Blog

April 13 – 17, 2022

Our flight into Entebbe, returning from our dalliance in Morocco, arrived at 3:30 AM. It was raining when our taxi driver drove the two hours to the Haven in the dark. We were glad we weren’t driving.

The rain was not unexpected. It was pretty much smack in the middle of the rainy season. When we set out on our trip in October, heading for East Africa, we had known that we’d be sandwiching our time between the short (Nov-Dec) and long rains (mid March-June). Of course the seasons are variable, ever more so in recent years. The plan all along had been to travel in East Africa until it got too soggy for us and then beat feet to the dryer climes of the south. 

Arriving at The Haven in the steady tap of rain we got the feeling we’d be activating our “go south” plans pretty soon. But who knows, we’re often told that it doesn’t rain every day this time of year.

The Cruiser was looking cooped up in the shed, but she was ready for action. Well, almost, our starter battery was not happy and needed a jump. After that she was ready for action. We took an extra day to get organized, do laundry and prime ourselves for the next leg of our adventure. Though we enjoyed the big beds and hot showers of Morocco, it felt great to back in the car and to be in control of our own destiny. 

To pick up where we left off we headed back to Kluge’s guest farm outside Fort Portal. On the way we stopped at the big Carrefour supermarket and provisioned. Except for vegetables and fruit which were so good and cheap at the road side markets. Again we thanked the makers of the Kampala expressway for getting us around the worst of the traffic.

Kluge’s was as we left it. Well, almost. There were other guests here in the chalets, and the birding was not up to the same par it had been before. However we have taken to noting to each other the good parts of traveling in the rainy season. For example, the rains had cleared out that persistent haze I have been griping about and now we could see the lovely Rwenzori mountains from the campsite.

Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale

A couple nights in the tent and we were getting back in the groove of overlanding Africa. It rained at night, but we woke to beautiful conditions and we were pumped up to go see some chimpanzees. Kibale National Park is fairly close and we more or less repeated the drive we’d made two weeks earlier, only instead of stopping at Nkuruba Community Campsite we continued on to Kibale. 

There is only one road through Kibale and there is no entrance fee to transit the park. The paved road brought us easily to the Kanyanchu Visitor Center, where chimp tracking and other activities can be organized.

We rolled up to the visitor center around noon to inquire what the story was. A female ranger explained that chimp tracking normally leaves at 8 AM and 2 PM, as expected, and costs $200 per person. She went on to say that it was slow and we could have our own ranger and depart anytime we wanted. 

With that news, along with the agreeable weather, we decided to go for it. After a quick lunch in the car we geared up for our hike. A ranger came over and introduced himself as Edison. He gave us a short orientation and off we went into the forest.

The forest was wonderful. A high canopy provided shade and trees were impressive. It was not dissimilar to the Budongo Forest Reserve where we’d been birding before, though the forest floor might be a bit more open. 

Edison took us on various paths through the forest, branching into ever smaller and narrower tracks. Occasionally we would plunge into the untrammeled undergrowth, leaves crunching underfoot and vines whipping across our faces as he looked for chimpanzees. After a while he confessed that the trackers had not seen the chimps for a while, and that this morning they’d only spotted two, and those two had left after just a few minutes. This did not sound promising.

Eventually we finally did find the chimps, five of them feeding high in a fig tree. This happy encounter went well, though the chimps were high in the trees and our necks suffered, craning to look high in the canopy. 

Two of them descended to the forest floor fairly close to us and headed off into the forest.

Edison took this as some sort of challenge, wanting to see where they were headed. The chimps had a good head start on us and he charged off after them, us clumsily in tow. After a while he conceded that the chimps had eluded us.

We were very happy with our sighting though and we began the walk back to the car. Ten or so minutes into our hike we heard the pant-hoot of a chimp close by. Edison perked up and off we went again, pushing branches aside and stepping over big roots and going as fast as we could to keep up.

Edison brought us to a huge fig tree and the chimps were whooping and hollering it up. The sound was incredible. We could barely see them, but hearing them was very special. They were making quite a racket and Edison said they were calling other members of the group, telling them there was food here.

It was time to leave them and we moved on. First chimps, then their hollering from the canopy, I thought this was a great success. But we were not done yet, we lucked out with a third sighting.

