Adventures with Julia

Continuation of Monday, April 2,  2018 

The public space at Mikena Lodge

Back at Mikena Lodge, we cleaned up and had breakfast and free time until 11am.  The neighborhood Blue and Colobus monkeys were very busy dropping fruit and shit from the trees overhead.  Our table was the recipient of the latter during breakfast.

A Blue monkey with full cheeks.

A Colobus monkey. They have long white tails that would make good dusters.

Our plan for the day was to fly north up the western Rift Valley to Lake Edward and go for a game drive.  We lift off at 11am and enjoy a fun fight up the valley. 

A lovely white water spring creek.

A clear spring water course with a small rapid.

Hamish flies low, banking tightly over small crooked rivers of fresh water from numerous springs and between the trees giving us close up views of crystal clear cascading waterfalls. 

We weaved our way along the water course.

Following the water below the tree tops.

We cannot wipe the smiles of delight off our faces.  Watching closely, we spot the odd hippo with just its nose and eyes breaking the surface.  The spring water gives way to a brown river and soon we are flying up the eastern side of Lake Edward. 

A parade of elephant leaving the lake shore.

A herd of buffalo.

Midway up lake we spot elephant and buffalo from the air and land in the far northern part of Virunga National Park, where we have now been since we left Goma.   

A male Cobb standing proud, curious and unafraid.

A female Cobb with three large wart hogs.

Eric, our  guide with a Land Rover picks us up and off we go looking for birds and game and a place to have the lunch we brought from Mikena Lodge.  

A fairly common Spur Lap Wing.

We spot water buck,

A male Water Buck

Spur Lap Wing birds and, a new one for me,  the little pale-brown shore bird with an orange head and bright, white eye stripes, called Burchell’s courser. 

A Burchell’s courser.

It is very warm in the valley and the spot we had planned for lunch had been taken over by a swarm of bees so the only other shade the guide would consider for a lunch sight is the Kyangoro Ranger Station, where 22 rangers live while they protect Virunga Park from poachers. 

A ranger guard keeping an eye on our truck.

Conditions are not very comfortable, but the rangers don’t seem to mind.  We eat a delicious lunch of medium-rare, beef tenderloin, potato salad, fresh greens and beer in a round, wooden dining structure.  Once outside the station enclosure, our guide drives off road looking for animals in the flat, open grassland.   

Topi. We have never seen so many in one place.

The most unexpected and prolific animal we see is a large, coffee colored antelope called Topi.  We have seen a few of them in our travels through African game parks, but never in large numbers.   Here we saw several herds of them with many babies.  They are a very pretty animal. 

Saddle Billed Stork. Good looking birds that are easy to spot.

We spotted a large saddle-billed stork standing in a small water hole, large herds of buffalo, several families of wart hog; groups of small, tan colored Cobb antelope and a few elephant in the distance. 

Cape buffalo keeping an eye on us.

We are surprised that the animals were not very disturbed by our vehicle. 

A baby surrounded by a protective family.

They did not run way from us the way they had in Zakouma National Park in Chad.  Gradually we make it to the Ishasha River, near the edge of the lake, in search of hippo.  We see well over a hundred of them lounging in small pods in the shallow water.  We get the hoped for grunts and groans from them and a few move about and pose for us.   

A hippo giving us the evil eye.

Wow! A hippo and a buffalo keeping company.

But not for long. This is the hippo’s domain.

Although we are told there are cats and other predators in the park, we see none.   The park is in a slow recovery after years of uninterrupted poaching during the war years. It is clearly a super place for Savannah animals and everyone hopes the game will return.  Back in the helicopter we return to Mikena Lodge with more up close and personal flying.  At one point Hamish flies us close, up the flank of an extinct volcano only to drop back down the side with a whoosh.  We all giggle in delight.  

We have been in Virunga National Park for five days and four nights with Hamish and the helicopter, 5Y CCP.  Our center of activity has been Mikena Lodge, from which all the park’s tourist accommodations are managed by a capable woman named Julie.  We stayed at the lodge 2 of the 4 nights.  Tchegera Island is also in the park and managed by Julie.  It is the only part of Lake Kivu in the park.  The shelters at the top of Nyiragongo Volcano are also under her management.  Based on our report of conditions there, she immediately sent a man up the volcano to make repairs.   

The four of us, Hamish, Noriko, Mark and I, share one last meal together and comment on how much we have enjoyed all our experiences and, most especially, our Congo adventures with Hamish and the helicopter.  Hamish tells us we will have about 20 flights for almost 12 hours of air time by the time we get back to Entebbe and that there is room for one additional flight, if we want.  We can either sleep in in the morning or go for a sunrise flight back over the active volcanos.  Silly question!  

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

We meet at 6am for our last fly about to the active volcanoes. 

Early morning mountains in the mist.

Unfortunately, the weather does not cooperate and we are unable to get to Nyiragongo at all. 

Nyrigongo Volcano still in the mist, but sending up steam.

Hamish flies us over some old volcanos and then over the moonscaped Nyamulagira.  It started erupting in 1882 and has erupted 34 times since then.  The last big eruption was in 1994.  In 2001 there was a flank eruption.  No more top eruptions are expected.   From there, we headed for the tallest volcano, Mt. Makina.  We had flown around it once, but not made it to the top due to cloud cover. 

THe top of Mt Mikena opens to us.

This morning the flanks are clouded up, but the top is clear and Hamish gets us up close and over the top for some wonderful images. 

We can see bits of snow clinging to the steep hillsides of Mt Mikena.

There are even patches of snow near the top of the 14,000 foot peak, where the temperature was 39 degrees.  Back down the mountain, we fly over lava fields and fertile countryside and spend 45 minutes in the air.  Back at Mikena Lodge, we have breakfast and pack for our last flight out of Mikena to Entebbe.

Good bye to our nice cottage at Mikena Lodge.

We have all taken turns being in the front seat and this time it is Noriko’s turn to be front.  We arrive at Goma at 11:45am.  Hamish leaves us at the helicopter while he negotiates the Congo departure procedures.  That took an hour.  Then we headed toward Bwindi.  We had hoped to fly low over Scott Kellermann at the Bwindi Community Hospital and wave to him, but the sky over the Impenetrable Forest was in total clouds and rain.  So instead, we flew 30 miles out of our way through heavy rain just to avoid the worst of the weather.  Then it was direct to Entebbe.  

After 2 hours we made our last landing and were met by Hassan, the friendly Entebbe Airport handler who had helped us on our arrival days earlier.  We took his information so we can use his services again when we come back in September.  We said our good byes to Noriko, who was headed for the lounge to wait for her flights back to Japan.  Hamish joined us at the Protea Hotel, 5 minutes from the airport.  We were assigned a day room in which to relax until 9pm.  Hamish was next door and staying overnight.  He planned to fly back to Kenya early the next morning.  We said good bye to him and thanked him profusely for providing us with such a wonderful experience and such masterful flying.   Then we showered and ordered room service.  Mark had a big fat hamburger and I had pasta and a salad.  Comfort food for both of us.  I finally had good wifi, uploaded several photos into the last Cameroon post and sent it off, as well as the Congo information post I had written weeks prior.  That felt good.  At 9pm, we headed back to the airport and our nonstop KLM flight to Amsterdam.  We slept nearly all the way and woke up in time for breakfast and landing.