Flights to Ngamba Island-Primate tours made easier

Ngamba Island is the only chimpanzee sanctuary in Uganda and recently it signed an agreement with Fly Uganda which is a well known safari company to fly tourist to the Island where the sanctuary is found.

Ms Ajarova and Mr Barners after signing the agreement.

According to Ms. Lilly Ajarova a sanctuary executive director, some tourists get seasick and others do not have that much time like a full day to travel to the Island on the lake where the Sanctuary is located. The journey to the Island takes 45 minutes by speed boat and 90 minutes by traditional motorized boat. It is because of this that they have now decided to make the transport easier by signing an agreement pact with Fly Uganda and which will enable tourists to reach the Island in only 15 minutes.

According to the Sanctuary Executive director, they have carried out different test flights at the sanctuary and the chimpanzees all responded positively by not running but instead gathered near to have a glimpse of the helicopter.

More to this, it will even be much easier to save the lives of the chimpanzees by transporting them by Air to the main land for medical evacuations and further treatment.

In Uganda per vedere l’eclisse totale del 3 novembre 2013

 Se siete amanti del cielo, e vi piacerebbe fare un’esperienza unica del cielo notturno Africano, forse questo è il viaggio che fa per voi. Stiamo raccogliendo le iscrizioni per il programma “Uganda Eclisse Totale Novembre 2013”, organizzato in collaborazione con un’associazione di esperti di viaggi “stellari” ovvero gli amici di Stella Errante di Roma. Con loro si partirà sia da Roma sia da Milano o altri aeroporti il giorno 31 ottobre 2013, per venire in Uganda accompagnati da un esperto astrofilo che vi metterà in grado di gustare l’esperienza dell’eclisse solare ma anche intrattenendovi con esplorazioni notturne del cielo Ugandese. L’eclisse che vedrete in Uganda, per l’esattezza il giorno 3 novembre a partire dalle ore 16.06 ora di Greenwich  è di tipo “ibrido”, ovvero i dischi del sole e della luna saranno quasi coincidenti. L’osservazione avverrà da un luogo individuato nel nord del Parco di Murchison Falls.

Contiamo di fare un gruppetto affiatato di almeno 10 fino a massimo 20 persone. Inoltre incluso nel servizio ci sarà anche l’accompagnamento di una guida in lingua italiana di supporto al gruppo. Il programma si svolgerà non con l’uso di grandi bus, ma con i mezzi di trasporto di Destination Jungle per i safari, ovvero le nostre amate land cruisers 4x4 tettuccio apribile.

Il viaggio, naturalmente, vi consentirà di farvi un’idea della bellezza naturalistica della Rift Valley Albertina, visitando i parchi nazionali del Murchison Falls (che si trova vicino al passaggio dell’eclisse) e il Queen Elizabeth. Non mancheranno poi le esperienze con i primati, ovvero il trekking dei gorilla nella foresta di Bwindi Impenetrabile e il trekking degli scimpanzè nella foresta di Budongo.

Vi invitiamo a leggere bene il programma, che offre sia una opzione breve di 6 giorni (solo la parte dell’eclisse e del parco Murchison Falls), oppure una opzione lunga di 10 giorni. Per prenotare, potete contattare sia Destination Jungle sia Stella Errante a Roma, ovvero il sig. Marzio il cui telefono è: +39 06 8840504 e la mail: marzio@civaturs.com .

Vi aspettiamo in Uganda, by Costantino Tessarin 

Baby Elephant saved in Murchison Falls National Park

Elephant Struggling to Stand

On the 12^th of February 2013, our three clients, the guide and I saved a young elephant which had been trapped in a wire snare and was in deep pain in Murchison Falls National park. We had woken up early for the morning game drive and everything had been going on so well till we met a young elephant which had been sitting and not feeding. 

A big snare in the Elephant

One of our clients, Carlos Gereda asked me if I thought it was sick/dead or may be dying at that moment. The driver guide Kiganda Ismail told him that it could just be resting. However, out of curiosity the other clients, Daniella and Manuel insisted and said it was very strange for an elephant to just sit down while the others were feeding. It is at this moment that we drove closer to the elephant which could barely stand up because of the pain it was in. As we moved closer to him, he eventually struggled and stood up and at this point, we saw what had caused everything. A big wire snare around the head and it had already cut it (see picture). We all burst in tears and right away started making calls for UWA to come in and save the elephant. What we expected was a place of peace for these animals has eventually turned into a war zone because the following day after the sad and horrible scene, UWA managed to collect 285 wire snares along the delta as we were informed by Patrick Agaba from Uganda Conservation Foundation. Also from the head office of UWA in Kampala Mr. Raymond Engena was so kind sending an apology for what happened and saying that UWA is trying to improve on the situation of poaching. On the following days he also told us that the UWA veterinary Mr. Enyel managed to remove the snare from the baby elephant and the animal is expected to recover from this accident. Fortunately this elephant was saved! By Allen Natukunda

 

UWA Ranger guides with snares collected from the Park

Mighty River Nile Makes It to the 7 Wonders of Africa

On 11^th February Monday this week in Arusha at the Mt. Meru Hotel, the award ceremony for the 7 natural wonders of Africa, chosen from the 12 accepted nominations took places and saw the mighty River Nile, which starts its journey to the Mediterranean Sea at the ‘Source of the Nile’ in Jinja elected as Uganda’s only winner. The State Minister for Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquiries Hon. Agnes Akiror Egunyu was present at the function to receive the honors for and on behalf of the Pearl of Africa- Uganda.

