Old Stuff!

Kampala's tallest building

Our first stop on our tour of Kampala was the museum. Although it was on the small side, it was still packed full of interesting items. We saw traditional clothes, houses and instruments through the ages and the different headgear worn by the numerous different tribes of Uganda. We learnt how the British came to Uganda and the impact they made, the museum housed the first car in Uganda, brought in by the British.

We learnt of a Queen who haunts a tree and that women visit the tree to help with their fertility. During our tour we met a group of school children who all wanted a high five! Approximately 30 high fives each later, we returned to our vehicle, next stop was a touch of shopping at a local craft centre.

There were so many little shops to look at. We had a list of presents to buy for family back home as well as one or two gifts for ourselves. We came across a group of local artists and chose a few paintings from them. We also bought for ourselves a pair of wooden elephant bookends.

We saw the tallest building in Kampala, which wasn't really very tall, but that is really kind of nice. What we noticed the most was the birds. They were huge and quite surreal, as back home we'd only see those kinds of birds in a zoo.

Good Bye Gorillas

Our hour was up and it was time to say good bye and embark on our 3 hour trek back. Being down hill most of the way, it was much easier, except for a few slips here and there! The rain had continued to stay away so it was nice and dry as well. Out of the forest and down through the tea plantations we came across a local who had carved gorillas out of wood. Andy had already reached this man before Steph and had picked out a very good carving, we bought it to add to our mementos of this incredible experience.

Finally back at the vehicles we said our good byes to the amazing porters and rangers. Inside the van the rain finally came and we were pleased with our good luck. Back at the Wildlife Authority headquarters we were awarded with a certificate of our experience.

At the lodge we excitedly discussed our different experiences with the other tourists who had trekked other gorilla groups. They were all quite shocked with the 7 hour trek we had just completed, but we were very proud of ourselves for completing it as it added to the whole experience for us.

After dinner we went to our beds and fell asleep quickly.

The journey back was quite eventful, we came across quite a confused state on one of the roads. It looked like some vehicles may tip over and we did come across one that had! We hit Kampala in the early evening after a ten hour road trip and the traffic was just impossible, we thought we'd never make it to the hotel.

Eventually arriving at Le Petit Village hotel, we said a long good bye to our great guide Hamid, who has been exceptional. We had seen rare sights such as a Leopard, Giant Forest Hogs and a male Lion asleep in a tree, numerous of birds we wouldn't have had a clue about and so many animals, all thanks to Hamid who obviously loves his job and is very good at it. We couldn't thank him enough.

For us now it was time for dinner and then bed, the next day we would be exploring Kampala.

Gorillas!

The family of Gorillas were spread out a little bit, but there were 19 of them, so everywhere you looked there was a Gorilla. They were just simply amazing and we didn't start taking pictures straight away, we just took in the atmosphere and watched these magnificent creatures.

We saw a baby being carried on its mothers back and a small group of them grooming each other. The silver back was well within view and quite close. He was stubborn though and would not face the cameras, a profile shot was the best we could get. Our favourite poser was a female who was unfortunately blind in one eye, she gave us some great pictures.We couldn't get over how big some of them were and that they almost looked unreal.

A juvenile climbed down a tree right by Steph, which we managed to capture on video. Andy found himself quite close to one and slowly moved away to a safe distance because Gorillas can catch our human diseases.

What made us all giggle like children was the amount of farting going on by the Gorillas and they were loud! But we would all be like that if we ate what the Gorillas ate!

You can only spend 1 hour with the Gorillas and the time flew by. You are literally mesmerized by them, they are indeed very special and what a wonderful experience. We are so happy we had the opportunity to do this.

4 Hours Up!

We met early in the morning at the Wildlife Authority HQ with the rangers and other tourists. We watched a short film and then listened to David one of the rangers explaining the do's and don'ts. We were then split into groups to visit the different families, low and behold we were on the hard trek! But, we were visiting the Habinyanja group which had 19 family members, so a mixture of excitement and anxiety!

In our group were 3 more tourists, 2 Americans with their South African guide and our Australian friend, Grant.

We set off in two vehicles as we were also accompanied by several rangers. The vehicle we were in couldn't go any further as the roads were so bad, therefore we jumped in with the Americans who had a more superior vehicle.

We stopped and were met by porters and also introduced to the 'emergency team' who basically are incredibly fit people who come in after you and carry you to the Gorillas and then carry you out! (They do come with a hefty price, but only you can agree to them coming to help you).

