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 "THE BEAUTY OF PARAA" Stepping inside Paraa Safari Lodge you are instantly swept back to
the early explorer era. The maps, pictures and equipment of those bygone
times adorn the walls and tables of the lodge, lending it the feel of
an old hunting lodge. There is no hunting these days, however, I am
pleased to add. "PARAA'S SHORT AND SWEET WEDDING" They did not say anything. Just a quick look, an exchange of rings,
a kiss, and Annick and Kristoff were married. After that they lit a
candle each, and then jointly lit a third one. "PARAA LODGE HOSTS UNIQUE WEDDING" Belgian citizens Annick and Kristoff De Graeve were married in a unique
wedding ceremony at the Paraa Safari Lodge in the Murchison National
Park on Saturday afternoon. "FROM THE ASHES OF PARAA, A BIGGER, BETTER LODGE IS BORN" Built in the early 1950s, Paraa, meaning the place of hippos in Luo,
was one of the main attractions of the park, in addition to the dramatic
Murchison Falls and the large variety of bird and animal species. Winston
Churchill walked the 85 kilometres from Masindi to see it. The explorer
Samuel Baker wrote of "a magnificent sight" suddenly bursting
upon his party. Other famous visitors to the park were Emin Pasha, Theodore
Roosevelt and the American novelist Ernest Hemingway, whose plane dipped
to catch sight of the Murchison Falls, went too low and caught a telephone
wire and crashed. By MICHAEL GAVIN " ( New York Times - July 1st , 2004 ) MY wife, Jen, and I both work in environmental conservation, and we have been living in western Uganda for over a year now. On short forays we have explored many of the region's national parks. The country continually amazes us with its extraordinary diversity of rare flora and fauna and of landscapes: rain forest, classic African savannas and snow-capped mountains. Six of Uganda's 10 national parks are found in the western region. These protected areas vary in size and in the wildlife-viewing possibilities they offer, but nearly all of Uganda's most charismatic species, from lions to mountain gorillas, can be found here. In the minds of many, Uganda is still inextricably linked to Idi Amin and the horrors of his regime. However, under the current president, Yoweri Museveni, who gained power in 1986, the country is recovering and is now considered one of sub-Saharan Africa's more stable countries. Uganda today is not without its problems, including a longstanding conflict with rebel insurgents in the north and sporadic fighting across the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Still, much of the country is considered safe, and the national parks are all protected by armed rangers. Any trip to Uganda starts and ends in Kampala, the capital city, where the brain struggles to comprehend the ferocity of certain juxtapositions. A leper begs for change next to a businessman on a cellphone. Giant marabou storks with ungodly wattles perch atop shimmering blue high-rise buildings. Kampala, with a population of just over one million, is also a microcosm of the country's deep cultural diversity and is the jumping-off point for any trip ''up-country.'' Jen and I live in a small cabin at a biological research station on the edge of Kibale National Park. On weekends we jump in our old 4x4 Suzuki Samurai and head out to explore the region's other national parks. We have come to enjoy the great diversity of options. In the forest parks we can hire a ranger or join a group on a guided hike. Out on the savanna we drive by ourselves, following the well-established game tracks with rarely another vehicle in sight. We have come to know several of the parks quite well after so many visits, but still, when we are searching out rare and elusive species like leopards and lions, we take a ranger on board to show us the way. Rangers generally have an intimate knowledge of the parks and can serve as informative guides. Our first visit to a Ugandan national park was to the home of the country's wildlife superstars. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, in the southwestern corner of the country, protects roughly half of the world's remaining mountain gorillas. The 700 or so gorillas left in the wild are restricted to the volcanic hills in the Rwanda-Uganda-Democratic Republic of the Congo border region and have suffered greatly with the expansion of agriculture into their habitat and the civil unrest that has periodically swept the area. The violence affected Bwindi directly when in 1999 Rwandan-based Hutu extremists murdered eight tourists there. With Uganda's increased political stability and improved security measures, Bwindi has once again become a premier location in East Africa to view these highly endangered animals. Just getting to Bwindi can be half the adventure. In the small, bustling town of Kabale the pavement ends. The rutted road winds up into the highlands where water cascades across the track and precipitous drops flank narrow passes. The thick curtain of vegetation that has given Bwindi its reputation as the impenetrable forest rises abruptly from the patchwork of farms that dominate nearby hillsides. Three groups of six visitors depart from park headquarters each day to visit three different groups of gorillas that