Jools and Shane's Uganda Adventures

by **Shane** » Thu May 05, 2011 7:07 pm

Just checking in before bed. Jools arrives in Entebbe at 0745 tomorrow, so I'll depart Kampala just before 0630.
-Shane

by **Jools** » Thu May 05, 2011 7:39 pm

Just sitting down to a cold one in London Heathrow T5. Boarding for Uganda in about an hour.

Jools

by **Shane** » Fri May 06, 2011 9:00 am

Jools touched down safely at 0725 and we made it back to Kampala. So far we had a big breakfast, which was immediately followed by a couple of Tusker lagers.
Reservations are set at the Nile base camp for tomorrow and we will spend the rest of the day packing up collecting kit.
-Shane

by **Jools** » Sat May 07, 2011 6:56 am

Arrived at Kampala HQ, connectivity is a limited as Shane has been extolling for ages! Anyway, will post what we can when we can!

Jools

by **wrasse** » Sat May 07, 2011 2:25 pm

Jools, the pockets on that shirt are HUGE! What were you thinking?

BTW- when do you start taking fish orders...

6 synodontis robertsi please
and a herd of giraffe for the back garden.

Cheers, Richard.

by **crkinney** » Sat May 07, 2011 4:40 pm

Looks like the catfish in that area could be wearing a bikini :YMDEVIL:

by **Jools** » Sun May 08, 2011 8:36 pm

Back at Jinja Base, a long day with many 4x4 stories but got to 1km of lake Nawanpasa in search of a pretty Haplochmid. No joy, but got beautifully lost.

Net result, one Killie,one hap and a few cool Ctenopoma. Local fishermen had Clarias and lungfish.

No ids and will work on photos tomorrow. Connectivity seriously tricky, but did record gps collection data.

Jools

by **Shane** » Mon May 09, 2011 4:04 pm

We, and my poor Landy, are pretty beat up, but had a great time. I had some good laughs at Jools' expense... a giant leech on his ankle plus the face full of biting ants he caught this morning. Poor Jools brushed against a bush full of ants while we were hauling in the big seine and about 30 ants immediately bit into his neck. He dove under water immediately, but they had locked their pincers and had to be forcefully removed, ouch!
Today was the day of barb spp (at least three) and, finally, our first cats of the trip. Two small, 8 cm, Clarias.
Pics to follow.
-Shane

by **MatsP** » Mon May 09, 2011 4:18 pm

Ouch, poor Jools!

Sounds like you're having a good time tho'.

--
Mats

by **Shane** » Mon May 09, 2011 5:08 pm

Unnamed creek, GPS co-ords to follow.

by **Jools** » Mon May 09, 2011 5:25 pm

Here is the location.

http://maps.google.co.ug/maps?hl=en&ie= ... 1&t=h&z=19

Two or more species of barbs and two Clarias, likely Clarias alluaudi.

The largest of the barbs:

Jools

by **Jools** » Mon May 09, 2011 5:43 pm

At the source of the Nile (http://www.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s ... 5&t=h&z=17).

Jools

by **bigbird** » Mon May 09, 2011 10:10 pm

where is your flag to claim that island ? =))

, very nice report so far. enjoy and look after yourselves cheers jk

by **Jools** » Tue May 10, 2011 7:30 am

bigbird wrote:where is your flag to claim that island ? , very nice report so far. enjoy and look after yourselves

Well, I am just another in a long line of Scots to visit that place!

Jools

by **Jools** » Tue May 10, 2011 10:01 am

OK, a couple more pics. The one of Shane is when he is collecting the baby Clarias. In this side of the river there was a lot of saw grass. This is nasty stuff and we both copped a lot of leg grazes including some that saw blood. Solution is long trousers.

The other picture is a second species of barb from this area.

Jools

by **Shane** » Thu May 12, 2011 2:47 pm

Greetings from Fort Portal! We had a great day yesterday collecting south of Kampala. This morning we drove 3.5 hours east to Fort Portal. The only collecting so far was a beautiful mountain stream running from Rwenzori (Mountains of the Moon). Habitat was a cool (65F ish) fast flowing stream with clear water. This looked like a Chaetostoma stream might in South America and several watching children told us there were no fish in the stream. After several pulls we were going to move on when we turned up a gorgeous killie living along the stream's margins. Once we had the right habitat down we collected over a dozen in 10 minutes. Beautiful n]scenary today driving along the Great Rift.
The plan for tomorrow is to head south from Fort Portal to the Kazinga Channel between the Rift Lakes George and Edward.
Sorry we have been so bad about posting updates and photos, but as you might imagine, when you are 20 km from the Congo/Uganda border it is almost impossible to get any kind of internet connectivity.
-Shane

by **Shane** » Thu May 12, 2011 3:06 pm

Thankfully, we have wifi internet here at our hotel in Fort Portal. Although it's been down for couple of days, it's up now!

Some pics from back near Lake Vic: All ID suggestions welcome (I know what the Clarias is)!