Besides the Mighty River Nile, other 11 attractions nominated were the Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater, Mt. Kilimanjaro, the Peak of Furnace on La Reunion, Mt. Kenya, the Okavanago Delta, the Aldabra Atoll, the Avenue of Baobabs, the Sahara Desert, the Red Sea Reef, Tsuma Rock and Tsingi de Bemaraha.

The hosting Nation Tanzania saw all the three nominations returned as winners and these were the Serengeti National Park, Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Ngorongoro Crater.

 Other attractions which made it into the winning rank were the Okavango Delta in Botswana, the Red Sea Reef in Egypt and the Sahara Desert which touches 10 countries.

East Africa being named as among the top 7 natural ‘wonders’ in Africa, it is thought to give a significant boost visa vis destination interest in the main markets for tourists coming to Eastern Africa including Uganda and Tanzania.

Sustainable tourism and conservation as local communities benefit from wildlife

Local communities around Lake Mburo, Kidepo and Murchison falls National Park are set to be given licenses to keep or farm wild animals on their land courtesy of the Africa Wildlife Foundation. Tourists who intend to visit these animals will be expected to pay a sum of money directly to those keeping them rather than through the park authorities. This $10 million dollar USAID funded project was launched at Lake Mburo National Park last week. In the long run, this program is expected to improve conservation of Budongo and Karinzu forests. There has been a lot of logger heads between the local communities and the park authorities over wild animals straying into their farms. As of now, local people with small pieces of land will form groups to bring it together for viable use.

The project is the first one of its kind in Uganda but not in Africa simply because it has been tested and benefited many communities in countries like Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, DR Congo and Rwanda. Only local people with a valid license from the Uganda Wildlife Authority will be allowed to keep wildlife.

The Total Solar Eclipse November 3rd in Uganda 2013

On November 3rd 2013, the total solar Hybrid eclipse will pass over Western Africa in Equatorial Gabon, Congo, Uganda, Kenya and finally Ethiopia. This is a hybrid eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 1.0159. Totality will be visible with the maximum of 1 minute 39 seconds visible from the Atlantic Ocean south of Ivory Coast and Ghana. This eclipse will be experienced in Northern Uganda (Apoka in Kidepo National Park) and Murchison Falls National Park. This eclipse of November 3rd is a Hybrid Eclipse which means that along the central section of the path it will be a very short total eclipse while at the beginning of the path there will be an annular eclipse. Hence the unofficial term "hybrid" being associated with this very special type of eclipse. The reason is that the darkest shadow of the moon doesn't quite reach the surface at those locations. Such a narrow and abrupt eclipse will come with a prominent presentation of the colorful Sinner most atmospheric layer of the Sun (the chromospheres) and a spectacular view along the axis of the Moon’s shadow. Satellite and surface measurements indicate that the weather prospect in northern Uganda and Kenya is the best along the entire 2013 eclipse track.

Check out our tour for the eclipse this November:

http://www.safaritoeastafrica.com/index.php/total-eclipse-nov2013.html. This is a total action-packed adventure programme, crowned by a total solar eclipse low over the remote villages of northern Uganda. It is sure to be a memorable experience with us. Nevertheless, the eclipse is considered to be one of the most awe some and inspiring spectacles in all of nature which is worth traveling to go see. You will observe the sky taking on an eerie twilight as the Sun's bright face is replaced by the black disk of the Moon. The eclipse track begins curving to the northeast as it narrows and the duration of totality decreases. By the time this umbra reaches the western border of Uganda, totality drops to 23 seconds with the Sun at 18° (14:22 Universal Time) and then Sweeps over northern Kenya, crosses Lake Turkana where the central line duration is 14 seconds at 14:25 Universal Time.

Mass Killing of Elephants in Tsavo East- Kenya

It was confirmed that eleven elephants were slaughtered by ivory poachers in Tsavo East National Park in Kenya. After this mass killing, their tusks were chopped off and taken which remarked one of the worst single episodes of poaching in Kenya in recent years.

Kenya Wildlife Services and other conservation fraternity, demand an immediate strong hand response to hunt down those responsible for this latest elephantcide using dogs, foot and vehicle patrols and aerial surveillance. It was the entire family of eleven elephants including the young ones that was wiped out by a hail of bullets before their tusks were hacked out of the carcasses in TsavoEast National Park. Just like any other African country, Kenya has been besieged by increasingly wily and ruthless poachers due to the soaring demand for ivory in Asia. Because of this, more Elephants and Rhinos on the African continent have been poached and killed in order to get money (a pound of ivory can now fetch more than $1,000 in Beijing)

An elephant poached in Tsavo East

According to one researcher in Kenya named Iain Douglas-Hamilton said that he has never seen anything as bad as the poaching of these elephants since 1980’s. He has been studying Elephants for decades and he concluded that if no measure is taken into consideration, Africa is right back where it was during the 1980s as far as poaching is concerned. It’s also reported that several African rebel groups are now using ivory to finance their mayhem, and some American-backed African militaries have also been implicated in wiping out elephants. Much of this ivory is turned into bookmarks, chopsticks and other trinkets.

A recent census on elephant and Gravy Zebra in the north of Kenya has shown a significant decline in numbers and a wave of rhino killings on private conservancies and in parks has resulted in a public private partnership in Laikipia where aircraft and helicopters are now made available by private airlines to take a rapid deployment unit on site as soon as reports of gunshots or suspicious vehicle movement are reported.