Msafiri Kyrea - The Blog: Ziwa

RHINOS AT ZIWA

We bade farewell to the camp crew to set back towards Kampala, with a final detour – the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Rhinos essentially became extinct in the Ugandan wild in the 1980s due to the lack of law and order during the civil war mostly between the Obote government and the current president, Museveni’s NRA (National Resistance Army). Poaching was rampant, both for the horn and the meat driving both the white and black rhino into oblivion. Ziwa contains 14 of Uganda’s 16 protected rhinos, which were donated from Kenya and South Africa. The main idea of it is to slowly introduce them back into the wild by building the herd up to a maximum population that the sanctuary can handle (rhinos need large tracts of land as territory) then moving them into a national park.

The visitors centre is near the entrance to the sanctuary. We ordered our lunch in advance – a normal habit when eating out in Uganda, especially when it comes to local food, before our briefing with Mike, our guide and ranger. His colleagues were already deep in the bush within the sanctuary tracking the rhinos. The distance to where they were today demanded that we drive up with the van to a strategic location and then continue by foot. The fact that we can actually do this shows that this particular herd are now getting acclimatised to human presence. However, never let your guard down when around a rhino! That is why the trackers stay with us as they can not only trace rhino movements, they can detect if a rhino feels intimidated and wants to charge the perceived enemy. And by perceived, it could be just by smell and sound that they can make a move as rhinos have poor eyesight. If they do charge, one should climb up the nearest tree or hide behind the nearest bush. I had my eye on a couple of shrubs to hop over the moment we came in sight of these tank-like beasts.

It was in the middle of the day and so they were resting in the shade, looking extremely docile. They knew we were there but it felt like they didn’t notice our presence. To get a feel of what I mean and learn a bit more about the herd, have a look at 4 videos I made as we observed them.

A SHORT DOCUMENTARY

Video: The Rhino called Obama. Born in 2009. Click here.

Video: The rhino herds and their habitat. Click here.

Video: The young ones Obama, Agusto, and Justus. Key to herd survival. Click here.

Video: Rhino profiling. Click here.

THE RETURN TO KAMPALA

The outskirts of Kampala looked very different to when we left. The sun was setting, leaving an ochre relief to the landscape and as it was a Monday one of the big roundabouts that cuts the northern bypass was teeming with humanity: commuters, vendors, residents, boda boda riders, school children. The informal shacks were endless in one view from a valley to the foot of a hill, and in some parts covering whole hills. I could tell that there is not much regulation in land use in these areas: one plot was dug through even under a walled fence, which is asking for a landslide during the next big rains! This was the real Kampala rush hour, so much so that Isaac had to make several detours in order to drop Daniela and co. at Makerere University, one of the top East African universities. On the way we saw the Kyadondo Rugby Club and Ethiopian Village Restaurant there were tragically bombed during the World Cup 2010 final, resulting in 74 fatalities.

Our return to the Red Chilli Hideaway was not the final stop. We still needed to hop into a cab to get to the Hotel City Square, in central Kampala and better placed to begin our journey east from the bus station. It was yet another taxi episode without the loopy loops around the city. The cabbie kept asking me questions about Kenya as if Kenya was a far distant land. It was refreshing relating on a blank slate with no assumptions. For example, I didn't try to petrify him with Swahili and he didn't make stereotypical remarks about Kenya. Though it was disturbing that he had no recollection of the post election violence in Kenya in 2008 that resulted in the borders closing and cutting off the land locked Uganda from vital trade to and from the Kenyan port of Mombasa!

The booking I made over the phone and on the web was a waste of time as the Hotel City Square receptionist glazed over my reference to a booking and made us register again. When I later used a super slow, super abused laptop that the hotel manager reluctantly passed to me to access the internet I realised that they don’t have any sophisticated booking system, let alone a website with booking form. We got a dose of serendipity when we bumped into the pleasant Isreali man that we were sat next to on the plane from Istanbul to Entebbe. No, this was not another raid on Entebbe! He was on a humanitarian mission. He was in Uganda helping a South Sudanese family, that we also met at the hotel, settle in Uganda after they were deported from Israel following a rather xenophobic switch in their immigration policy. Some of these families, who have been refugees, should have become Israeli citizens as they have lived and worked there for over 8 years, and most could speak Hebrew fluently.

It seemed too late to book seats to Fort Portal (our next destination) on the Post Bus, a unique city to city bus service run by the Uganda Post Office which also delivers mail. It is probably the safest and most punctual bus service in the country. As expected the building was closed but a friendly askari (guard) advised us that it is best to arrive very early to meet him, just before 6am, in order to secure a place. He then asked us to register our names on his logbook, as if to pre-secure our booking and as I expected, with a sweetener of 100 Ugandan shillings. It couldn’t hurt to have an ally if things go hairy on the day.

We tried our luck on the one and only Stanbic ATM before stuffing our faces with some very Ugandan fried chicken royale with chips!