UGANDA

Hello everybody, here we are again…Part 2
We really enjoyed the time back in Belgium and it was great seeing everybody again and being there to welcome Elias to the world!! But, after 6 weeks in Belgium we were eager to get away again. Once the travel bug catches you…

KAMPALA

Our flight from London to Entebbe was delayed for 3 hours, but once boarded everything went smoothly. We saw the most beautiful sunrise ever from the airplane (and it it’s hard to get in the top 3).
On arrival we took a cab to Kampala, the capital, which is 30km from the airport. After a rest we took a minibus (yesssssss again those lovely things, but here they are not overloaded like in SA) from our backpackers to the city centre. We forgot it was the end of the Ramadan, so all banks were closed, but luckily after a while we found an ATM.

The next morning we went downtown again with 3 Belgian girls (annelies, tinne and chavali) we had met the day before. They were at the end of their 2 month internship as midwifes in local hospitals (exchange program with their college in Gent). The stories they told us… you just can’t imagine it. We changed some money and did some shopping, as British custom had taken our toothpaste, shampoo,… Like we were going to make a bomb out of it. They are getting as paranoid as the Americans. Kampala is a real chaotic town. Immediately you felt that you are in black Africa, not SA or Egypt. Minibuses everywhere, constant traffic jams, shops selling lots of crap, women carrying stuff on their heads, minibuses that are used as shops…… and people are friendly and helpful.
In the afternoon, after some running, driving and phoning around, we managed to get our hands on 2 gorilla permits (375 usd a piece). Only 8 people a day are allowed to visit each of the 3 groups, so travel agencies book out all of the 24 permits for months in advance. And going on a tour costs at least 800 pp. no thanks, but more about this later…
There is not an awful lot to see in town, so for the rest of the time we lazed around our backpackers (real ones again with dorms, pool tables, a bar, great people)

Murchison falls

Thursday it was time for some action. We went on a 3day trip to Murchison falls accompanied by the 3 Belgian girls and Adam, an Englishmen. I used to be filled with wildlife but poachers and war wiped out almost all of it. But it is on the recovering side. After 6-7 hours we got to our campsite and all hell broke loose. Rain, rain and rain with thunder, lightning and storms.
We woke up at 6 and had a 4hour game drive: lots of giraffes, all different kinds of gazelles and antelopes, some elephants and a group of lions (but they were pretty far). In the afternoon we had a boot ride on the Nile where we saw lots of hippos, crocodiles and uncountable amount of all sorts of birds. The boot dropped us pretty close to the falls and from there we had an hours hike up. It was an beautiful walk and the views were spectacular. The gorge through which the Nile passes is just 6 meter wide and it suppose to be the most powerful natural surge in the world (and the most exiting thing to happen to the Nile along its 6700km length). On the way back to our campsite our minibus got attacked by tse tse flies.
On the last day of our trip we got up at 5 and headed south again to Masindi. In that area we would go and see some chimpanzees. The park we were normally going to was taken over by lions. The forest we went to now was actually pretty small and completely enclosed by farmlands. Luckily some people managed to preserve that small piece as locals want to cut it down too because the baboons destroy lot of their crop. We saw lots of them together with black and white colobus, red tale and vervet monkeys. We saw 2 chimps flying by but it was hard to get a glimpse. But the walk itself was nice and muddy, real jungle. After that we headed back to Kampala. It was a nice trip with good company, food and guides.

BUNYONYI LAKE

The next morning we took the bus to kabala, which is in the southwest of the country. This is one of the most beautiful regions were been to so far: superb landscapes and towering mountains and of course the gorillas.
We jumped on a boda boda (motorbike taxis) to bring us to lake bunyonyi, 9km up in the mountains. It is a large and irregularly shaped lake dotted with 26 islands, and the surrounding hillsides are intensively cultivated. We pitched our tent (the only one) at one of the lakeside camping’s and enjoyed the stunning views.
The next morning we went for a walk to a primary school that was founded by a European and now hosted a couple of 100 children. One of the teachers gave us a tour and some explanation on how the school worked. They all sat on small benches (60 in a classroom) with no desks just a pen and a piece of paper in their hands.
The children sang us some songs, danced and were really happy to see us. It was great, this is Africa too!! On our walk back we were followed by half the school (they were on a lunch break) running from the hills. In the afternoon Adam (who had arrived their after a night in kabale) and we climbed up one of the hills. The views over the lake here were even more stunning.

The next morning the 3 of us rented a dugout canoe to explore the lake and some of its islands. We did pretty well as most foreigners can’t handle the paddles and they end up making circles, the famous ‘mzungu (foreigner or white) corkscrew’ called by locals. It was hard work but we had a great day out.
In the lake there isn’t much fish but they have great crayfish here, freshly caught from the water. The same night tough the overlanders in the camp we always ate, ordered all off it. But I won’t start about them (they are not all the same)

TO BWINDI

The next morning we tried to get back to Kabele to organize some transport to Bwindi national park (home of the mountain gorilla). But again it started to rain like hell (as it does here almost every other day now). Transport to that part is hard to get (nonexistent is the better word), except on market days. And we hadn’t had the time to do it in steps and take pick ups because our permits were for the next day. so we hired a driver to bring us there. It took us 4-5 hours over mountains, through the jungle and over tracks you can hardly call a road (it was for 4x4 only). And I think he cursed us because his corolla wasn’t the same as when he left kabala. But we made it in time!!
We pitched our tent at the community rest camp, run by and for the local people. Again we were amazed by the scenery. And then finally… the mountain gorillas!!!!

