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Rubondo Island National Park
A pair of fish eagles guards the gentle bay,
their distinctive black, white and chestnut feather pattern gleaming
boldly in the morning sun. Suddenly, the birds toss back their heads
in a piercing, evocative duet. On the sandbank below, a well-fed
monster of a crocodile snaps to life, startled from its nap. It
stampedes through the crunchy undergrowth, crashing into the water
in front of the boat, invisible except for a pair of sentry-post
eyes that peek menacingly above the surface to monitor our
movements.
Rubondo Island is tucked in the southwest corner
of Lake Victoria, the world's second-largest lake, an inland sea
sprawling between Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. With nine smaller
islands under its wing, Rubondo protects precious fish breeding
grounds.
Tasty tilapia form the staple diet of the
yellow-spotted otters that frolic in the island’s rocky coves, while
rapacious Nile perch, some weighing more than 100kg, tempt
recreational game fishermen seeking world record catches.
Rubondo is more than a water wonderland.
Deserted sandy beaches nestle against a cloak of virgin forest,
where dappled bushbuck move fleet yet silent through a maze of
tamarinds, wild palms, and sycamore figs strung with a cage of
trailing taproots.
The shaggy-coated aquatic sitatunga, elsewhere
the most elusive of antelopes, is remarkably easily observed, not
only in the papyrus swamps it normally inhabits, but also in the
forest interior.
Birds are everywhere.
Flocks of African grey parrots – released onto
the island after they were confiscated from illegal exporters –
screech in comic discord as they flap furiously between the trees.
The azure brilliance of a malachite kingfisher
perched low on the reeds competes with the glamorous, flowing tail
of a paradise flycatcher as it flits through the lakeshore forest.
Herons, storks and spoonbills proliferate in the swampy lake
fringes, supplemented by thousands of Eurasian migrants during the
northern winter.
Wild jasmine, 40 different orchids and a
smorgasbord of sweet, indefinable smells emanate from the forest.
Ninety percent of the park is humid forest; the
remainder ranges from open grassland to lakeside papyrus beds.
A number of indigenous mammal species - hippo,
vervet monkey, genet and mongoose - share their protected habitat
with introduced species such as chimpanzee, black-and-white colobus,
elephant and giraffe, all of which benefit from Rubondo's
inaccessibility.
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