So, this place we stayed at called Mweya Lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park was a very cool spot as I mentioned in my previous blog. Elephants were everywhere both on land and in the water down below the lodge on the Kazinga Channel swimming alongside the water buffalo and hippos.
You can see the emphasis the lodge places on their elephants by this very cool statue at the front of the lodge, depicted here. My beloved Rene is standing there, mask on as was always required when entering the lodge. Of course, there was always the need to sanitize hands and upon initial arrival, our temperatures were checked. Such great disciplines as usual throughout our entire trip in Uganda.
We were able to experience a fabulous boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel traveling from the lodge over to the entrance of Lake Edward. Interestingly, the border between Uganda and the Congo splits this lake with roughly 29% of the surface area being in Uganda while the 71% balance is part of the Congo.
Not surprisingly, there have been many skirmishes over the years between the 2 countries over the resources both on land and in the water. Above is a traditional Ugandan fishing boat that sometimes breaches that obscure "lake border" with Congo although both sides are more cautious these days to avoid unrest. I must admit that it was a little disturbing knowing how close we were to the Congo when we were near this area...
This is a pic from our boat looking up at Mweya Lodge. We had 2 boats for our group so that we were all very comfortable for the cruise. Believe it or not, no alcohol on this one!
The scenery was absolutely fabulous all along the Channel with so many hippos, elephants, water buffalo, crocodiles, and birds! There are well over 600 different species of birds.
Here's also a pic of one of the 2 boats we had for our group. As you can see, we were able to get very close to the shoreline where the animals were swimming or lounging.
This was our boat for the Channel cruise, below... we got 'the Cadillac'! ;)
We finished off this lovely day with the traditional African Cocktail hour, namely "Sundowners", to finish off our final night at Mweya Lodge. The sunset was beautiful!
This is our lovely group of ladies, mostly Travel Advisors from various parts of the U.S. along with our group hosts from the Tour Company and our own Host Agency. A fun group of like-minded individuals!
Next week, we move on to the next part of our journey to see the fabulous Ishasha Tree Lions! Stay tuned...