We all know tourism has taken a hit this past year.  What effects, if any, has this had on the lodge?

We were very lucky and only had a small reduction of Non-Resident visitors of about 5% and managed to keep the number of Resident guests stable so only had a slight reduction in occupancy. Our turnover actually increased as we had increased our Non-Resident rates by 20%. Generally it was a good year for us. March 2009 was the only month we we had a very significant reduction in visitor numbers. We actually employed more staff and continued investing.

In terms of conservation education within the local community, what projects are you currently pursuing?

We tried working on craft production with the local communities but found this very difficult and did not have much success. Our Leopard and Hyena project however, is very successful and we compensated more than 30 kills since we started the project. We have been in contact with some of the villages and have tried to see how we can help them. In Ruragara village we helped the local community to build a shallow well to provide access to clean drinking water. We also tried to teach the village the importance of keeping the village clean, which has had some success.

What is the progress of your Leopard and Hyena Conservation Project?

It is going very well, please find a report attached with some of the current data (Excel doc attached in email). It is also great that the lions which came back to Lake Mburo National park after being extinct for over ten years are doing well. We now have one male and one or two females with 2 cubs.

You had mentioned the building of additional accommodation and staff rooms.  Please tell us more about any further plans to expand the lodge and the environmental design used during construction.

In 2009 we built more staff accommodation and now have 24 rooms and 2 tents for a total of 34 staff. We also expanded the staff canteen and installed a solar water heating system for the staff.

We also expanded our stables and now have 7 horses and 4 ponies. We managed to secure a concession agreement with Uganda Wildlife Authority and are now allowed to conduct horseback safaris in Lake Mburo National Park. Please find attached some more information on our horseback safaris.

On the environmental side we used to catch rain water from the rocks and store it in a 200,000 litre tank and then pump the water with a solar pump to header tanks. We still do this, but the problem was that we only had enough rain water in the rainy season and had to truck in water from 7 km away from Lake Kacheera during the  dry season. This was costly and used fossil fuel both for the truck and an engine driven pump. In December 2009 we installed a solar pump that now pumps the water from the Lake up to our storage tank. This solar pump is connected to 28 solar panel and pumps the water over 4 km to our lodge. This investment cost more than 30,000 US$, but will reduce our environmental impact and also reduce our long term running costs.

We have not build any additional rooms for guests last year, but might add one or two rooms this year.

Have you added to your game drive options for guests?  I know you anticipated your horseback safaris to run within Lake Mburo National Park.  Any updates on this?

I mentioned this above and have attached a fact sheet on our horseback safaris in the park (see below).

Horseback Safaris in Lake Mburo National Park

Mihingo Lodge has been operating horseback safaris since December 2008 outside Lake Mburo National Park. We carefully adjust the rides according to the riding skills of each group; for beginners and inexperienced riders we only walk the horses. In fact a walk on a horse is the best way to view game. It is peaceful and relaxing and you get very close to the animals. For advanced riders there are also lovely stretches for trotting and cantering. We have 7 horses between 14.9 and 16.5 hands and 4 tough Ethiopian ponies which are about 13 hands.

In November 2009 we received a concession to operate horseback safaris inside Lake Mburo National Park where we found some fantastic routes. The best ride in the park is a 4 to 5 hour ride onto the 4 km long grassy Warukiri Range situated in the middle of the park with stunning 360 degree views of the surrounding hills and valleys in the Park. At the end of this range there is a waterhole, which often attracts buffalos and other animals combined with a magnificent view onto 9 of the 12 lakes surrounding Lake Mburo National Park. This ride changes the whole feeling of the park, making it absolutely spectacular. We had a friend Mini Trappe who is one of the leading horse safari guides in Tanzania and he was amazed how beautiful the riding in Lake Mburo is.

Horseback safaris are an exciting way to see the wildlife around Mihingo Lodge. Without any engine sound and fumes you feel part of nature and often get the chance to see the more timid animals. It is an exhilarating experience not to be missed. We sometimes see eland and buffalo and nearly always warthog, topi, impala, duiker, bushbuck, waterbuck and zebra on our horseback safaris, although this depends very much on the time of year and the rain fall in the area. Experiencing game from horseback is very special; zebra come towards you to check out the strange relative without stripes. Even the normally very shy eland curiously look at the horses without running away, just keeping their distance.

Our maximum weight limit for guests is 100 kg, but most of our horses cannot carry more than 80 or 90 kg. We provide fully adjustable helmets in all sizes and chaps. We ride with English style saddles or western-style trail saddles. We recommend that you wear long trousers and strong shoes if possible with a heel. At the moment we are not taking more than 6 guests out at a time. All our rides are accompanied by at least one experienced horse guide, but in most cases there are 2 guides accompanying each ride.

All the guests that have gone on one of our horseback safaris have absolutely loved it! For any further information please contact our managers and reservations team on reservations@mihingolodge.com or call them on +256-75 2 410 509.

What I found most striking is how very little these kids knew of the animals in their midst yet how quickly they started making the connection. Kate used a whole series of teaching techniques including story telling, games, songs and acting… it was hard to not join in:

What makes an eland special? Big horns? Yes! Big horns! Everyone be an eland and show me your big horns!