GORILLAS

There are less then 700 of these great apes left (around 1 for every 10.000.000.000 people they say). Half of them live in Bwindi impenetrable forest. The other half in the same forest but on the Rwandan and Congolese side.

The mountain gorillas are different from the lowland gorillas in western en central Africa (the latter are the ones you can see in zoo). All of the captured mountain gorillas have died within months. Their social bands are essential for survival. So this is the only place in the world to see them!
Years of agriculture (cutting down forests to make it into farmlands) and poaching are the 2 main reasons why they are very close to extinction. But now there is awareness.

Mountain gorillas live in families leaded by one dominant male (the silverback, the hair on their back becomes grey ones they reach sexual maturity) and includes a couple of females, some black back males (adolescents) and infants. The group we had permits for was called Mubare and consisted of 8 gorillas.

After a briefing in the poring rain they drove us to the foot of a mountain from where our trek would start. At the break of dawn, a couple of armed guards had headed out to find the family. They start looking at the place where the previous group had left the gorillas the day before. When we started they still hadn’t found them. After an hour of steep climbing, they walkie-talkied our ranger the good news: they found them. We left the trail behind and armed with a machete, made our way trough the bush. It was very dense jungle (now I realized why it was called impenetrable forest) and most of the time we weren’t walking on solid ground but on branches, leafs, and who knows what. We were walking on a jungle in stead of through it.
We reached the guards, dropped our bags, took out the cameras and silently proceeded for the last 50meters.
And there they were!!! We were really lucky because most of them were in a more or less open space and some of them were really close (2-3m). The first minutes anyone hardly spoke. We just stood there looking at them and at each other (all smiling). 2 adolescents were playing, others were eating or dozing off, but the silverback was observing us from behind some braches with only his gigantic head visible.

Luckily it had stopped raining so it was time to try out al my manual functions on our new camera (because you are not allowed to use a flash and it really is pretty dark in the jungle). Visiting times are limited to an hour and 3 minutes before that, the silverback came from behind his tree and walked towards us. He placed himself around some females and said goodbye!

Coming face to face with these magnificent creatures truly was an experience never to forget! There were no bars, no vehicles. It was just us and them, we were guests in their domain. This was our own ‘gorillas in the mist’, same landscapes but different actors.

The way to Jinja

We reached the campsite around 2pm and decided to start heading to Butagota, the closest town linked with public transport. We hitchhiked the 20 km in the back of some pick ups while enjoying the beautiful scenery one last time.
After a night in a very basic and filthy (and we don’t say this easily) we caught the 5 am bus to Kampala. The whole south west of Uganda really is absolutely magnificent.

Around 3pm we took another bus to Jinja, our last stop in Uganda (we wanted to go to chimpanzee island to walk with them, but you can’t have it all… ). After an very exhausting day we crawled in our tent around 9, which is not really early as we have been going to bed around that time for the last 2 weeks. It has been great sleeping in our tent again. And the break of dawn you hear dozens of different kind of birds making noise. And even in the towns you see huge (wingspan of a couple of meters) birds flying over or resting on buildings.

Yesterday I went rafting at the source of the Nile. It is one of the best rafting spots in world (a lot of grade 5 rapids). Laura was a little bit too scared, so she passed. There were 3 overland groups (60 people in total) also going so I had to join them. I was in the boat with 3 couples. And as boys will always be boys, we wanted to flip over as much as possible. The girls did not like it. It was good fun, especially the grade 5 ones. But the currents and the lifejackets always made you come up to the surface. The only thing I didn’t like were the sometimes long intervals between the rapids. But I had a great day!


Uganda has been great!!! It is a beautiful place with very friendly people. And besides the overlanders, you don’t see many independent travelers. Most people probably now it from the war, Idi Amin and child soldiers, but those times are in the past (except for the north where there are still fightings and which is mainly off limits for tourists ). If some of you guys want to come to Africa and only have limited time, Uganda would be a great choice! Food (local), lodging (tent or dorm) and public transport are pretty cheap. But the trips cost a lot of money. And you need to go on some (we did 1) in order to get to certain places, because those places require 4x4 or just aren’t been served by public transport.


We haven’t got much planned for today; maybe enjoy a beer watching the sunset over Lake Victoria. Tomorrow we take to bus to Nairobi, Kenya and we’ll be (hopefully) picked up by Laura’s uncle who lives there.

Hope you are all doing well
Take care
XXX

Inge ook nog ne gelukkige, hadden sms gestuurd op c zenne gsm maar die ligt waarsch nog in belgie. Amuseert u met u vierkes in Thailand!
Joost, steph en ruth, alvast ne dikke proficiat!! Want de kans is klein dat we nog op internet gaan voor jullie verjaardag