Back on the path we hiked for a while, maybe 30 minutes, towards the car. Again we heard the distant pant-hoot of a chimpanzee, and Edison froze. It was a different part of the same group (chimps routinely break into smaller groups from the larger community). Edison couldn’t resist and he charged headlong into the forest again and we again dove after him.

We came upon chimps, grooming each other on the ground. They were so close. It was wonderful to be able to watch their anthropomorphic movements at eye level. They moved off, and one of them reclined on the forest floor, relaxing with arms stretched out and totally uninterested in our presence. 

I lost track of how many chimps there were. Six? Eight? At some point they grouped around each other, grooming each other or what I took to be critiquing their fellow’s grooming technique. Then in the distance two very large chimps came from the trees down to the ground.

“It’s the alpha,” Edison said. We backed off a bit as the alpha and his compatriot marched cockily towards the other chimps. They were marching towards us in a swagger, knuckles pressing into the ground and shoulders pumping forwards and back as they worked their way towards us. Edison had us step back again, but the alpha came right at us. “Don’t move!” Edison whispered urgently, and we froze. The alpha and his henchman marched right past us, I could have reached out and touched him. 

You’re not supposed to get this close, but we had already moved back and were up against some bushes. Edison judged that we were better freezing in place than potentially causing more disruption by trying to move. 

They all moved off after the boss and we relaxed, hearts beating and big smiles on our faces. Edison told us that what we saw was very rare, that he hadn’t seen them on the ground for quite a while and had not seen anything like this for six months at least. We were feeling very fortunate.

There used to be a campsite at Kanyanchu, but sadly this has closed. We were recommended to go to a place called Hornbill Cave, not far to the south of Kibale. This was also near Edison’s home, so we gave him a ride and he gave us directions to the campsite.

His directions were not that good, and there was no sign. But after a bunch of driving around we finally found a small campsite tucked into lush trees. It was owned by a Ugandan guy who used to work for a big lodge next door. He’s now building it up, with plans to add a restaurant soon.

Rain set in soon afterour arrival, so we settled in for a fairly subdued evening. There was a small thatched shelter where we ate dinner as it rained. Later on, the rain let up and the staff built a fire for us and we chatted with the owner. 

I asked about birds and he got excited, he was a birder himself. The property is adjacent to some wetlands and they have a small bird walk. He invited me to join him in the morning for a bird walk. Sadly come morning it was raining again and he said the birds would not be out. 

Queen Elizabeth National Park

Instead we packed up camp and hit the road, heading for Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP). The GPS wanted us to drive all the way north, back to Fort Portal and then turn left and cut back towards the south. There was an obvious shorter route on the map, a gravel road that could theoretically save us some time, depending of course on its condition. The rain made for slick red mud on most tracks around here. But we were both sort of tired of driving through Fort Portal so we thought we’d give it a shot anyway.

This turned out to be a success, except for a couple kilometers in the middle that was very slick. Thankfully no other vehicles came on that stretch; if we’d had to move to the side I think we would have just slid into the ditch. As we traversed this rural route it brought us through many attractive villages and scenic green farms. Another advantage of the rain is it cuts down on the pedestrian and motorcycle traffic a lot.

About a kilometer from where we were going to rejoin the tar we came up against a huge congregation of people. Each held small crucifixes made of wood and were marching down the road. Jenny and I, both being heathens, couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on until it dawned on us that it was Good Friday. 

After quite a bit of waiting around the crowd marched off the road and we were able to proceed, back onto the tar. The rain continued as we turned right, and now with the looming Rwenzori Mountains on our right we made our way south to Queen Elizabeth National Park. 

This is another Ugandan Park that can be a bit confusing, owing to its different sectors. There is a park office at the northern part of the park called Queen’s Pavilion. Since the public road bisects this part of the park there is no gate, you have toturn off the road to stop at the park office. 

Here we had a long conversation with the ranger. For some reason we could only pay our entrance fee here, then we had to go to the Mweya office near the camping to pay our camping fee. Then if we continued to the Ishasha sector, at the south end of the park, we would stop at that office and pay again down there. Why we couldn’t pay all at once was a mystery.

On the way to the Mweya office we toured the Mweya campsites No. 1 and No. 2, which are wilderness camps with no facilities, our kinds of camps. Campsite No. 3 is very near the Mweya HQ and is a huge campsite with some shelters and ablutions. 

