Great Lakes

16 June 2001 - 20 July 2001

General Information

Introduction
Setting up the Landrover
Travel Documentation
Reference Books
Guides
Currencies
Impressions of countries
Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION

This trip was almost exclusively dedicated to birding. I was basically returning to areas I had previously visited, while adding a couple of extra special spots - and trying a different route. Overall it was highly successful, with a couple of interesting moments - as so often happens. This introduction is (relatively) short, since my previous one to Ethiopia was very comprehensive - and I have added new information here if anything changed.

I need to emphasize that this trip report is primarily for my own use in future, so I can check on what went wrong (or even right), and how I did things.

Setting up the Landrover

My previous Landrover did not really survive the previous Ethiopian trip, and was retired after nearly 18 years faithful service. I managed to buy a 3-year old Defender 130 with only 50 000 km on the clock. Over the last few months this was slowly "converted" to my needs. Basically this involved the removal of the back seats (the 130 is a double-cab, giving loads of space for a freezer and other more fragile items (telescope - and my library). The back was covered by an "Armadillo" roller-shutter, that ensure everything stored there was locked and out of sight. Finally, I mounted the roof-top tent on a steel frame above the back - giving me plenty of access into the covered area, but not raising the total height of the vehicle above the standard roof level. However, at the last minute I fitted a roof-rack as well (it came with the vehicle) but I never used it.

The vehicle had a front mounted electric winch - which was never used. I mounted a second spare wheel one the rear of the vehicle above the tow-hitch, which did not affect visibility at all. The vehicle has the 2.5 Turbo Diesel TDi engine, with an extra 100 litre tank in addition to the standard 80 litres. This turned out to be invaluable. I found a range of 1 500 km was easily achievable, so was able to fill up in Messina, and still have plenty of fuel left in Lusaka - hence not needing to worry about the fuel shortage in Zimbabwe.

I carried 4 Cadac gas cylinders, two mounted between the tent and the cab, and two in the rear. In fact, I never needed more than 2. I carried 6 15 litre water containers, which was just right for the trip - although it would be much easier to fit a proper stainless steel tank.

Travel Documentation

Carrying a South African passport and the AA carnet made life very easy crossing borders. The only problem was that the company who arranged the visas mixed up my Rwandan and Tanzania ones, getting me a multiple re-entry visa for Rwanda, while only a single entry visa for Tanzania. In the end it did not matter since I managed to use the single Tanzanian visa twice.

Reference Books

The key new book obtained for the trip was "Where to Watch birds in Uganda" by Jonathan Rossouw and Marco Sacchi. This was excellent, although was somewhat out of date in a couple of instances - and not always accurate. However, it is still one of the best guide books for a single country I have ever encountered.

Also invaluable were Claude Chappuis's new 15 disk set "African Bird Sounds" comprised of volume 1 "North-West Africa, Canaria and Cap-Verde Islands" of 4 CD's and volume 2 "West and Central Africa" of 11 CDs. Combined with Guy Gibbons 6 cassette set, this gives coverage of over 1 800 species. Curiously, this leaves only East Africa without comprehensive audio coverage.

Unlike my trip to Ethiopia, use of tapes was extensive, because so many of the forest birds would never be visible without calling them. However, most of the really exciting finds were seen without tapes - but I imagine that over 100 species were seen that would otherwise have only been heard.

Guides

I was very fortunate to have arranged the services of Alfred Twinomujuni to accompany me on the majority of the Ugandan part of the trip. His knowledge of forest birds and their calls was quite extraordinary - and without him I would have not been able to identify half the birds seen and heard. What also made the experience more fun was that he had not travelled extensively throughout Uganda before, so he got nearly as many lifers as myself on the trip - but his were centred around Moroto and Kidepo, and we found Fox's Weaver - Uganda's only endemic species - a lifer for both of us.

I can strongly recommend him, and I believe his partner Herbert Byaruhanga is also just as good - although he specializes more on the savanna birds rather than the forest species. Both can be contacted via e-mail at ugandabirdguides@hotmail.com or Herbert can be contacted on his cell phone (assuming he is not out guiding) on +256 (0)77 518290. However, he is most likely to answer in the evening (Uganda time, of course).

