Uganda Chapter 8: Meet the Shoebill

To see a complete set of photos from this day, click here. To see a complete set of photos of Semiliki, click here.

Even though I am incredibly sad to leave Ndali behind, it's another crack of dawn departure, this time to head to Semiliki for a boat ride to spot the famous African Shoebill bird.

Now, let me begin by saying that there are differences in the way that Lisa and I travel. Lisa likes to travel to learn: at the end of the trip, she will be able to tell you all about the country and its history, all of its languages and, in this case, a cataloging of all of its wildlife. I travel to experience. I will be able to tell you FAR fewer facts about any given place that we visit, but I will be able to describe to you in great detail the sensory experience of driving down a dirt road in Uganda.

There are values in both types of experiences. Lisa and I have traveled enough that we are aware of the difference and generally allow both styles to co-exist. However, the day before, I had found myself in the middle of the Ndali vanilla farm. The place is one of the most stunningly lovely places ever on the earth, and we were there in the bright sun of the afternoon, and everything smelled like vanilla, and all I wanted to do was to wander around through the vanilla plants and feel the moment. And suddenly I realize that I am trapped with Lisa and the guide as they passionately discuss how many millimeters in length a perfect vanilla pod grows to.

My head nearly implodes.

Fortunately, they are engrossed in their conversation and barely notice as I turn and leave to meander around the vanilla.

Which brings us to Wednesday morning, when our activity is to ride around in a boat for several hours looking for some rare breed of bird. Needless to say, I am skeptical of the awesomeness of the rare African Shoebill bird, which, by the way, can only be seen in Uganda.

Our boat guide is Julius, and I super heart him. His smile is completely infectious and when the time comes (soon, I hope) for me to leave my normal life and chase after a poor Ugandan man, it will be Julius.



Lisa and Julius are into the bird spotting. I am into sunning myself on the boat. Occasionally, one of them will say to me, "Look! It's a long-necked, blue-feathered, flat-billed, Ugandan stork!!!!" And I will look up , smile, say "Yes, yes, it is," and return to sunning myself.



I am, as I said, skeptical of the awesomeness of the African Shoebill.

Until, that is, the moment that we actually spot the African Shoebill.

We are approaching the Shoebill, and Lisa and Julius are all raging through the binoculars, and I'm ignoring them and enjoying the sun. And they're getting more and more excited. And so, finally, somewhat reluctantly, I say, "Oh, can I see the binoculars for a minute. I just figure if I've come all the way out here, I should at least see the bird. I guess."

Shoebills are a prehistoric bird, literally. I knew that they were a prehistoric bird because Lisa had informed me that they were a prehistoric bird. I did not expect that seeing the Shoebill would feel so prehistoric. First off, the African Shoebill looks like it just came out of Jurassic Park. Secondly, it is big. Like dinosaur-bird big. Lastly, its whole presence involves just standing there, perfectly still, staring you down and basically saying to you, "Me and my kind have been here forever, and you and your kind are just getting started. Keep your distance."



I have to confess it: Lisa wins and the viewing of the African Shoebill was amazing, awesome, and all of the things that she claimed it would be.

After the Shoebill experience, we head to Semiliki Lodge, which is actually a tent lodge and which is also where we are staying for the night. Ndali has my heart, but if there were only one place you could go in Uganda, I would say to go to Semiliki. The tents are beyond lovely, the water pressure is the best we had all trip long, there is electricity in the evening and the early morning, and each tent has a veranda that actually overlooks the jungle preserve next to the lodge. Oh, and the food is amazing as well. For dinner that night (which is served in an entirely open environment by candlelight), there is chilled avocado soup, rice and eggplant and some kind of passionfruit tart. The whole idea of Semiliki is that you're outside even when you're inside. It's perfect. Not perfect like Ndali is perfect, but perfect in a different kind of way.



Anyway, after the Shoebill experience, we basically have the rest of the day off. I do two hours of yoga on the veranda of my tent, and a monkey actually comes out and sits on a tree fifty feet away from me to keep me company. It's a perfect rest, which is good, because the next day we have to ...

To see a complete set of photos from this day, click here. To see a complete set of photos of Semiliki, click here.