Our porter Lorhna insisted on taking our daypack (which was so heavy as it was full of water).

We started off on our trek, not so bad to start off with a rolling path through farms. We suddenly hit a very steep ascent through a tea plantation with the sun shining right down on us. It took some time to get up and we kept stopping to drink and cool down. At the top of the plantation before we went into the forest, Steph had to sit down as she felt quite ill. Turns out she was dehydrated and welcomed a rehydration drink. After a few minutes the drink had kicked in and we were off again.

The deeper we went into the forest, the harder it got to keep steady on our feet. Well, they don't call it the impenetrable forest for nothing! The rangers hacked their way creating a path for us.

We won't lie, the trek was hard and we were travelling at a slowish pace, the aim was to reach the Gorillas before it rained.

Every now and then someone would shout 'Ants' and you had to jump as high and far as you could over the nest. Lorhna our porter was incredible she helped Steph and made sure she didn't fall over. The American lady was also very looked after by her porter and kept her on her feet as well. Andy and the other two men were left to keep themselves on their feet!

At one point everyone felt a little apprehensive, the ground we were walking on felt very unstable, it was like there was no solid ground, just layers of vegetation and not much room to place your feet. We pushed on and were finally told to stop, we were there!

We were told to leave everything with the porters and just bring our cameras. We had made it to the Gorillas and there was no rain!

We walked for a couple more minutes, just us tourists and the rangers and then there they were, the most incredible sight...

Bwindi

The journey to Bwindi was very long and the roads got worse. We drove through pretty little villages with smiling faces from the children who waved at us as we carried on our journey. As we arrived, we drove through the last village which was mainly a village of crafts with lots of goods out on display. Andy tried to cover Steph's eyes, but too late! There would be some shopping at some point!

We arrived at Buhoma Community Lodge, our accommodation for our Gorilla trek. Our room was in a great location with a view straight out into Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, fantastic.

The room itself was a big Army style tent inside a wooden hut type surrounding. The bathroom was out the back. Everything was a little basic, but comfortable and with electricity and hot water, so what more do you need? Andy wasn't sure at first, mainly because the bed was on the short side and he imagined his feet sticking out the end of the bed getting attacked by mosquitoes! Turned out that he just fitted inside the bed and mosquito net.

We went up to the main building where we bumped into our Australian friend, Grant again and an English doctor. The doctor had been on the Gorilla trek that day and described his experience, it sounded brilliant and we were excited for our turn the next day.

Steph was a little worried about which family we would be visiting as everyone was classing the three families into three groups, Easy Trek, Medium Trek and Hard Trek. Easy was 1 hour there 1 hour back, Medium was 2 hours there and 2 hours back and the Hard Trek was anything between 3+ hours there and 3+ hours back.

Steph had suffered a fitness set back just before we came to Uganda. She managed to strain her Achilles tendon 2 weeks before we were due to travel and the doctors were discussing whether to put her in plaster, instead complete rest and immobilisation was agreed.

But before all this, Steph had suffered from a dislocated knee that had caused a lot of time away from exercise. Steph was reassured she would be fine.

You don't get to choose which family you want to visit, there is a chance you can swap with other people if they agree. Hamid came to check on us and we asked which family we would be visiting, he wouldn't tell us, just that it was the best family! We would find out the next day...

The Lion Sleeps Tonight... No Actually, During the Day, in a Tree!

So after our excellent and very lucky viewing of a Leopard, we set off for Ishasha in hope of viewing a Lion.

As the roads in Uganda are not the most vehicle friendly roads we have come across, Hamid takes it easy and this is great for us as we get to spot animals along the way. On this journey we viewed Elephants, Baboons, Colobus Monkeys and even a snake.

We came up behind another tourist vehicle on this extremely quiet 'road' There is black smoke coming out of it and eventually it pulls over, we pull over too and Hamid gets out to see if they are in need of any help.

Hamid gets back in and says that the other vehicle will have to limp to the next town for repairs, he thinks damage has been done by going too quickly on these bumpy roads. We set off again, only to pull over almost immediately with the other vehicle. Hamid and the other driver have a discussion and then Hamid asks us whether the single tourist from the other vehicle could join us for Ishasha as they may not make it in time with their limping vehicle. Of course it's ok and a friendly Australian called Grant joins us.

We arrive in no time to view the Lions with a quick pit stop at a very unwelcoming toilet!