are used to visitors. According to the park's guides, the trip can be a quick 10-minute stroll or an all-day trek up and down jungle-choked slopes. Regardless of the hike's length, though, the result is usually awe inspiring. A face-to-face encounter with a baby gorilla somersaulting down a hillock or the earthshaking force of a 350-pound silverback's mock charge is never forgotten. Just a short distance from Bwindi, the world is a whole other place. The ominous whoo-up of hyenas and the deep thunderous roar of lions replace the nocturnal chorus of forest insects. At the southern tip of Queen Elizabeth National Park, a 965-square-mile protected area, lies an area known as Ishasha, a little-visited place where the magic of the African savanna can be soaked up in peace. The roads are rough in this part of Uganda, and after an unexpected, but not so uncommon, flat tire, we arrived in Ishasha late in the afternoon. With a park guard to guide the way, it did not take long to find lions. Ishasha's big cats have made a name for themselves by discovering a unique way to escape the pesky flies and heat of the plains. They climb trees! We spent a good hour ogling two adult females and three young cubs lounging about in a stately old fig tree. Not a single other safari vehicle was in sight. We celebrated our luck with a sundown drive along the river, marveling at the deft fishing abilities of the many pied kingfishers and pausing to allow an elephant family amble across the road. Ishasha does not have much to offer in the way of lodging, but roughing it a bit has its distinct rewards. We stayed in a small thatched-roof brick hut and kicked back around the campfire stoked up for us by the park staff. Returning from our enormous meal of rice, beans and avocado salad at the park's canteen, we gazed at the stars and listened to the calls of carnivores rousing themselves for a night of hunting. Through acacia-studded grasslands, another jolting ride brought us to the northern sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park. Jacana Lodge's eight rustic cabins sit along the shores of an ancient crater lake and provide a tranquil base from which to explore. Jacana is an attractive open-air multitiered wooden lodge built on a steep bank. The pool, fireside couches, and hammocks provide ample comfort. We spent a day hiking in the forest near the lodge and visiting the bat cave. Fruit bats line every square inch of the rocky walls, and pythons as thick as my thighs sleep on the cave floor feasting on bats every now and again. Back at the lodge we splurged for a dinner on the launch, a small flat-bottom boat, equipped with a single table, that cruises out onto the middle of Jacana Lake. Our three-course meal, a delicious pumpkin soup followed by a fish fillet and a local banana fritter dessert, was accompanied by the grunt of leopards and the raucous hoots of chimpanzees from the forested hills across the lake. Our final stop in the northern sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park was the Mweya peninsula where a long tongue of land juts out between the Kazinga Channel and Lake Edward. The wildlife here is still in recovery from the years of war, but Mweya is worth the trip just for the views. On the veranda of the Mweya Safari Lodge with waragi (a banana-based drink that is Uganda's answer to gin) and tonics in hand, we stared out across the shimmering surface of the lake to the high peaks on the Congolese border. One of the larger modern lodges in Uganda, Mweya has all the comforts. The restaurant's menu is extensive (pizza and Peruvian ceviche), the bar is well-stocked and there is a pool. On our most recent visit, a band of mongooses paraded through the bar, warthogs mowed the lawn, and a flock of weaver birds tried to steal popcorn from the tables of unwary guests. The highlights of our game drives included two-week-old lion cubs stumbling after their mother, two leopards and more than 40 elephants. We spent the afternoon floating down the channel toward Lake Edward on a 40-passenger open-sided ferryboat. A baby hippo rested its plump chin on its mother's substantial back. A herd of Cape buffalo grazed high on the banks, and water birds dominated the shores -- the lanky goliath heron, the saddle-billed stork with its fiery orange beak, tiny neon blue malachite kingfishers and a legion of hamerkops stealing from the nets of local fishermen. The headquarters of Ruwenzori Mountains National Park are only a two-hour drive north of Lake Edward. The Ruwenzoris form the Congolese border, and the government recently reopened the park following the departure of rebel factions that had frequented the area. If mountains could be called elusive, the Ruwenzoris would certainly qualify. For most of the year these mountains with peaks above 16,000 feet remain shrouded in mist, invisible from even a short distance, but their place in the history of African geography is quite prominent. As early as 150 A.D. the Roman geographer Ptolemy believed the source of the Nile lay in the yet unseen ''mountains of the moon.'' Later, Henry Morton Stanley, the explorer and journalist sent to find Dr. David Livingston's African expedition, claimed these were in fact the Ruwenzoris, a new mountain chain he had ''disco |
