Encephalartos whitelockii

First off I want to say mazal tov to Rachel and Ben Oh, who were married yesterday on Mt. Hood. I haven't heard from anyone how it went, but I can imagine it was an awesome wedding. I made sure that everyone in Africa is wishing you both only the best.

Second, I only read today that fifteen hostages of the FARC were released a few days ago, including the high profile hostage, Ingrid Betancourt. Very, very happy to hear that they were rescued and I only hope the prisoner exchange with Hizbullah continues so Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, dead or alive, can come back to Israel. And of course hoping that Gilad Shalit will come back as soon as possible too.

So...Encephalartos whitelockii is the scientific name for the type of cycad plant that is found only in Mpanga gorge, a small gorge a few kilometers west of Lake George in western Uganda. What's even more unique about this plant is that the species has been in existence for 300 million years! Somehow the plant is still around, and yesterday I saw it, which was very, very cool. To get to the gorge takes some patience, considering almost no one living in the closest town, 20 kilometers away, had even heard of the gorge, let alone the cycad plant. I had read a dam is being built near the gorge, so luckily I decided to have a boda-boda take mae there, and only after arriving at the dam construction site did the workers confirm this was in fact the right place to see the cycad plant. The dam won't destroy most of the habitat of the cycads, but they have bulldozed some down a little upstream from the gorge. Still, its tough to know what might happen in the future and while they've been around for 300 million years they might be nearing the end of species' existence. Seems like a waste, considering the Mpanga river is pretty small, the cycad is so unique and rare, and there are enormous chunks of the Nile that could have a damn built that would bring in quite a bit more electricity. I'm not a fan of dams, but if they're going to be built, you'd hope there would be some attempt to do reasonable planning.

Anyways, the gorge is really pretty and it overlooks Lake George which is basically a runoff from Lake Elizabeth, which I visited in early June while going through Queen Elizabeth National Park. There is a pretty waterfall, Mpanga falls, which I saw from the top only, and all around are these cycad plants. Their trunks look like a palm tree, and the leaves are kind of palmish, kind of tree-fernish. In the middle of some of them are fairly large cones, and while they're not the beautiful plant/tree in existence it's pretty cool to see anything that has continued to exist for 300 million years. I'll put up pictures sometime this weekend.

Tomorrow I'm invited to an ultimate frisbee bbq 4th of July something or other with lots of Uganda peacecorp folk, but I may go for a day trip up to Lake Albert. I'll decide tomorrow morning. Finally, congratulations again to Rachel and Ben Oh.