Am struggling with weak signals and am Unable to include all the photos I wanted. The next post will be the same unless I wait until we get a stronger signal. Thank you for your patience.
Sunday, May 4, 2025
After a 40 minute flight, a 20 minute car ride and a 30 minute Boat ride, the three of us arrived at Jonathon’s newest lodge, The River Station, located on the Kazinga Channel between Lake Edward and Lake George in the middle of Kyambura Game Reserve.
The place is delightful, especially with private plunge pools in each suite as well as views of the channel. After a delicious lunch, Mark and I chose to relax in our own domain and sit in our private plunge pool.
After an hour of that, we relocated to the lodge pool where there was a view of many hippos, elephants, buffalo, wart hog and waterbuck. What a scene. We watched the wildlife, while keeping cool in the pool.
Dinner at 8 was a delicious and tender, pork loin. We chatted until 9:30 and went to bed.
Monday, May 5, 2025
We were up and out by 6:30am to visit the Chimpanzee Reserve about an hour and a half drive away from camp. We hiked down into a gully to see the chimps, but saw very few of the 32 that live there and only at a distance. There was a mother and 2 babies high in a tree, a couple of big males that got into a scrap with each other and another mother baby pair that jumped from a tree top into the bushes.
Back at the top of the gorge, we agreed that the chimp trek was a bit of a bust. However, the second half of our breakfast—a bacon, peanut butter and toast sandwich was surprisingly good.
Back at camp, we were confronted by Eric, a large male elephant, drinking water from our pool. We watched, entranced, as he nibbled his way around our tent and the stopped right where we were silently watching.
At one point he sniffed around our screen and stared at us. Eventually he ambled off and we sat wordlessly, feeling like we had just experienced something magical.
At 4pm, we joined Jonathon and Nick, the menu designer for Jonathon’s company, on a dhow ride in the channel. Jonathon had fallen in love with the concept of having a dhow on Ugandan waters and acquired this one in Northern Kenya. There was just enough wind to have a delightful sailing experience on very calm water. I even fell asleep.
When we sailed back to the dock, we were treated to a full bar of drink options. Mark had a Gin and tonic with cucumber and I had a mojito. Not much mint, but it tasted good anyway. Cinco de Mayo margaritas were not on the menu.
The 4 of us joined up again for dinner in the dinning room. I enjoyed a meal of very tender pork. Mark had a tender beef rib. Bed was in order after a not very good dessert.
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
Up and out at 8am for a drive to various craters to see the scenery and whatever animals we could find.
We enjoyed the scenery, including shallow lakes full of hyacinth, a green lake that had a mud bottom that was not green. We spotted a few Giant Forest Hogs, buffalo, Kob, elephant, water buck and wart hog in the distance.
FYI: a drift, a drove, a sounder or a team are all terms referring to a group of pigs.
We had a short drink stop and then drove back to the lodge. The air was starting to heat up so we went swimming before lunch.
I am eating way too much food. So for lunch I had ceviche and green salad. Most tasty and satisfying. Pool time followed lunch, along with animal watching. The blog has me distressed as we cannot get photos to upload. The staff thinks it is because their server is not strong enough. If that is the case, I will not be able to send any posts until we get somewhere with a stronger server.
At 4 pm, Jonathon invited us to go for a ride in his newly acquired dhou. It is the perfect boat to sail around the channel in front of the lodge. Gentle and quiet and very relaxing. I even fell asleep. At some point we transferred to a small motor boat because the dhou was not able to maneuver into the beach where the sunset cocktails were set up.
The staff had pulled out the stops to provide us with this delightful treat. I did not intend to drink, but felt badly that they had gone to so much trouble, so I ordered a vodka martini and was served a delicious drink. We sat in cozy chairs chatting and watching the sun set while a variety of birds came and went.
Back at camp, dinner was another lovely meal with a pretty presentation of tilapia on couscous. We chatted awhile and then retired to listen to the animal night sounds as we drifted off to sleep.
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Cold, solid overcast and rainy, the day started with breakfast and was followed by a 2 hour boat ride on the Kazinga Channel from The River Station to Mweye Lodge at the other end off the channel to meet Scott Kellermann and a few Kellermann Foundation board members for lunch. The weather kept animals out of sight, but we did enjoy a number of birds. The rain was tolerable for most of the ride, but became a deluge as we approached our destination. We ran for the vehicle that drove us from the channel up a hill to the lodge. Happily, Scott was waiting for us and we shared a pleasant visit with the Foundation folks.
After a couple of hours, the rain let up enough for us to comfortably drive most of the way through Queen Elizabeth Park to where our boat had been relocated. Along the way we stopped at one of several craters to enjoy views of the saline lakes. One was named “Nyamunuka”, which means “something smelly”, ie sulfur, emanating from the lake.
Again we saw very few animals. Jonathon stopped a motorbike driver carrying matoke, (a popular Ugandan staple food, like banana. It is starchy and tastes a bit like potato when boiled.) and bought a bunch. We reached the boat and made a dash across the channel for River Station.
Back at camp, we took showers to warm up and get cleaned from all the mud that had been splattered on us during the wet drive. We enjoyed late afternoon cocktails and chatter, a chicken curry dinner with more conversation and finally, bed.
Thursday, May 9, 2025
We joined Jonathon for breakfast at 7:30 and bid him goodbye as he floated off to participate in his son’s wedding on May 18 on Vancouver island. We relaxed until our own departure by car for Bwindi, a 3 1/2 hour drive south.
Adventures with Julia 