Contrary to what the guidebook advised we were only charged the routine 20,000 UGX ($6 USD) to camp at the wilderness campsite No.1, which we judged to have a slightly better view than No. 2. We paid our fees and also booked a lion tracking experience for the next morning. Some travelers we’d met in Murchison Falls had recommended it to us. We are becoming jaded (but happy) safari veterans, and since this lion tracking experience seemed to offer a unique opportunity we felt we should take it, instead of the routine game drive. Particularly since QENP is not known to be quite in the same league as some of the other parks we had recently visited. 

For the afternoon we made a game drive in the Mweya area and saw almost nothing as far as wildlife goes. This part of the park is fairly flat and is universally dense shrubbery punctuated by large candelabra euphorbias. This made seeing any distance difficult. It was also not all that attractive a landscape, particularly compared to pleasant hills and valleys of Murchison Fall’s delta area. 

The exception is we did see a pair of giant forest hogs, which I’ll take as a victory. These are not commonly sighted animals, though we had seen them in Aberdare National Park in Kenya. 

Game viewing didn’t seem that promising so we retired to enjoy our campsite with some daylight to spare. The campsite has a view of the Kazinga channel, that connects Lake George and Lake Edward. The banks of the channel are high and there are no roads at the waters edge, the land is too steep, so we were looking down on the channel from above. 

We picked our spot next to a large candelabra euphorbia. I battled wet wood for a while and eventually stoked a fire. Jenny got dinner organized so we could grill chicken and veggies over the coals. Given the ingredients available in East Africa our dinner menu has settled into a fairly steady rotation of fried rice, pasta, curry, lentils, and grilled chicken with grilled veggies. 

The bush camp was really nice. Right before we went to bed a hyena walked nonchalantly through camp. He wasn’t interested in us or our food, just using the road to get to wherever he needed to be. As we sat by the fire in the dark we heard a square tailed nightjar calling loudly nearby. Their call is wonderful, it sounds like an engine shifting gears.

Lion Tracking

Our alarm went off early. The ranger had strict instructions to report to Mweya fuel station to meet for our lion tracking appointment. How it works is there is an ongoing lion and leopard research project run in cooperation with the UWA (Ugandan Wildlife Authority) and other partners. Tourists like us can pay ($100 USD pp, ouch) to join a researcher for a day. And by “join” I mean they come in your vehicle. I gather this is to save the research project money in the way of fuel and milage on the park vehicles. Then you spend the morning tracking down predators around the Kasenyi sector of the park (the part that lies east of the public road), including allowance to drive fully off-road under the direction of the researcher. 

Basically it’s near guaranteed predator sightings and some off-road fun. And it helps the researchers cut some costs. I suspect it also improves their data volume. We got the impression later that if there are no tourists they simply don’t go out for the day, or at least not every day.

To arrive on time at Mweya we had to leave in darkness. Normally it’s a no-no to drive in darkness in a national park. We asked about this and received a non answer, “Be at the filling station at 0620.” There is a gate to the Mweya area HQ, where they checked our permit again and then waved us on. 

There is a Shell fuel station inside the Mweya area, and sure enough the researcher, James, showed up at 0620 sharp. James had a shoulder bag, tablet with a database of information on various animals and a RDF (radio direction finding) tracking kit, including a hand held antenna. After introductions he got in the back and off we went. 

Checking out of the gate we had just been through ten minutes earlier involved checking our permit again, and then some consternation as we didn’t have the duplicate copy for the gate to keep. We pointed out that this was the fourth time we’d been through this gate in less than 24 hours and that they had already taken their copy yesterday, which involved more discussion with the other guards at the gate. In some foreshadowing of the morning to come, James was ranting all the while about what idiots these guys were, “They can read but they do not understand!”.

Finally we passed muster and were off, James urging me to drive a bit faster so we would get to the Kasenyi gate by 0700. On the drive we started talking about lions with James, but he quickly diverted the conversation to politics. He railed at UWA, at President Museveni and at his fellow Ugandans.

Jenny and I were giving each other looks, as this was super interesting, but unexpected. At some point James went off on how the voters were gullible and vehemently declared them, “Either stupid or intimidated”. Put me down for intimidated, this guy is intense!

One interesting observation from James was regarding UWA and park fees. Not so long ago UWA changed policies so that all park payments had to be made either with mobile money or with a credit card. This was ostensibly done to reduce corruption, so that the park fee money couldn’t disappear into the pockets of staff in the parks. Makes sense, right?

