Greetings again from this golfing duo. We took time off to travel to Africa for some wonderful wildlife viewing before resuming our 50 state golf trip. The timing was good, as we were ready for a bit of a change, and change we definately got. This was our third trip to Africa, a continent we dearly love, though worry about because of the many social problems. Uganda, however, has done extremely well since ridding itself of that awful Idi Amin fellow, and we felt quite safe in our travels there (though some of the treks we went on were accompanied by guards carrying AK-47s).
So here goes. We left Boston accompanied by our son Jamie who had just finished his OB-Gyn training in Galveston, Texas. We flew coach and he enjoyed business class, thanks to a free ticket. Arriving at Heathrow at about 7 AM, we hopped on the subway for a day sightseeing in London where we took the double-decker for a running commentary of the big sights, including a lot of places where so-and-so was beheaded. Those proper English sure have a history of losing their heads. Anyway, we enjoyed a play in the afternoon, then railed it back to Heathrow in time for the night flight to Entebbe, Uganda.
On arrival, we quickly jumped into our waiting Land Cruiser with our intrepid South African guide, Fraser Gear, plus our driver named Elias, and 3 others on the trip -- Wally and Lois Goldfrank and Lois' sister Sally Howlett, all from California. They were a great bunch, and excellent birders (this was a combination birding/wildlife trip). For 17 days we traveled to a number of national parks and had some fantastic experiences. A brief summary follows:
Floating down the broad Nile River, we were cast adrift when the motor conked out and we didn't have any oars. It was very pleasant watching the hippos and Nile crocs pass by, but we were a bit worried when we realized there were no other boats on the river to rescue us. We drifted to a small island where we tied up, away from the hippos, and called for help on a cell phone. Unfortunately, there were no other boats in working order available. We were marooned. Finally, a small boat came by after about an hour and a half and we were rescued!! Our saviors took us to a great resort across the river where we enjoyed pressed coffee and cookies, then piled into the back of a pickup for a hair-raising ride to the dock in time to catch the ferry. We met up with our waiting vehicle on the other side where we rode into a beautiful Savanna and watched giraffes, cape buffalos, elephants, and lots of ungulates. The day ended with a walk in the wild side to see a Shoebill, a funny-looking rare 3 foot tall bird too ugly to believe. We managed to avoid the hippos and elephants on the hike, but were glad out leader was an experienced trekker in the African wilds.
During the trip we saw over 400 species of birds, plus went on mountain gorilla and chimpanzee treks. The gorillas were huge but relatively placid until the Silverback charged our Ugandan guide (I was standing just behind and was glad he was in front). The chimp trek was quite different, as our little band of hikers was eventually surrounded by about 30 screaming chimps, all running around in a great agitation about something -- probably related to the female in estrus. (In heat). Just prior to this several were directly above us in a tree when we noticed some very unusual and very localized rain coming from the tree above. It landed on our heads, but was falling nowhere else. Hmmm. Monkey pee. Oh well, we didn't mind having the tables turned on us homo sapiens by the chimps. Jamie and Lois were especially anointed.
We are now back in Maine, getting organized for the remaining 23 states with lots of exciting days ahead. They will probably be a bit more sedate than our Uganda experience, but lots of fun anyway, so we will keep you posted.
So here goes. We left Boston accompanied by our son Jamie who had just finished his OB-Gyn training in Galveston, Texas. We flew coach and he enjoyed business class, thanks to a free ticket. Arriving at Heathrow at about 7 AM, we hopped on the subway for a day sightseeing in London where we took the double-decker for a running commentary of the big sights, including a lot of places where so-and-so was beheaded. Those proper English sure have a history of losing their heads. Anyway, we enjoyed a play in the afternoon, then railed it back to Heathrow in time for the night flight to Entebbe, Uganda.
On arrival, we quickly jumped into our waiting Land Cruiser with our intrepid South African guide, Fraser Gear, plus our driver named Elias, and 3 others on the trip -- Wally and Lois Goldfrank and Lois' sister Sally Howlett, all from California. They were a great bunch, and excellent birders (this was a combination birding/wildlife trip). For 17 days we traveled to a number of national parks and had some fantastic experiences. A brief summary follows:
Floating down the broad Nile River, we were cast adrift when the motor conked out and we didn't have any oars. It was very pleasant watching the hippos and Nile crocs pass by, but we were a bit worried when we realized there were no other boats on the river to rescue us. We drifted to a small island where we tied up, away from the hippos, and called for help on a cell phone. Unfortunately, there were no other boats in working order available. We were marooned. Finally, a small boat came by after about an hour and a half and we were rescued!! Our saviors took us to a great resort across the river where we enjoyed pressed coffee and cookies, then piled into the back of a pickup for a hair-raising ride to the dock in time to catch the ferry. We met up with our waiting vehicle on the other side where we rode into a beautiful Savanna and watched giraffes, cape buffalos, elephants, and lots of ungulates. The day ended with a walk in the wild side to see a Shoebill, a funny-looking rare 3 foot tall bird too ugly to believe. We managed to avoid the hippos and elephants on the hike, but were glad out leader was an experienced trekker in the African wilds.
During the trip we saw over 400 species of birds, plus went on mountain gorilla and chimpanzee treks. The gorillas were huge but relatively placid until the Silverback charged our Ugandan guide (I was standing just behind and was glad he was in front). The chimp trek was quite different, as our little band of hikers was eventually surrounded by about 30 screaming chimps, all running around in a great agitation about something -- probably related to the female in estrus. (In heat). Just prior to this several were directly above us in a tree when we noticed some very unusual and very localized rain coming from the tree above. It landed on our heads, but was falling nowhere else. Hmmm. Monkey pee. Oh well, we didn't mind having the tables turned on us homo sapiens by the chimps. Jamie and Lois were especially anointed.
We are now back in Maine, getting organized for the remaining 23 states with lots of exciting days ahead. They will probably be a bit more sedate than our Uganda experience, but lots of fun anyway, so we will keep you posted.
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