Safari Stories

In Kabalega’s Kingdom: Bunyoro in Uganda

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Above: Royal tomb of King Kabalega near Hoima in Uganda. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: The East African Nation media 25 April 2020

By Rupi Mangat

Powerful and progressive, Kabalega defended his kingdom against colonial onset

It was the taxi driver who announced, “The royal tomb of Kabalega is here.”  He brought the car to a halting screech when he realized l was serious about seeing it.

At that point Kabalega was quite unknown to me. I was whiling away days in Masindi visiting friends. With time on my hands and no intention of doing Murchison Falls – for now dubbed as the most powerful waterfall in the world – which l had visited in 2017, l was following in my late grandmother’s steps to Hoima. She gave birth in each of the three East African countries with the last born in Hoima in the 1940s.

Hoima was only 60 kilometres further west of Masindi and another 20 to Lake Albert, one of the African great lakes in the rift.

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Artist's impression of One of the newly discovered sixgilled sawshark species (Pliotrema kajae). Copyright: Simon Weigmann,

Not one but TWO new species of Sawsharks discovered in Zanzibar and Madagascar

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Discovering a species in the 21st century is exciting but to discover two new species is super-exciting. 

By Rupi Mangat

Above: Artist’s impression of One of the newly discovered sixgilled sawshark species (Pliotrema kajae). Copyright: Simon Weigmann,

Published: The East African Nation media 11-17 April 2020

These bottom dwelling sharks support long saw-like snouts called rostrums with which they stun, rip and eat their prey. They are so new to science that they have never been photographed in the ocean!

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Maasai giraffe at Ecoscapes Conservancy Lake Naivasha

A Weekend Away on Lake Naivasha

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By Rupi Mangat

Above: Maasai giraffe at Ecoscapes Conservancy Lake Naivasha

Published: Saturday Nation 4 April 2020

We’re in a land from the time of the dinosaurs. While there may or may not have been dinosaurs around Lake Naivasha, there’s a tiny wasp that has been around for some 60 million years ago when dinosaurs where going out of fashion.

Driving on Moi North tarmac road that circles part of the freshwater lake that is the highest of the rift lakes, the earth road that follows is a gorgeous grove of fig trees – Ficus wakefieldii to be precise because there are over 750 species of fig trees in the world. Each one of them has strong trunks with wide spread branches that look like a work of art in a natural gallery.

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Endangered and little known: Roan antelope

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By RUPI MANGAT

Above: The gate at Ruma National Park of the roan antelope. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: The East African Nation 14 April 2008

Only 40 surviving today – 2020.

If you think that only the African Rhino and elephant are endangered or a target of poachers, you are wrong. There are many other animals threatened with extinction who, unfortunately, are little known and rarely heard of.

Kenya’s roan antelope falls in this category. Today, this subspecies of the roan, Hippotragus equines langheldi, is only found in one tiny area in the world — Ruma National Park in western Kenya. At one time its territory stretched all the way from the Mara grasslands to Ruma. It was also found in other areas such as the Ithanga hills in Thika.

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Via Via Entebbe: Taste the World

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Above:

Published: The East African Nation media 21- 27 March 2020

I’m super excited to be staying at Via Via in Entebbe, booked by the staff at the New Court View Hotel in Masindi that’s the nearest town from the epic Murchison Falls National Park that boasts the ‘most powerful waterfall in the world’. It’s my next stop.

Reception at Via Via Entebbe. Copyright Rupi Mangat
Welcome to Via Via Entebbe. Copyright Rupi Mangat

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