Monday 5 October 2009

Photos from Lake Mburo

Lake Mburo is a small national park about an hour and a half's drive from Mbarara on the way to Kampala. Below are photos from my trip there in September - the VSO cluster meeting for our area was held there and it was also a goodbye trip for 2 volunteers who were leaving a few weeks later.



A very large baboon near where we were seated having breakfast


Waterhogs have got to be one of the ugliest creatures, but at the same time there's something quite cute and amusing about them!

Skull of a water buffalo

Lake Mburo is one of only two places in Uganda where it's possible to see zebras, and there are lots of them here. Many people had told me that they can often be stopped from the road when driving to and from Kampala, but I've never been lucky enough to see them, until last week when I saw them going and coming from Kampala on the bus.

This is a crested crane, the national bird of Uganda - it appears on the national flag and the national emblem. I saw this one outside of the park - I had thought they were quite rare, but have seen quite a few of them since. They're the most amazing looking bird. I'm not much of a 'twitcher' but Uganda is certainly the place to come if bird watching floats your boat.

Traditional long-horned Ankole cows -they're very common but they still amaze me everytime I see them

The tented hut in the park, I shared with another volunteer - it was pretty basic, just 2 single beds with mozzie nets, the communal toilets and shower facility were in a separate building beyond the tents. The camp fire in the background was lit for us by one of the rangers - it keeps away animals such as wart hogs or hippos, we also sat around it after supper having a few beers.

View of the park and lake

Some of the volunteers getting ready to go on a quad bike safari, they said it was great fun. I decided to sit it out on a big comfy sofa in one of the park lodges with a fresh glass of mango juice!

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