On the Road - by Bob Van Leer

Long Night Flights 10/26/1993 Leave on Saturday, Arrive on Tuesday

By Bob Van Leer

(KAMPALA, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA, Oct. 26, 1993) - Betty and I arrived here today about noon after the most complicated trip we've ever had to get anywhere overseas. Uganda is a small land-locked African country south and east of Kenya. It's about the size of Oregon with a population (1989) of 17 million. The country is struggling to get back on its feet after a couple of decades of government mismanagement and civil war.

Uganda 10/27/1993 Uganda Has Lively Press But Some Like National Enquirer

Government Encouraging Foreign Investment
By Bob Van Leer

(KAMPALA, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA, Oct. 27, 1993) - Today was spent in professional activities starting with a morning meeting with the Uganda Journalists' Association and a meeting with the director of the Uganda Investment Authority in the afternoon. We finished the day with a visit to the Kasubi Tombs, burial place for the kings of Baganda, now part of Uganda. Uganda has a lively press, too lively to suit some of the government officials, and an attempt is being made to pass a law that would regulate the press. Some of the papers are lively on the order of National Enquirer at home. In the news today was a report of the second of two journalists at one newspaper being jailed after charges of "publishing and printing seditious stories". Just what these stories were, we couldn't find out.

Safari Park 10/28/1993 We Arrive At A Safari Park After A Full Day's Drive

Uganda Brides Paid For With Cattle
By Bob Van Leer

(QUEEN ELIZABETH II NATIONAL PARK, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA - Oct. 28, 1993) - We are spending the night at Mweya Safari Lodge on Lake Edward in the national park after a day's drive from Kampala. We arrived here in late afternoon at just the right time for animal viewing as we drove through the park to the lodge. The lodge is located on a high point jutting out into the lake. The border between Uganda and Zaire is just a couple of miles into the lake. Queen Elizabeth Park, also known as Ruwenzori Park, once reportedly had the distinction of carrying the largest wildlife biomass in the world due to incredible numbers of heavy-weight animals - elephants, hippos and buffalo. But much of the game was wiped out by armies in the wars in Uganda. Some of the herds have bounced back.

Wildlife 10/29/1993 Wildlife In The Thousands, What Africa Is All About

Lioness Kills Wart Hog, We Disrupt Kill
By Bob Van Leer

(MBARARA, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA, Oct. 29,1993) - Today was spent observing what Africa is famous for - wildlife. There is an incredible diversity here. We started the morning at 6:30 a.m. from the Mweya Lodge for an early morning game drive through the Queen Elizabeth National Park. Just away from the lodge we saw our first hippopotamus. We had always associated these large animals with water. But here it was on top of a ridge several hundred feet high and a mile or two from Lake Edward. Our guide, James Bakeine from Nile Safaris, said hippos can travel 60 miles from water. The park was created in 1952 and covers an area of nearly 200 square miles. It stretches from the foothills of the Rwenzori Range, Ptolemy's legendary Mountains of the Moon, about 80 kilometers southwards to the Ishasha River.

Uganda 10/30/1993 Meeting With The President Highlight Of Day's Activities

Tour Of Ranch Of Vice President
By Bob Van Leer

(ENTEBBE, UGANDA, EAST AFRICA - OCT. 30,1993) - The highlight of today's activities was a meeting with Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, at the State House, the official residence. Museveni is intelligent, articulate and educated and has what the military refers to as "command presence". This partly explains why he was able to take a force of 27 men, built it to a guerrilla force of about 20,000 and finally take over the country from the corrupt regime of Tito Okello.

