something epic
The Daily Telegraph ran a series of letters from readers about remote vacation destinations. Among them was this report about Kidepo:
Cut off from the familiar in a Ugandan national park
Kidepo Valley National Park, in north east Uganda, is where I headed with my family in 1992. We were lucky enough to spend four nights there, in rugged savannah country dominated by Mount Morungole and studded with rocky outcrops.
Continue reading “Kidepo in the 90’s”
The news that the Uganda Wildlife Authority is translocating Kob to Kidepo is exciting for me because my friends Pat and Lyn at Ngamoru have been calling for this to happen for many years.
Continue reading “Kob translocated to Kidepo”
The sun came up extra red over Uganda this morning to mark the new year:
Twas brillig in the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe. Beware the T-Rex, which here is seen to tyrranize my Truckasaurus:
Continue reading “The Perils of the Pacific Coast, Part 1: Fauna”
The journey from Egypt to Sudan had always been a demanding one. For decades the only route from Cairo to Khartoum was via an overpriced ferry on the Lake Nasser. The two governments recently made the wise decision to build an overland route minimizing boat time. Here’s a satellite photo of the civil engineering travesty that ensued:
Continue reading “Eshkeet: Egypt-Sudan Border Crossing Fail”
Today we took the Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo bike up to the Hoo Koo E Koo Rd at Mount Tam. It was an epic reunion of mountain bike heritage.
Check out this fat spider that I found on on the trail at Wilder Ranch – it was already dead, I just parked him on my tire to get a better photo:
I figured it was some sort of tarantula but it turns out that a very similar-looking but biologically unrelated specie, the Calisoga spider, is also common around here, according to this list of frequently encountered spiders in California.
The South African wildlife reserve Sabi Sand just announced that they are implementing a clever new approach to protecting their engangered rhino. They are injecting a poison into the horns of 100 rhino on their reserve. This doesn’t harm the animal but should reduce the demand for the horn, much of which is consumed in powder form as a dietary supplement. The hope is that the poison and the dye that advertises its presence will make consumers shun the horn thus treated. The treated horn will become nearly worthless, and the animal isn’t harmed.
Today I investigated the tormentors of my lettuce plants. Here are the little buggers turning my leafy greens into droopy yellows:
I made a new, more detailed map of Kidepo Valley National Park itself:
