Day Trip To Mpanga Forest, Uganda

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Although the weather wasn’t the best, this day trip to Mpanga Forest about 90 minutes from Entebbe was still a pleasant trip.  It was one I could relax and enjoy since I had already found my target birds in the Entebbe Botanical Gardens.

I negotiated a full day rate with the driver, Robert from the Shoebill Safari (they can put you in contact with him) for 300,000 UGS.  We left very early to try to get to the forest as early as possible.

We went past lots of small markets and villages.

Turn off to the forest.

A bit muddy from the rain.

There are some cabins you can rent at the Mpanga Forest and this is where you pay the entrance fees and hire a guide.  There are official prices for everything, cash only.

The outhouse

Setting off on the trail with the guide.

Lots of pretty butterflies

Dug out tree roots, not sure what critter did this.

Trails are well marked but dark due to the overhead canopy.

Mousebird

Pied Kingfisher

We left after an hour as it was getting drizzly and not many birds around.  We were sitting around the picnic area for awhile to relax and see if the weather got better but it didn’t.  We drove back to the nearest town – Mpigi to get some lunch.

The restaurant had local food which was ok, not really to my taste but it was…………..ok.  The rice was good but the meat was too tough to eat.  Definitely cheap!

Heading back to Entebbe we passed more small markets and roadside stalls.

All in all it was an interesting trip though not the best for birding.  Maybe in a different season.  I had also considered Mabiri Forest  but that seemed too far for a day trip but it would make a nice overnight trip.

Great Blue Turaco (Corythaeola cristata)

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The Great Blue Turaco (Corythaeola cristata) is a turaco, a group of African near-passerines. It is the largest species of turaco.

They have a large range across Central Africa but the easiest place to see them is in Uganda.  I saw them both at Entebbe Botanical Gardens and Mpanga National Forest.

LEARN MORE ABOUT GREAT BLUE TURACOS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Turacos.org

HBW

VIDEOS

Thankfully I was able to find a couple good clips (both filmed in Uganda) on Youtube, mostly because these birds were hungry and therefore sitting still-ish!

United Devaluation Takes Effect 1 Nov, 2017; Aussies Lose Asian Sweet Spot….But One Silver Lining

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Coming on the heels of last year’s United devaluation which saw the loss of being able to cherry pick your segments on an award to having to accept whatever routings the search engine spit out, we now get slammed again.  Loyalty Lobby has a comprehensive post on the changes that affect everyone.  Most of the Boarding Area bloggers have covered ex-USA devaluations to premium cabin awards so I am going to concentrate on the effects to Australian and eco-tourists.   In general, business and first class awards are up all over but even more so for awards from Australia and New Zealand.

The sweet spot between Australia and South-east Asia is disappearing.  Awards will be increasing from 17.5k to 25k for economy, business class goes up from 30k to a whopping 50k!  Given that most Aussies source United miles via the SPG/Marriott route or buy them during promos, this may no longer be viable when it is so much easier to get SQ Krisflyer miles via Amex cards.  I enjoyed the cheap trip to Asia in 2015 but this devaluation is pretty much killing my interest in United moving forward.

ONE SILVER LINING

The only good thing to come out of this devaluation is that SOME partner awards will be cheaper if they are less than 800 miles.  The full award chart is here.  None of the routings involve Australia but you will be able to get Air New Zealand domestic routes for 8000 miles as they all fit in the 800 mile zone.  The other routes will remain at 17.5 to Australia and 22.5 to the Pacific Islands.

 

If you want to hop around South-east Asia, the routes with the blue dots (for example) are under 800 miles and will cost 8000 UA miles.  The longer routes will cost 17.5k.

 

There are some bargains to be had in the bird-rich countries of Central and South America.  These sample routings on Copa (ex-Panama City PTY) and Avianca (ex-Bogota or Lima) that fall into the 800 mile zone will cost 8000 miles.  The longer routes will cost 10k for Central America and 12.5k for routes in North or Southern South America.

Africa is pretty much Star Alliance territory with Ethiopian (ex-ADD) and South African Airways (ex-JNB) offering destinations all over Africa.  In the next two images you can see which sample routes will cost 8000 miles (blue dots) and the longer sample routes that will be 17.5k United miles.  Regional flights within Africa can be very expensive so it’s worth considering these options.

Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus)

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The Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill (Bycanistes subcylindricus) also known as the Grey-cheeked Hornbill, is a large—approximately 70 cm (28 in) long—black and white hornbill. It has an oversized blackish bill with a large casque on top. The female is slightly smaller than the male and has a significantly smaller casque.

Although their range covers a large part of Africa it is very spread out so you have to be lucky to see one but they are well worth it, they are such cool looking birds!  I saw this one in the Entebbe Botanical Gardens in Uganda.

LEARN MORE ABOUT BLACK & WHITE CASQUED HORNBILLS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

HBW

VIDEOS

Hungry birds!

Just impressive!

 

 

Skytrax Top 100 Airlines, My Experience

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Skytrax has an annual award ceremony in Paris to name the world’s top airlines as voted by their members.  I was looking through the list to see how many I have personally flown.  In the list below, I have weeded out airlines I have flown throughout my traveling life which began in the early 80’s and bolded the ones I have flown in business class and they are shown in the order in which Skytrax has ranked them with airlines I haven’t flown omitted.

Many of these trips and certainly all the business class ones would never have been possible without the use of miles and points!  The full list including rankings and scores can be found here.

Qatar Airways
Singapore Airlines
Emirates (J coming soon)
Cathay Pacific
EVA Air
Etihad Airways
Garuda Indonesia
Thai Airways
Turkish Airlines
Virgin Australia
Swiss Int’l Air Lines
Qantas Airways
Air France
Air New Zealand
Asiana Airlines
Bangkok Airways
KLM
Finnair
AirAsia
Air Canada
Aeroflot
Malaysia Airlines
Delta Air Lines
Korean Air
China Airlines
Alaska Airlines
British Airways
easyJet
Iberia
Jetstar Airways
Ethiopian Airlines
South African Airways
Avianca
Saudi Arabian Airlines
Azul Brazilian
Southwest Airlines
SilkAir
Indigo
LATAM
Alitalia
Philippine Airlines
Copa Airlines
Jet Airways
American Airlines
Fiji Airways
Air Mauritius
United Airlines
LOT Polish
Air Seychelles
SriLankan Airlines
Icelandair
Gulf Air
Hawaiian Airlines
American Eagle Airlines
Vueling
Kenya Airways
Royal Brunei Airlines
Air Malta
Royal Air Maroc
Air China
Aeromexico

IMPORTANT NOTE
The Survey covered more than 320 airlines, but Skytrax do not publish more than this Top 100 Airlines.  Looking back at my personal list, I can’t help but feel incredibly lucky and blessed to have had these experiences!  I am pleased to see Asian, Australian & New Zealand carriers rated so highly as these will form the bulk of my travel from 2019 onwards as I deplete my miles stash and start flying more short haul flights.  Even our low-cost carrier, Jetstar outranked American and United!

Ross’s Turaco (Musophaga rossae)

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Ross’s Turaco or Lady Ross’s Turaco (Musophaga rossae) is a mainly bluish-purple African bird of the turaco family, Musophagidae.

They have large range throughout central Africa.  I saw this one in Entebbe Botanical Gardens in Uganda.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ROSS’S TURACO

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Turacos.org

VIDEOS

I couldn’t find any Youtube clips of wild birds so I will have to use some captive birds to show the call and behaviour of this beautiful bird.  The call is very distinctive and that was how our guide located the birds we saw in Entebbe.

 

Entebbe Botanical Gardens – The Birds

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If you’ve been to most botanical gardens around the world, you may be expecting lots of flowers in organized garden plots. That’s not what the Entebbe Botanical Gardens is like.  It’s more like a large city park or small nature reserve with lots of trees-which of course attract lots of birds!  It’s also one of the most reliable places to see wild African Grey Parrots which was why I planned this visit.  Even if you are headed elsewhere in Uganda, it’s well worth a visit.

If you want to see as many birds as possible you need 2 things.  A vehicle (because this place is HUGE and you have to chase the birds if they fly off) and a guide.  Most hotels can organize a car for a set number of hours.  I paid around 100,000 UGS for 2 or 3 hours, I forget what it was.  You can pick up a guide at the gate, there will be several waiting and they seem to have their own rostering system.  Just make sure the one you get knows birds, maybe test them on a few photos first.  We got a guy named Bright who was excellent in both bird spotting and identification.  The standard fee is 20,000 UGS and I gave him a bonus of 20,000 UGS for finding the Grey Parrots because he really worked hard to find them.

Cool sculpture along the road.

Entrance to the Entebbe Botanical Gardens, this is where you pay the entry and hire a guide.

Monkeys were all over the place.

The shores of Lake Victoria is where you see a lot of water birds.  We were driving back and forth so the same birds were seen on different passes in this area.

Weaverbird

Pied Kingfisher

Little Egret

Red-chested Sunbird Now we’re in a more wooded area as Bright heard the Ross’s Turaco calling and quickly spotted him.

Wicked looking spider!

Great Blue Turaco

This one is too obscured, if anyone knows what it is, please comment.

Woodland Kingfisher

Fish Eagle

Bad shots of random birds, if anyone can help with these, let me know.  I do have a bird checklist on eBird.

Black and White Casqued Hornbill

Colobus Monkey

Saving the best for last-the wonderful African Grey Parrots!  There were around 10-12 frolicking in the trees but not all of them came into view.  Thankfully a few did!

Notable birds that I didn’t get pics of were the Meyers Parrot that flew overhead that Bright couldn’t find perching and the Red-headed Lovebirds we spotted on our last visit (no guide available as it was late) who were flitting around the flowered bushes near the lake.

Malachite Kingfisher (Corythornis cristatus)

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The Malachite Kingfisher (Corythornis cristatus) is a river kingfisher which is widely distributed in Africa south of the Sahara. It is largely resident except for seasonal climate-related movements.  This little beauty is only around 5 inches or 13 cm long so they can only eat small fish or insects.

They have a large range across central and southern Africa so your odds of seeing one is good.  They may be small but their brilliant colours make them stand out.  I have personally seen them in Mabamba Swamp, Uganda; South Luangwa, Zambia and Kruger NP, South Africa.

LEARN MORE ABOUT MALACHITE KINGFISHERS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

The Guardian

VIDEOS

Malachite kingfishers perched and looking for fish.

 

Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)

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The Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex) also known as whalehead or shoe-billed stork, is a very large stork-like bird. It derives its name from its massive shoe-shaped bill.

They are found in East/Central Africa.  One of the best places to see them is Mabamba Swamp in Uganda where there is a whole day trip dedicated to them with a high rate of successful sightings.

LEARN MORE ABOUT SHOEBILL STORKS

Wikipedia

Birdlife

Audubon

Africa Geographic

VIDEOS

OMG, the look on this guy’s face!

 

The Shoebill Safari Experience

Lunchtime!