The children’s conservation class was followed by the adult literacy program which Kate also teaches. We were advised that adults were shy about our observing their class, so we didn’t linger, but Kate let us know that she was pleased to see class attendance increase. The weekly class usually starts with a handful of adults, but over the course of a session, up to 40 adults from the village assemble to listen in. Many of the adults in the village cannot read or write, so filling out basic school forms for their children an overwhelming, humiliating task. Kate has seen the excitement and pride in the faces of the adults in her class as they learn to spell their own children’s names.

With its mindful participation and support of environmental, conservation, education and community outreach, the committed owners and staff of Mihingo Lodge prove that a luxury safari destination can also be an exemplary environmental steward and community advocate.

I came to at 5:45 AM with the voice of hotel proprietor Ralph at my door courteously PLEADING for me to rise so that our group could get underway for hyena tracking. This curious activity requires an early roll call – hyenas are easiest to locate during the pre-dawn return to their dens after an evening’s hunt.

At Lake Mburo National Park headquarters, we meet our hyena tracking guide, friendly park ranger Andrew, and we head off toward the hyena dens directly.

A few things to know – spotted hyenas subcontract their den construction. Anteaters do the dirty work, burrowing into the ground in search of insects – when the bug well runs dry, anteaters move on, hyenas take up residence.

We’d walked perhaps 15 minutes before meeting up with the first silhouette in the sepia of pre dawn. Andrew made calls that mimicked a hyena kill announcement, communication back to the pack that it’s mealtime. It clearly piqued their interest – more trotted into view.

I had figured, like so many wild creatures, that they’d run from a stinky pack of coffee addled humans with noisy cameras, and while they did seem wary, I wouldn’t call them afraid. Flash photography didn’t faze them and some even seemed curious about us, sniffing the air and taking steps toward us…. which reads as lurking calculation.

The beasts have a brazen edginess and a misunderstood bad boy charm – magnetic, but you somehow know to not turn your back.

Amidst the tracking, Mihingo Lodge owner Ralph explained a predator/scavenger conservation program that he’s very keen on launching in the nearby communities. Seems that local farmers blame the park’s relatively small leopard population on a number of livestock kills and, in response, farmers poison the remaining carcasses in hopes of killing the predator that perpetrated the act. Leopards are at risk, but more often than not, it’s the scavengers who are poisoned – hyenas + vultures who play an integral part of the park’s ecosystem.

Ralph’s leopard and hyena project proposal is to pay farmers for livestock lost to verified predator kills and eliminate the practice of poisoning that sabotages the scavenger population. Farmers would need to have suspected predator kills inspected + verified in the first 24 hrs after the incident. If it’s determined that the kill fits the profile of a leopard attack, the farmer would be paid for the livestock loss on the spot and the carcass would be removed in whole immediately, lessening the farmer’s drive for retribution and eliminating the vehicle for poisoning. It seems to be a well thought out solution that doesn’t punish the farmer or the wildlife… now just the matter of getting funding and implementation before the predator and scavenger population is poisoned out of existence…

Conversation in the car was lively and Ralph, who is also co-owner of Banana Boat craft stores with his partner Suni, is an incredible source of information and opinions about many issues challenging Africa. His upbringing was a mix of influences of Africa, where he was born, and Europe, where his parents were raised and he was educated. At age 19, Ralph took an epic road trip over the whole of Africa, an odyssey that galvanized his passion for the continent. He focused his collegiate + graduate studies along with volunteer endeavors on economics, agriculture, conservation and alternative energy, mindful of what education would best serve the environment, community as well as his entrepreneurial interests in Africa.

We uneventfully crossed from the north to the south side of the equator (we opted to spare Ralph our tourist glee as he’d made the journey countless times). In the town of Lyantonde, we turned onto a dirt road toward Nshara Gate into Lake Mburo National Park and our hotel shuttle turned into a game drive as zebra, African buffalo and warthogs seemed to spring up from the ether across the park’s grassland.

Situated on a hilltop adjacent to Lake Mburo National Park, Mihingo Lodge’s commanding views of the park and nearby lakes are a feast to the eyes. Ralph and Suni came up with an initial design that embraced high end safari lodge style and services with environmentally smart design. They created lodge facilities and bungalows that optimize the site’s natural attributes for both aesthetic beauty and ease of harnessing and harvesting solar power and rainwater to fuel lodge operations.

Guest quarters have been crafted with the seemingly improbable combination of spectacular vistas and supreme privacy. In décor, a tasteful minimalism prevails, yielding to the visual draw of the natural surroundings. Bedrooms and bathrooms are almost imperceptibly screened, providing unprecedented views of everything except the neighbors (as lovely as they might be).

Mihingo Lodge established a program, initially fueled by retail sales of local honey, to serve the community just outside the park gates. The Honey Fund benefits the Akashenshero area, providing an educational resource fund for the Rurambira primary school, offering volunteer-run environmental education and adult literacy programs. The fund has recently assisted in tending to major medical issues that have faced community residents including reconstructive surgery to child’s cleft palate and an operation to repair a local girl’s bowed leg.

The afternoon of our arrival, Ralph took us on a trip to nearby Kazumi Lookout for a visual tour and history of the surrounding area and that evening, we convened in the lodge’s open air dining room overlooking a watering hole in Lake Mburo National Park. With impala and eland as our inspiration, we too sought refreshment. Over bottles of Nile Special, the boys and I determined that we’d spend the following morning tracking hyenas in the park and spend the afternoon checking out Honey Fund projects at the local primary school – opportunities to see how all the lodge’s neighbors are faring.