We set off around the park and are joined by 3 more tourist vehicles (the most we had seen so far on our safari).

Hamid spotted a male Lion in a tree, which again we couldn't see straight away! We did eventually more quickly than the Leopard. Hamid told us that it's very unusual to spot a male Lion in a tree with female Lions being more common in them. Again we felt we were very lucky. Hamid also explained that they thought the Lions slept in the trees to escape the flies.

The male Lion was well aware he was being watched and was not moving, so one by one the vehicles including ours went off in different directions in search of more Lions.

Our search proved disappointing and the weather was also starting to change which actually made Hamid pretty excited.

The wind had picked up, so Hamid raced back to the tree where we had seen the sleeping male Lion. Hamid explained that the Lion would not like the wind and would leave the tree.

Back at the tree, we were the only vehicle there and just as Hamid had said the Lion started to wake up! He changed position in the tree a few times before climbing down into the bushes below. He peeked out of the bushes and then trotted off. Magnificent!

Another vehicle arrived just in time to see him escape into the distance.

Again, how lucky were we? Hamid has excellent knowledge and Grant our new passenger was equally thrilled and impressed with Hamid.

Grant's driver met us at the entrance of the park and re-joined him. We were now off to Bwindi, for the Gorillas, we were very excited!

Any Sort of Cat!

Can you see the Leopard yet?

We couldn't until it came more into view now

How lucky were we to see a Leopard!

Our next part of the safari was to see some Lions at Ishasha and then travel to Bwindi for the Mountain Gorillas. As we left Simba Lodge for the last time, Andy said to Hamid that the challenge today was to see any Cat, even if it was a domestic cat! Hamid had been so good with the animal sightings, that he was up for the challenge!

We firstly went back to the part of QEP that we had on the first day. We drove around for quite a long time before we accepted defeat. Just as we had started to leave, Hamid slammed on the brakes and started pointing at a Cactus tree. Hamid had spotted a Leopard! But we couldn't see it at first! Hamid grabbed our camera and started taking photos for us. We saw it eventually as it started to leave the tree, Wow!

We stayed there a while just looking at it before it disappeared into the bushes below the tree. Another tourist vehicle came along and stopped. They asked us what we were looking at. They nearly fell off the roof of their vehicle when we told them it was a Leopard.

We continued on, heading for the Tree Climbing Lions of Ishasha. Would we be so lucky and get a sighting of a Lion?

Kazinga Channel

Bushbuck

Piglets!

Giant Forest Hog

Our Elephant friend who wanted to go the way we were going!

The Yawning Hippo snap

Part of our safari was a boat trip on the Kazinga channel, where we would see lots of animals and birds. Before boarding the boat we came across some Mongoose who were playing inside a small old boat. They were excellent posers for our photos and didn't seem at all bothered by the numerous tourists snapping away.

Queuing for the boat we unfortunately ran into our rude acquaintances from the lodge. They didn't notice us, but that was probably because they were too busy pushing people out of the way to get on the boat first.

Our guide didn't accompany us on the boat, but the boat had it's own wildlife expert to talk us through the sightings.

Steph was excited to have snapped a baby hippo, unfortunately the excitement quickly turned to horror when she was told the poor baby hippo was actually dead!

There were herds of Elephants, Buffalo and Waterbuck all around the channel. We spotted a few crocodiles, which were really well camouflaged. There were just hundreds of birds all chattering at the same time. Photo's can't capture the many sounds of the channel, so we took some videos as well.

Everyone was out to get a 'yawning Hippo' photo and we all kept missing the very few chances. Steph was finally lucky enough to get one, it's not the best picture, a little out of focus, but we got one!

We headed back just in time before the rain.

There was a sprint from everyone to get back in their vehicles before they got soaked. As we left, we were very lucky to find ourselves in a prime spot when a lone male Elephant was in the middle of the road. Hamid our guide stopped the van so we could get some close up shots without zoom. The Elephant decided we were in the way and tried a mini charge at us! Hamid being experienced as he is knew exactly how to keep us safe from any danger, we managed to record a video of the charge.

On our way back to the lodge we were again very lucky as we came across a Giant Forest Hog right by the roadside staring at us and when it turned away, there was another one and some little piglets! Again, the photos are a little out of focus, but there was very little time to snap them. Hamid told us that they don't come out until it's dark, but he thought they may have been confused by the weather which had made the sky gloomy.

Another shy creature we managed to see on our return was a Bushbuck who wasn't so much in a rush to get away.