The Fruits of Life

"Get out!" We heard our leader's customary command just as the last passenger was falling asleep. 

It was time for a pit-stop, but not before a lively haggle for some fruit. Never mind his mzungu passengers, Emmy always gets his price. 

"People say there is no food in Africa, what do you call that?" he says, pointing to one of many beautiful fruit stands that dot Uganda. Emmy is one of the greatest advocates of the pearl of Africa, but is also the first to criticize its faults. Of its portrayal by the western media as hub of child soldiers, regionally incorrect viruses and starving kids with big bellies, he does not approve. 

I didn't want to miss out on a good fruit stand so joined in and came back with a great find, this hefty Jackfruit for a pittance. We feasted on its sweet meat like savages. 

YES!!!

Our M.O.: drive, buy fruit, slay lifers, feast on said fruit, repeat. Classy guide that he is, Emmy did not pick our rest stops randomly. They were strategically planned for maximum wayside lifer count. At one site, Red-shouldered Cuckoo-shrike and Whistling Cisticola. At another, Papyrus Gonolek. The ultimate picnic stop is the one I am about to describe...

Coordinates of the Escarpment of the Rift Valley epic rest stop, aka "Baboon Corner"

It is called the "Escarpment of the Rift Valley" (different from the Kenya Rift Valley) en route to Murchison Falls. Emmy tried with difficulty to force Wilson and I to eat a sandwich while we were lured into the bush by unfamiliar calls. Common Cuckoos, Western-banded Snake-eagle and Beautiful Sunbirds lured us from the bonnet picnic he had so carefully constructed. 

Common Cuckoo

"Eat your sandwich, watch birds after!"

A good guide's mission is to constantly keep his passengers' stomachs full, to ward off crankiness. 

His task was made more difficult by three marauding baboons bee-lining toward us. The large male was particularly ravenous and little phased by our attempts at throwing rocks at him. Emmy dragged his machete on the tarmac which seemed to keep them at bay...for the time being. Just as we sunk our teeth into our improvised sandwiches composed of crumbly, sugary African white bread with avocado slices and blueband shoved in the middle, we heard a shriek of terror. It was a passenger in a passing matatu swatting a baboon with a rolled up newspaper who had entered the moving vehicle and was now hanging out of the window. Good Lord. 

Cliff Chat

Done with our sandwiches, we probed the scrub to reveal a beautiful Foxy Cisticola, a northwestern specialty. Then, a smokin' Cliff Chat singing on a bush. Migrating Common Cuckoos were everywhere, and then, a magnificent sight...three Black-billed Barbets. While they feasted on fruit, it was us who feasted on...

THE FRUITS OF LIFE. 

Black-billed Barbets