Kibaale landscape and wildlife

The landscape here is lush and green; most locals farm their land but there are also papyrus swamps and areas of forest.   

I was very excited to spot a colobus monkey with long black and white fur and tail sitting high in a tree from the road.  There is a tremendous wealth of birdlife; I’ve seen a lot of brown long-tailed speckled mousebirds swooping from bush to bush (there’s a blurry one in the middle of this photo), pied wagtails and swallows around the hotel, and some kind of black weaver birds or possibly swifts at the adjacent Starlight hotel.  

On the drive up I also spotted a crowned hornbill with a red beak and a long crested eagle with three black plumes sticking up on its head. One the way back I saw a crested crane in flight, a black and white casqued hornbill and another long crested eagle.

There are huge boulders that the locals credit with magical powers – there’s a lot of witchcraft around here, so much that in Idi Amin’s time these were known as the “lost counties”.  Legends abound in the region, supported by evidence of earthworks dating from the 14^th century.