Mabira Forest Reserve part II

I took advantage of my third noiseless morning at Mabira by sleeping in till 9. I walked to the Exodus and ate what was becoming my usual breakfast - omelette wrapped in chapathi, coffee and juice for $1.75. I got on the red trail at 10 but took a diversion to the right to begin the yellow trail. I'm sharing the path with a giant millipede (15cm) for a while. Red tailed monkeys are crashing through the trees. While I'm watching them, I see movement closer and lower in a tree. I look at it and for a second think it's a big dead leaf falling but it was actually a flying squirrel. It must have been disturbed from its daytime nest and glided to a lower tree. I was very surprised to see this during the day. I'm also not 100% sure if it was a flying squirrel, there are other flying mammals here called anomaloures ( or similar) that I think are different than a flying squirrel but for now, let's just say it was a flying squirrel. It sat motionless on the trunk of the tree after it landed and I could see it clearly with my binoculars. It was all grey with a dense tail that ended in a bit of a tuft. I tried to get closer but the vegetation was so thick here, I scared it off trying to get through it. Sometimes the forest is all about timing. Some of the forest here is very nice, tall canopy and little undergrowth and some of it is dense with little visibility. There are a lot of strangular figs, choking the life out of a variety of different sized trees.

After walking leisurely through the forest, I emerge onto the main road after 4 hours. I decide to have a pure fruit lunch today. I buy 10 bananas, 5 small mangoes and 5 large passionfruit for $1 and wash it down with a litre of mixed juice for a $1.50. The bananas and the passionfruits were very tasty but I was disappointed with the mangoes. They were small and very stringy, I needed a 1m of floss after I finished eating them. I'm a bit of a mango snob after visiting Guimaras in the Philippines. This small island is known for having the worlds sweetest mangoe and I believe they did. They were huge, juicy and each half could be eaten with a spoon, it was like soft ice cream, no stringyness at all. I've learned now to stay away from most other mangoes.

The camp isn't very well maintained here but today they're doing a cleaning blitz, raking away all the fallen leaves. A guy was here checking out the site to bring a big group Christmas day. I like having the camp to myself but wouldn't mind if a few other travellers arrived. I showered again with the monkeys watching me and then ate rice/beans at Exodus.

Tonight I'm walking the dirt road to the red trail and following that all the way back to the camp. I figure it will take 2 hours. Even before I get onto the trail I see eyeshine high in the trees. Parts of the forest here are so dense and low that I feel like I'm being swallowed by a green living beast before I finally emerge in the stomach where the canopy is raised again. I see 3 more sets of eyes but it isn't till the fifth set that I see what's behing them. It' a small bushbaby and is low in the trees and is also curious about me. He sits still while I photograph him. The forest can be very relaxing at night because its so dark and quiet, except for insect sounds, there is no monkey calls or tree crashing. All the bushbabies I saw were on site only, I didn't hear any of them. Nightwalking can also have its unexpected rushes as well. Sometimes an animal I don't see is waiting in the bush beside the trail and waits till the last minute, when I'm almost beside it, to run away. This unexpected busrt through the undergrowth is a quick adrenaline rush. Most of the time it's a bird but sometimes it's something bigger, like a duiker or forest antelope. There are leopards in Mabira forest but they are rarely seen. Conversely, the best time to see them would be on the trail at night. Leopards are big animals and like most big animals prefer the path of least resistance when possible. The trail I'm walking on is definetely the easiest way through this forest.

I cross the main road and pick up the trail on the other side, I'm on the home stretch now. As I get closer to camp I see eyes high in the trees but as when I'm just a minute from camp I see another bushbaby low in the trees. He also hangs out with me for a few minutes. I'm trying to take photos and walk 2 steps off the trail when suddenly I feel biting pain on my legs. My legs are covered in ants of all sizes, from 2cm long and smaller. No matter what their size, all they want to do is viciously bite me and hold on for life. I begin taking them off but there's too many and I'm still standing in them, so I run back to camp and strip down to my boxers. I hate ants and this isn't the first time I've had problems with them on my last few night walks. Since I'm walking slow and not concentrating on the forest floor, I sometimes walk through an ant area but don't know it until they start biting me. This always seems to happen at the worst times too, just when I'm about to take a photo or see something cool. Like I said, the forest is all about timing, sometimes it works out, other times it doesn't!





I sleep in again till 9 on my fourth day at Mabira. Today I am combining the red and yellow trails. I take a few photos of flowers and large trees but there's not a lot happening in the forest today. I see redtailed monkeys but no mangabeys. I'm out of the forest after 3 hours. Back in camp, I'm surprised to see 2 vehicles. One is a family from Kenya who I chat to and the other is a foreigner/Ugandan couple who can barely spit out a 'Hi' to me as I walk by. I didn't talk to them at all, they weren't interested in talking to me. I don't like these types of travellers, not interested in anyone else. There's also the type of traveller who when seen in public, especially in a smaller town, just turn the other way and ignore me, like they want to believe they are the only one travelling in that country. I can understand this when I'm in a capita city where there are a lot of foreigners, but other places it doesn't make sense. I also don't care for these types of people. I'm interested in all the foreigners I meet while travelling, exceptions maybe for people who are there to do missionary work, I don't have much in common with these people. But for the most part I'm interested in where someone is from, where they have been and where they are going. I've learned a lot from just talking to other travellers about places to go that I didn't know about before.

I am going to Kampala tomorrow so tonight is my last nightwalk. I see 5 sets of eyes but only a few of these are close enough to tell they are the same bushbabies I've been seeing. I just walked the dirt road tonight towards The Rainforest Lodge, 2km each way. I decided to have an easy walk on the road for once, though the road goes through the forest and is more like a wide trail than a road, there's no traffic. It just means easier, more level terrain, though most of the road is hilly, there are no roots and rocks. The one big bonus of the road is the lack of spiderwebs spanning its width. In the forest I'm wiping a web away from my face every few minutes. It's kind of annoying and feels gross to have this silk web all of a sudden in my face, and usually at eye level. Oh, and there are no ants on the road! Even though I'm only 55km away from the capital city of Uganda, the sky is clear and the stars are amazing. There is music and partying going on near the main road and it's another loud night.

I sleep in till 9 and then pack up my stuff. I eat my last breakfast at Exodus. The young waitress there asks when I'm coming back. I tell her 'Never.' but she gives me her phone number anyway. Unlike most travellers I meet and most locals nowadays, I don't carry a cellphone. Sure, they have their benefits but most of the time I don't want people calling me and think cellphones can be really annoying when I'm trying to have a conversation with someone and their phone keeps ringing or they are constantly texting. I walked up to one of the stopped matatus and got in and was on my way to Kampala.