17th – Birds and relaxation

We were 4 who had signed up for a birding cruise starting at 0700 so I had set the alarm for 0630. Luckily I managed to wake up before the alarm going off so I avoided waking those who didn’t have the same plans. Despite last night in clear (well, fuzzy) memory it was surprisingly easy getting up and out. It was pouring down so the chances of getting many – or any – good views seemed slim. Until 0655, that is, when it stopped as on cue.

We sailed around for 2½ hours and got some pretty good views and closeups of some beautiful – and some less so – birds. We also saw a few monitor lizards, bats, vervet monkeys but no otters, unfortunately.

African darter. 

Monitor lizard.

Yellow weaver.

Black-headed gonoleks.

Vervet monkey.

White wagtail.

Malachite kingfisher.

Great kingfisher.

Bats.

White-backed night heron.

African fish-eagle.

Most people had gone rafting in the morning, the remaining 7 of us met up for a late-ish breakfast when we got back from the cruise.

A couple of magpies were harassing a fish-eagle, not caring at all about the significant size difference.

The view from the bar. 

We encountered a few drops here and there during the day but nothing really threatening and nothing near what we had gotten during the night. I hadn’t planned much for the rest of the day so most of the time was spent on me kicking back and relaxing. The rafting people came back in the late afternoon having had a blast of a day, and after dinner a few of us ended up in the bar.

Around 2200 it started raining, though. Really raining. And it didn’t stop. Considering we are in Uganda in the raining season it was a bit of a surprise it took this long before the rain got in our way. At least it’s the last night here.