James was furious at this, because he said what happens is when paid by credit card the park fees go to Kampala, never to return. In the past he said that some money did get pocketed, and that was wrong. But that also much of the general operating money used in the park for the mundane day to day, the fueling of vehicles or making repairs etc., was paid for directly out of that money. The rest was forwarded to Kampala for HQ operating expenses or whatever. He said they’d just moved the corruption to the capital, and it was much higher in volume now. 

By this time we arrived at the next gate (there are a lot of gates in this park) where James got out to check us in. There were quite a few safari vehicles here, more than we’d seen anywhere for months. 

James came back and said that the office had added a second vehicle to the lion tracking experience (they allow up to five in convoy), so we joined up with another Land Cruiser with a single guest. James moved over to the other vehicle, as it had a pop top roof, easier for him to use is directional antenna from.

Off we went, following James’s direction. A few kilometers into the park we saw a group of vehicles watching a male lion some distance off the road, no radio tracking equipment needed. Happily, since we were with James, we drove over the berm and onto the short grass plains of Kasenyi sector and rolled right up on a lion.

Our two cars were parked close enough to each other so James could talk to everyone. He explained that this Lion was named “Mr. Mike,” and that he was a stupid lion. Jenny and I found this declaration hilarious. 

James went on to explain that Mr. Mike had killed his own cubs because they approached him when he was mating with another female. Lions typically mate for something like 48 hours, having intercourse every 15 to 20 minutes (!!) and during this time no other lions should approach them or they’ll have to fight the male. When Mr. Mike’s cubs approached during a round of mating he didn’t take it very well and killed them. Normally male lions will kill the cubs if they’re from a different male. 

Thus, Mr. Mike is stupid. James was particularly annoyed by this because the Lion population in QENP is under threat and they really wanted at least some of the cubs to make it to maturity. After more smack talk about Mr. Mike James whipped out his RF antenna rig and got a bearing on another lion. 

This part of the park was very forgiving for off-roading, mostly short grass on pretty flat ground with some big shrubs here and there. We spent the rest of the morning alternating between spotting cats and listening to James rant on various topics. It was all very fascinating, sometimes hilarious and sometimes a bit intense. 

A few cat sightings later we got a puncture. I could hear a hiss on each tire revolution. There was a big herd of buffalo nearby so we drove to a clearing a bit more distant. Hiss, hiss, hiss as we rolled along. At least when you stop to change a tire in the bush with the lion tracking guy you have a pretty good idea that you won’t be eaten. 

The guide from the other car jumped right in to change the spare and barely let us help. We were apologizing to his guest for holding up the show but she thought it was fantastic, seeing a tire getting changed and getting out of the car in the park. We couldn’t tell what had caused the flat, but it was a good sized tear right on the corner of the tire so this tire was now junk.

James went on to describe some of the challenges with conservation in QENP. He explained that part of the reason we didn’t see much in the Mweya sector was because all those huge shrubs we saw were invasive species that the animals can’t eat. He said the local word for it  translates something to the effect of “defeats even the elephants” because they won’t eat it, and they eat just about everything. He was greatly distressed about this because the shrub in question was spreading to the Kasenyi side and if they didn’t address things it would displace the grass for the grazers. 

James had a remarkable knack for turning all wildlife related topics back to the incompetence and corruption of government. He said funds had been allocated for removing the invasive plants, but that the vast majority of it was siphoned off into private pockets and the work was barely started, there wasn’t enough money left over.

Another riff was about illegal settlements in the park, of which there are a few. Some are big enough to have proper fuel stations and cell phone towers and now they’re big enough that the government can’t really ask them to move. He went on to explain that two people from one of these illegal villages were recently eaten by leopards, drug out of their huts when they left the doors open at night. This lead to a morbid and rhetorical diatribe about “You eat meat don’t you? But now you’re sad when something wants to eat you? Where is the logic in that, hmm?” I wish I had recorded it because there was a lot more to it, but you get the idea. 

In the end we saw three lions and two leopards with the aid of James and his RDF gear. Seeing the cats was great of course, but really listening to James and getting to drive fully off-road were the real highlights. 

James and the guide also waxed on about the past, how QENP’s glory days had been in the 2000s and that now game numbers just weren’t the same. This is contrary to what the guide book says, that the park is still recovering from the early days of poaching, but these guys had worked here since then. 

