Day 245: A Tough Travel Day
Noah covers a lot of ground in two days.
By Noah Strycker
Contributor, 51ÁÔÆæÈë¿Ú magazine
Published September 04, 2015
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September 2, 2015, Kibale National Park, Uganda — Livingstone wanted to track down two birds this morning, Dusky Babbler and White-rumped Seedeater, before we headed south. He knew several spots for each, and that wisdom paid off: We found the babblers and seedeaters without much trouble. Local knowledge pays off again!
The bulk of the day was then spent on a terrible, potholed, eroded dirt road which had us eating thick red dust and bouncing around like rag dolls for hour after hour. Eventually the road connected to a paved highway—the first pavement we’ve seen in two days!—which gradually climbed into cooler, wetter mountains. We arrived at the Kibale Forest, a protected area surrounded by tea plantations in southwest Uganda, in time to spend about an hour birding along the roadside this evening. A troop of baboons kept us company until a rain shower shut down bird activity for the day.
Tour groups usually break the distance we covered today into two full days, but I don’t have the luxury of time—so it was a long trek to get to Kibale, where I’m staying at a delightful former tea estate called the Chimpanzee Forest Guest House. We’ll have the full day tomorrow to explore this forest, with one special target bird in mind—I won’t say its name yet so as not to jinx it!
New birds today: 10
Year list: 4132
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