Driving south from the Volcano craters fields in the north of the park, you drive through a very large tract of Rain forest and just in the blink of an eye, the rain-forest abruptly ends and the open plains of Ishasha spread out before you. To the south of Lake Edward and neatly puzzled into the border with the DRC, these plains are known as the lava plains, due to the dark volcanic soils. Lush vegetated pans scream that is going to be an interesting part of the trip.
The drawcard to Ishasha is most definitely the Lions. They habitually climb and sleep in the large Fig tree’s dotted around the plains. I’ve seen Lions in tree’s before, usually trying to steal a Leopards hard earned meal, but this was most definitely the first time I’ve seen them want and not must climb. This does however make finding these Lions reasonably easy. The tactic seems to be, drive from one Fig tree to the next, and you’re bound to find them.
We managed to find them twice, on the first evening and the second evening. But Ishasha is more than just the Lions. The Buffalo population is very strong, there are hundreds of Ugandan Kob, plenty of Topi and we saw several Elephant herds as well. A massive Hippo population in the Ishasha river makes for a nice stop as well. But the birdlife is mind blowing! On the Savanna grasslands we saw Crowned Crane, Spur-winged Lapwing, White-throated Bee-eater a dn Saddle-billed Stork. In the riverine forest along the Ishasha river the forest birds are found as well as more primates, we saw the Black and white Colobus Monkeys and Red-tailed Monkeys.
All in all the Ishasha section of the Queen Elizabeth National Park is a very interesting stopover between the Chimps in the North and the Gorillas to the South.
Awesome photos Darren !