Tanzania 10/31/1993 Flight To Tanzania From Uganda Crosses Equator

Tanzania Larger By Four Times
By Bob Van Leer

(ARUSHA, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Oct. 31, 1993) - Today we left Uganda for a short (1 hour, 15 minutes) flight from Entebbe to Arusha, Tanzania, crossing the equator again. Our flight had been scheduled to make a stop in Burundi, a small country to the west of Tanzania, but the country is in a state of anarchy and the stopover was canceled. Burundi is being torn apart by clashes between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. The Tutsi are a minority but have traditionally lorded it over the Hutus. In the country's first free election this year a Hutu was elected president. In a coup attempt last week, the president and a number of senior government officials were killed. But the coup fell apart. The remainder of the government is still holed up in the French embassy and out in the countryside the tribes are slaughtering one another to settle old scores. 

Wildlife Viewing 11/01/1993 Wildlife Viewing At National Park Highlight Of The Day

Thousands Of Animals But One Elephant
By Bob Van Leer

(LAKE MANYARA NATION-AL PARK, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Nov. 1, 1993) - From our room at the Lake Manyara Lodge we can look out the window and see baboons in the flower beds and way down below on the plain around the lake wild animals abound. The hotel is on the edge of the escarpment looking over the Rift Valley 1000 feet below. The valley marks where the African continent is in the process of tearing apart. The easternmost portion is separating from the bulk of the African land mass. The valley floor is so far below it is difficult to identify some of the animals even with binoculars, but I can identify a dozen giraffes.

Lions, Leopards, and Zebras 11/2/1993 Dominate Today's Game Drives

We Have Now Seen Four Of Big Five
By Bob Van Leer

(SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Nov. 2, 1993) - We arrived this afternoon at the Seronera Wildlife Lodge in the middle of the Serengeti National Park after a grueling 205 kilometer drive from Lake Manyara Park We came on the main road through the park, actually the only one. The quality of the road is that of a poorly-maintained logging road. Our drivers zip along the roads as if they were freeways even though the roads are washboarded most of the way. There are places where there is a dust layer of six inches or more on top of the road. This must be a lot of fun when it rains. Right now it is the end of the dry season and everything is parched. Everything in our van is covered with a layer of red dust. We climbed to the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, which we will visit tomorrow, went through a forest on top of the mountain and passed the Olduvai Gorge, the site of the oldest human finds. We will also visit Olduvai later. The Serengeti is a broad, flat plain interrupted with small hills of rock called kopje, or little head. We can't see the end of the plain. The park continues north into Kenya.

Flat Tires and More 11/03/1993 Shorten Activities Of Day

Can't Walk For Help - Might Get Eaten
By Bob Van Leer

(NGORONGORO WILDLIFE LODGE, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA, Nov. 3, 1993) - Stranded in the Serengeti Sun may be the title of a book about this trip. The two-day trip to the Seringeti brought our caravan of three vehicles four flat tires and three mechanical breakdowns. Sylvester, our head guide, claimed this was unusual. But the drivers were quite adept at changing tires. During a game drive this morning two of our three vans broke down. Ours towed another back to the Seronera Lodge and the rest of the party doubled up in our van. We were scheduled anyway to return to the lodge for lunch. 

Ngorongoro Crater 11/4/1993 Floor is Miniature Wildlife Preserve

What Crater Lake Would Be Without Water
By Bob Van Leer

(ARUSHA, TANZANIA, EAST AFRICA - Nov. 4, 1993) - A tour of the Ngorongoro crater this morning was the highlight of the day. This bowl-shaped crater is about 10 miles wide and the floor is about 5600 feet above sea level with the rim height averaging 2000 feet above this. The crater is the relic of a gargantuan volcano that collapsed into itself. This is what Crater Lake might look like without water. The crater floor is a miniature Serengeti. Most of the floor is open grassland and shallow lake and covered with a wide variety of wild animals easy to see and photograph. Generally, they don't seem at all bothered by vehicles. To them the vehicles are a zero sum - they don't bother the wildlife and they aren't good to eat. Our lodge is right on the edge of the crater rim which gives an incredible view of the crater. I could see an elephant in the small patch of forest below the lodge, the only trees in the crater. Access to the crater floor is by four-wheel-drive. For width, the roads are actually better than some of the logging roads in Curry county. But the grades are steep and there is no pavement.