Of course all of this is anecdotal, but it is from people with real boots on the ground and with history and it is very hard to replicate that any way other than the long and slow work of accumulating experience. 

Lion tracking had been a success. We spent the afternoon doing the scenic crater drive. This loop is not known for its game viewing, more its very unique landscapes, a dirt track winding the ridge lines between a series of craters. 

At one viewpoint we stopped for lunch and spotted elephants browsing in the bottom of one of the craters, a wonderful sight and our only elephant sightings in the north of Queen Elizabeth. The crater drive was fantastic, a super scenic couple hours spent in an unusual landscape. I was beginning to appreciate the diversity of experiences that QENP offered in lieu of just straight up traditional game viewing, which was not up to par with other parks. 

After another night at the Mweya No. 1 wilderness campsite we drove south to the Ishasha sector of the park. There is not much game viewing to be done on this drive, but some of it is certainly pleasant enough. At one point we did have a nice herd of elephants block the road for five or ten minutes. We waited and they moved off into the bush.

On the same road it had rained recently and huge numbers of butterflies were gathered near all the puddles. Thousands and thousands of them as we went along. They were vivid colors of green, orange and turquoise, some grey or black. As we drove along they would fly up in big clouds of wings alongside the car. 

I am not a fan of most insects and I have a particular distaste for a large species of grayish moth that is common in Botswana and Namibia at a certain time of year. They have red beady eyes that reflect in your headlamp and they always seem to fly in your face or your drink. While I was marveling at the butterflies Jenny was mocking me, about why was it that I got so angry at the moths but I apparently liked these butterflies. I responded it was because the butterflies were polite, never once flying into the cab.

Eventually we arrived at the Ishasha sector gate and checked in (so many gates, so many sectors), booking the Ishasha No. 2 campsite. It was midday, not prime game viewing hours, so we went to check out our campsite before heading out for more wildlife viewing. 

There is a ranger base near the camp, and after going through another gate we drove by a large collection of huts that accomodate the staff as well as a detachment of Ugandan Defense Force.  That is because we are a stones throw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda and the DRC are not friends. And by stones throw I mean that literally, only a modest river separates the two countries. 

Our camp was wonderful, a clearing in the trees plopped right on the river bank, the DRC staring us in the face about 10 or 20 meters across a muddy brown river. Casqued hornbills were squawking and flying in their weird swooping flight from tree to tree and a contingent of hippos wheezed and honked loudly nearby. It was fantastic, we were really looking forward to camping here. 

First off though was the hunt for lions. Specifically the famed tree climbing lions of Ishasha. The lions in this part of the park have made a habit of reclining in trees, as opposed to on the ground like regular cats. Explanations for this vary, but one plausible one is that there is a biting fly at certain times of year that they are trying to get away from, but who knows? 

Sightings of them are not quite as common as they used to be, compounded by the recent death of six more of the Ishasha lions. They are believed to have been poisoned, a not uncommon retaliation by nearby communities that are not excited about living next door to lions. 

We drove lots of tracks and peered into many a beautiful tree, that to me appeared to have comfortable limbs that any lion would be happy with, but saw no lions. One such road was right up to the boundary to the park and we could just barely see a vehicle on the main road, stopped. This clue lead us to look closer (“binocularize” in our safari parlance) and lo, a lion in a tree. 

I took the Cruiser in an about face and we bumped our way to the park gate and out onto the main road. On the GPS we could see roughly where the lion had been and we drove more or less straight to four handsome lions resting in a handsome fig tree.

Normally lions can be relied upon to do nothing at all for most of the day, but in about 10 minutes these particular cats got up, stretched a bit, and eased themselves down the ground, disappearing in the tall grass. A few minutes later and we would have missed them. We waited around for a while to see if they would reappear, but they didn’t. 

Back at camp we arrived to another safari vehicle parked there and we wondered if we’d have neighbors for the night. These are not private campsites and that would be fine. It was a pretty big group of locals and they were all gathered on the bank watching the hippos. We always like it when we see locals at their own parks. It is a shame that so few get to appreciate their own landscapes and wildlife. 

