.
Augusto wants to mate but the female is not ready so he remains distant for 3 weeks until she is ready. The group has a number of young males who are not yet ready to challenge Augusto.
These guys are resting in the shade. They eat 65kgs of short grass per day. Runs 40km an hour and the Males weigh 2.7-3 tonnes. (The same as a Melbourne Tram)
Babies are fed milk to 4 months and grow quickly in first 12 months.

While we were standing nearby taking pictures of the herd resting there was a bit of movement and Nelson was very quick to hurry us behind a convenient hillock of dirt. Enguzo the first young male we saw (slightly distanced from the herd) was planning to make moves on Augusto, Augusto was putting Enguzo in his place and the whole herd was alerted and restless, so we basically had to hide.
We had so much opportunity to watch and learn. There was a one year old male calf (55) being hidden/protected by the herd, we only got glimpses of him.

On return to the starting point we asked Nelson to show us
Augusto
Waribe with calf 55
Sonic
Zawadi gift in Swahili
Nguzo
Kageri
Armijin
Noelle
Apache

Lunch at Martelle Cafe at a Servo. Very nice Margarita and Iced Vanilla Latte. Our last lunch with Wilson.

About 3 hours back to Entebbe from here but Sunday can be hectic on main roads in Kampala so we zig zagged across.

Wilson explained that we drove on the longest straight stretch in Uganda about 15kms.

Luwero a big city

Then hell broke loose. Keith was on What’s App at 3:49 telling me that we were ‘screwed’ as Uganda Airlines has cancelled our flights for tomorrow. From there for the next hour we were in constant communication- Keith on chat with Kenya Airlines, us trying the Kenya Airlines app, Wilson phoning a contact who got us a number for me to call using his phone, which promptly ran out of credit. Then they wouldn’t answer. All of this while negotiating Sunday traffic through Kampala in a storm. It was totally FULL ON. Anyway Keith’s chat buddy found some options and we are now leaving Entebbe for Nairobi at 3:50am tomorrow with a connecting flight to Kilimanjaro at 8am. Sweet!!
Wilson got us safely through Kampala and back to Boma about 6pm where Suzie had a much awaited shower and hair wash, as we’d had no access to good shower and hairdryer for four days.
We went straight to dinner then back to pack, shower and grab a couple of hours sleep.