QUEEN ELIZABETH PARK: Had a stupendous trip to a national park in SW Uganda last weekend, with Mindy and her husband Luke. We were at Brown together 10 years ago, and had a close mutual friend in common. Mindy is a medicine resident at Montefiore, and we ran into each other for the first time in 10 years crossing the street in front of the Mbarara University hospital. The journey started out auspiciously when I saw Uganda's national bird for the first time- the crested crane- wandering in the field in front of my guest house, with feathered mohawk bending in the breeze. The drive to the park was beautiful, complete with tea farms, and reminescent of the hills in Ecuador. We spent Saturday day on a tour boat exploring the river, and viewing the wildlife: hippos, elephants, water buffalo, African kingfishers, crocodiles. At dusk, we went out in our rented car looking for wildlife, and came upon numerous groups of elephants, one of which was right next to the edge of the road, 10 ft away from the car. There were 2-3 adults, with two younger ones. It was so close we could smell them. They were ripping grasses out of the ground with their trunks, eating continuously the entire time we watched them. Crazy to be so close to hear the swish of grass as they moved, snorting... Hard to explain. It was truly magical. When it got dark, we went to the fancy lodge overlooking the river, and had a scrumptious dinner, surpisingly preceded by my favorite Irish butter. I almost died when I saw it, and provided much amusement for the waiter. Sunday, we got up early to look for lions, but didn't see any. However, the bushback, Ugandan Kob, with their hair glowing in the morning light, warthogs were more than enough entertainment. I think warthogs are my favorite, after the elephants. they have this thin tail, about a foot long with a small tuft of hair at the end, that they hold straight up in the air as they run. Delightful. I didn't get a good picture of one, though. Then we drove by another lodge and saw a family of monkeys, then to a forest for guided walk with a ranger, Caleb. Caleb was incredibly knowledgeable and a fabulous storyteller and teacher. I've been very impressed with the knowledge and dedication of the ranger guides. The hike took us to a bat cave. It was probably 40 feet wide, 20-30 feet deep, 20 feet high and literally coated with hundreds of thousands of bats, quivering pressed up next to one another. They emit this unnerving high-pitched whine/screech. We got so close, we could see a few mating, and others with babie clinging to their bellies. Honestly, it gave me a bit of the heebie-jeebies. And, the ground underneath was coated with 6-8 inches of black scat/guano (whatever you call bat excrement) that looked like boiled lava where it curled under at the edges. To top it off, there was a huge python lying resident in the cave, who chills there and eats bats whenever hungry. The whole thing was quite a sight, altho I was happy to leave. The trip ended with a beautiful drive home on Ugandan Independence Day.