We walked up to say hello and were appalled to see two guys throwing sticks at the hippos, much to the amusement of the rest of the group. We were horrified. One of the guys walked away to go find more ammunition and Jenny admonished him, that they shouldn’t be doing that. He responded simply to us, “It’s okay, it is not a problem.” This kind of non response made us even more fed up. 

What should we do? There were quite a lot of them and after failing in our first attempt we were uncertain on where to go from here. In a minute it became clear that the guide was the one leading the efforts, which is even more inappropriate. We see a lot of Africans not treating animals with respect. I am generalizing, but it is very common to see people beating, whipping or throwing rocks at domesticated animals for no reason, when the animal is already complying with whatever it’s supposed to do. What we were witnessing appeared to be an extension of that.

So it wouldn’t have been all that shocking to find kids doing this, but to be lead by the guide! Thankfully while Jenny and I were plotting our next move they ran out of steam and they got in their Cruiser to get back to their lodge. 

We took a photo of the vehicle and number plate and the next morning reported the guide to the rangers at the gate. They were also appalled. They said they were familiar with that vehicle and the owner and would be talking to him directly. Who knows what came of it. 

That jarring event thankfully didn’t take long to get over because this campsite was so fantastic. The hippos were making a right ruckus just a few meters away. A couple guys arrived from the ranger station and made us a fire and we watched hippos, sitting by the fire and sipping beers on the banks of the river as the sunset. It was magic.

At night three rangers showed up for our protection. Actually I think it was one ranger, to protect us from animals, and two UDF soldiers, to protect us from the Congo. Normally all this would seem a bit overkill, but a woman was kidnapped from this part of the park in 2019. I made a big tub of popcorn that night and brought some to our protectors, which they seemed to be very happy with. 

This campsite was really one of the best we’d had in a while. What a great spot. The next day we planned to head for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see Uganda’s famous Mountain Gorillas.
This campsite was really one of the best we’d had in a while. What a great spot. The next day we planned to head for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see Uganda’s famous Mountain Gorillas.

The Nitty Gritty

The Haven & Kampala

The Haven charges $1 dollar/day for vehicle storage. Note we took the back roads through to Kampala (see map), which ostensibly have less traffic. This is probably true, but the longer distance and dense traffic right at the end might offset any gains vs the more direct A104 route. 

The Carrefour in eastern Kampala has all, or at least most, of the western goods you might want, but watch the prices. We saw cheese that was $15 USD, whereas locally made cheese was $5. The same for pasta sauce and other goods. There were very expensive imported prices and still not that cheap prices for African produced products. 

There are excellent road side produce stands west of Kampala. The biggest we found was here: N0° 23.525′ E32° 04.764’ though you might not find everything it was very well stocked, much more than the typical roadside stalls that only have cabbage, tomato and onion.

Kibale National Park

When driving to Kibale you can now ignore the sign that says “all payments must be made at park headquarters” or something to that effect. Now you can pay for any activities at the Kanyanchu visitor center by credit card (phone network permitting). The network was down, of course, when we were there and we paid by cash. 

Hornbill Cave Campsite

$10 pppn. It’s a nice spot with space for four or five vehicles? We really liked this place. They did run a small generator for a little bit in the evening and the morning, but not too late. Some friends of the staff came and went by vehicles fairly close to us which was a minor disruption, that might bother some people. I would recommend this spot. 

Queen Elizabeth National Park

Free firewood is available at Campsite No. 3 in Mweya. The camp attendant has a stash of dry firewood, or there is wet stuff sitting outside. The campsite is sprawling and not very atmospheric, but also not bad. If it weren’t for the nearby wilderness sites to the east of here we would have been content here. We took showers here on the second day on one of our firewood runs. 

Given the prices to be in the Ugandan parks we might have condensed our stay to two nights. Arrive in the North and do the crater drive in the afternoon, camp at Mweya No. 1 or No. 2, lion track the following morning, and then drive to Ishasha that afternoon. Camp at Ishasha No. 2 and game drive that night if you have time, as well as the following morning.

I found QENP to be a nice park to visit, but given the mounting costs of our expedition we couldn’t help but do a bit of cost/benefit analysis. If budget (money as well as time) wasn’t a concern two nights at the north and two at the south would be good. 

Booking lion tracking ahead without a tour operator seemed to be impossible, but it was easy to do upon arrival. They will run lion tracking up to three times a day (the last one at night) if there are enough customers, so it doesn’t seem likely that it would be fully booked.