We met for breakfast at the unheard of late hour of 7:30. We finally met Brian Finch, our Wings guide, who lives in Kenya, and Paul Tamwenya, our Ugandan birding expert. We also met Cecilia from Toronto, who joined us with Kathy who had flown in with us from Amsterdam.
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| Our room at the Papyrus Guest House |
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| One of our vans |
I had the “Ugandan Breakfast” consisting of a tortilla-like bread wrapped around a Spanish omelet, slightly strange but quite good. We ate on a terrace overlooking the hotel garden and ended up spending a couple of hours there as birds kept flying in to be identified, along with butterflies and lizards. We took a short, very slow, walk around the neighborhood until it was time for lunch. Alan from Wales joined us. Bob and I split a grilled chicken sandwich and a beer as it was quite a warm day.
We were introduced to our van which has six seats so we all can have a window and a pop-up roof for when we go on game drives later in the trip. Getting in and out is not easy, particularly if you are in the rear of the vehicle, so I hope Brian enforces a strict rotation of seating assignments.
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| Wedding party |
We took off for the Entebbe Botanic Gardens which dates back to the mid 1800s and consists mainly of mowed lawn with many huge virgin trees of various species. As it was Saturday afternoon we ran into a wedding with many people in elaborate dresses which they modeled for me!
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| Jack fruit |
The birds came in fast and furiously and I had difficulty keeping up, but I tried to concentrate on a few rather than get totally confused. We saw a pair of beautiful African Grey Parrots, reminding me of Einstein, the Matsumoto’s highly intelligent parrot.
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| Vervet Monkey eating fruit |
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| Nesting African Grey Parrots |
I was pretty exhausted by this time and really wanted to get back to the hotel and relax, but this being a birding trip, we didn’t return until almost 6:30 and people decided that we only needed 30 minutes to get ready for dinner!@$$$^&^*$
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| Lady posing in typical Ugandan fabric |
We cleaned up a bit and headed over to the dining porch where we met Sandra, Alan’s wife, the final member of our group. I ordered a gin and tonic made with Ugandan gin, but either their gin is close to water or the waiter forgot to put any in, but it was so weak I ordered a Nile Supreme beer to have with my veggie curry while Bob had a steak.
After dinner most took part in the “List” in which Brian goes over a list of the expected birds of Uganda and we write down the quantity seen that day by the group. I decide to struggle with my blog finding that Google doesn’t believe who I am...after all these years of blogging!
We then returned to our room to sort out all our Amsterdam clothes and gear as we will leave a suitcase behind at the Papyrus until the end of the trip and just pack what we need for birding as there isn’t a lot of space on the luggage van.
Thanks for posting Katy! Although it might be difficult getting out of the van, I hope it's easier getting in especially if you are in a situation where you must make a horizontal dive, head-first if you're being chased by a gorilla or some other specimen larger than you. Remind me to tell you the Maltese Falcon story and bingo night on the ledges of Malta! Keep us posted and I hope Google becomes better acquainted with you sooner than later. Take care and no tripping other than day-trippin' allowed! XOX
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