On our Way

It took quite a while to get out of Kampala, we had hit rush hour on a Monday morning, so the city was more than hectic! As we gradually left and entered the countryside, there was a huge difference between the two. One thing we noticed which was so good, was that Uganda is so green.

The weather wasn't great, it was raining but it was still warm.

We were on our way to the Queen Elizabeth National park, which was quite some hours away. We stopped off at the equator and had our photo and then went for some breakfast.

Steph bought a traditional African drum (she's always wanted one after seeing them at her Grandparents house when she was growing up). We were a little worried that it might be too big for the luggage, but as we found out at Entebbe airport on our way home, we had absolutely nothing to worry about. Our drum was tiny compared to the drums a group of Americans had!

We reached QEP by late afternoon/ early evening because we made quite a few stops to look at the beautiful scenery. Also, we started to make our first sightings of Uganda's wildlife. The animals were quite far away, but the real safari started the next day...

Uganda!

Kampala

One of the quiet roads, just outside the Hotel Triangle

Our long awaited trip to Uganda finally came and before we knew it we were on our way to Heathrow airport. We flew out of Terminal 5, a new experience for the both of us. We have to say that it was a good experience and there was plenty to do before our flight. On our way to our gate, Steph saw people waiting at other gates and was already deciding on our next trip!

Andy found it difficult to sleep on the plane, but Steph had no trouble at all! We had extra leg room seats which was better for Andy being 6ft 1". Landing at Entebbe was very different to Heathrow, first of all there was so much green and a much, much smaller airport. We had no trouble at Entebbe, a little wait at immigration but that was about it. Andy is always nervous as to whether our luggage has made it with us, but again no need to worry.

Maria, our tour company guide was waiting for us and drove us to our hotel in Kampala. This was our first time in Africa and there was so much going on all around. It was a Sunday and Maria said it was quiet, it did not seem quiet at all! Kampala was just crazy, the traffic lights just seemed redundant and all the moto bikes were weaving in out of all the mini bus taxis. Steph thought she'd seen 'mad' traffic in Asia, but this was something else! Surprisingly not scary, just so crazy you couldn't help but watch.

We were staying at the Hotel Triangle for one night before we left on our safari the next day. We went to our room and caught up on some sleep. The rain hammered down while we were sleeping and we awoke to a very soggy carpet by our door. We went for a wonder around the streets outside the hotel, but didn't go too far as we had already planned a city tour on our return from our safari.

Andy was pleased to find that the hotel played the football, so we settled for the evening watching a game before bed.

We woke early to be ready for our safari. The hotel was comfortable and the staff were friendly and helpful.

Hamid our guide for the safari was waiting for us to begin our first African safari.

Our first impressions of Africa were very good and we were excited to continue our trip.

We stayed at the Hotel Triangle in Kampala. We booked a double room, en suite with air-con (we found that we didn't really need the air-con) $120 per night including breakfast.