From a Nobody... To a Somebody...: Colour Edition

By Valerie Humphreys

My younger sister Anita asked if I would like to go on a birding holiday with her. She had already visited several African countries. On a weekend stay at her home I was looking through The Travelling Naturalist holiday brochure and came across a full page with a picture of a family of gorillas. I exclaimed, "Anita I can't see birds high up in the trees, but I could see gorillas." This was in Uganda and she replied, "Well we will go there then " We booked the holiday the next day. The two of us set off on our journey to Uganda on 19th January 2010 to see the wildlife. On our arrival at Entebbe airport we were joined by the rest of our party, 11 people in all plus our two guides. At the start of our holiday we went in search of one of the worlds most desired birds, a Shoebill. We set off by getting onto a small wooden boat and moving through a maze of papyrus channels. We eventually spotted our quarry and gently glided towards it. It stood unmoving and stared at us with its cold reptile eyes. It became accustomed to our presence and spread its feathers in the sun and showed off its clog like bill. It was all so exciting We didn't mind too much when a huge deluge of rain came down on us and stopped us in our tracks for almost 1/2 hour. As well as the shoebill we saw 338 other species of bird in the country as well as an abundance of spectacular butterflies, about 30 species in all. We also saw lots of species of monkeys, baboons and chimpanzees. But the highlight for me was the gorillas I visited the Impenetrable Forest at Bwindi to track and see the Rusheguru family of 19 Gorillas, from tiny babies to huge silverback. Little did I know then, that this adventure would change my life forever.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1716670063
• ISBN13: 9781716670060
• Release Date: August 2020
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Length: 116 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.8" x 8.3"