I also used Alex Mwinga (contactable via sokoke@africaonline.co.ke), who was excellent on the Sokoke and Malindi birds on the Kenyan East Coast.

Currencies

Currency table
As of mid-June 2001

NB: obviously the above will be out-of-date, but it should give indications of what sort of rates exist.

Impressions of the countries

Little changed in the countries I had previously travelled through and reported on the Ethiopian trip. However, some additional comments are worth noting.

Zimbabwe

Much has been in the media about the state of the country, but on driving through, there was no outward sign of any problems at all. The one time I needed diesel, it was available.

Kenya

The state of Kenyan roads and the standard of driving has not improved.

I was very disappointed by the guide - called Patrick - at the National Parks Board campsite at Kakamega, with whom I arranged to go birding on the following day. The next morning he decided not to take me because another group had arrived, and he would get more tips if he went with them - so he arranged for a guard to take me - who knew nothing of birds. I would not advise making any arrangements with Patrick.

The other major problem for any non-resident independent traveller is the new "smart card" system used by the Kenyan National Parks Board. It has been carefully designed to ensure that it will cause you as much inconvenience as humanly possible. BEFORE entering a national park, you must first go to the SINGLE pay-point (for each park or group of parks) where must pay the EXACT park fees for your WHOLE stay - if you don’t know how long you want to stay, you will have to leave the park and return to the pay-point to buy another smart-card. To give a couple of examples. If you wish to visit Tsavo East NP, and you are in Malindi, you cannot enter the park from the east although there is a gate nearby. You must first drive 400 km through Mombasa to reach Voi on the western edge of the park to pay, before entering. For the Aberdare NP (assuming you go to the camping area, not the Ark), you cannot enter from Naivasha, but must drive several hundred kilometres round to reach Nyeri, where you pay. If you pay for one night and decide to stay another night, you must leave the park, drive the 40 odd kilometres to Nyeri, pay again, before returning. What would happen if you stayed an extra night, and expect to pay the extra fee on leaving, I haven’t a clue - their system doesn’t handle this. To be quite blunt, it is now best to avoid Kenyan national parks if you are not a resident or travelling with a local tour company - although even they seem to have endless problems with cards "losing" their data - and hence all the money loaded on the card.

Rwanda

I was quite amazed by this country which has suffered so much during the early 90's with nearly 20% of their population having been slaughtered in the country's genocide. I have rarely found such a friendly and pleasant people, and there were no outward signs of tensions. The only problems I experienced were entirely my own fault - i.e. I do not speak French, and virtually no-one there speaks English.

This is a seriously good birding destination, and would become more so if more people would visit. The programs run by organizations such as the Wildlife Society to train guides are going to fail if there are no people to guide. On this topic I expressed my concern over a variety of internet list-servers, and received a wide range of support from many - with only a few dissenting opinions. One development was that Brian Unwin, a free-lance journalist carried out further research, and the result was published in the Daily Telegraph in the UK. Later still I published a paper on the topic in the IUCN Parks Joutrnal.

Uganda

Since my last visit to Uganda in 1994, there have been incredible developments - most notable in the capital, Kampala. This city has not only grown in size and economic activity, but was cleaner and less congested than before - a very rare development in Africa. I can see it overtaking Nairobi as the business capital of eastern Africa in the near future - certainly most services (phones, etc) seemed much better run than in Nairobi.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the apparent peacefulness of the elections - normally a time to avoid any country - and not just in Africa. However, although I was in the area most likely to have suffered from severe intimidation of voters, again there were no outward signs of this.

As with Rwanda, the dearth of tourists was very concerning.

Acknowledgements

Several people provided me information both before and during the trip, especially David Moyer, Andy Plumtre, Bruce Hills, Colin Jackson & Jonathan Rossouw. Special thanks are also due to Ian Munanura, who assisted me so much in Rwanda. Obviously my most profound thanks must go to Alfred Twinomujuni for acting as my guide for the trip - and my apologies to Rod Cassidy who was hoping to have Alfred guide for him!

As before, if I can assist anyone who is planning such a trip, I will be most willing to help with advice, and can be contacted by E-mail on birds@4-siteplanning.com