In early May I departed for my Christmas/Birthday trip to Uganda to see Mountain Gorillas in the wild. Jason wasn't super interested and didn't really have the vacation time so I went with a fellow expat wife; Andie. It has taken forever to post about it since I am still reviewing photos- I took over 1,400 pictures!
Andie and I spent a week in Uganda - we flew to Nairobi, Kenya to catch a flight to Entebbe, Uganda (which is the main airport in the country). Our flight to Nairobi was delayed 12 hours luckily we knew in advance but it made for a long day - arriving in Uganda at 8am. We were super impressed with the visa process (started online and finished in 15 minutes at the airport) and the calmness of the airport. Our guide meet us and took us to a hotel to have breakfast and change before our transfer to Kibale National Forest. The drive that first day was long but very interesting. The roads were not great- red dirt in many area and it rained a bit. The country is very clean and amazingly green. Although Uganda relies heavily on tourism it is obvious foreigners are still somewhat unusual. The people are very kind and interested in sharing their culture and kids waved from the side of the road- kind of what you might imagine. We arrived at the first lodge - Crater Lake Lodge- which indeed sits on the edge of a crater lake and we were the only guests. The view from our deck was amazing but we did have more creepy crawlies in our room then we would have liked- luckily all the places moving forward had no bugs to speak of.
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| Roadside fruit stands |
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| View from the room at Crater Lake Lodge |
On day two we tracked Chimpanzees in the Kibale Forest! We had been told in advance this was the opposite end of the spectrum of gorillas - since chimps are loud, move around a lot, sleep in the trees and can be less of a hike to find. And all of that was true. We meet with a large group and then were divided into smaller groups to hike with a ranger. Our group of 4 people was tracking Totti, who is the "president" of the troop. There are roughly 120 chimps in the troop and they stay in a general section of the forest - there are many other troops in the forest in their own territories. The hike started easy, but hot and humid, and after a quick hike we found a few chimps "copulating" so we gave them some privacy. After that we followed the very loud calls the chimps make and found Totti - he was basically posing for photos which was pretty cute. These chimps (and the gorillas we track later) are habituated which means they are used to people. The process takes over 2 years to complete with researchers and others hiking to be with them each day. They are never fed or touched but just get used to the presence of humans. After Totti allowed some nice viewing he was off, basically trotting through the forest on all fours, so our group followed suit. At this point we are basically running through the forest on a chimp trail (which is just through the brush) trying to keep up to him. We followed him through thick brush for about 25 minutes until he decided it was time for a snack of figs. We watched him climb the tree and feast for another 30 minutes or so until our time was up (you are allowed an hour of viewing). The tracking was described well by our fellow tourist - it was like special forces training in the rain forest. We later learned that seeing chimps during the trekking is pretty lucky, mostly because they move so fast people usually can't keep up - we were in a good group that was fit enough to really track! But boy were we tired!
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| Totti |
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| Following Totti's "trail" |
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| Totti in the fig tree |
We returned to the lodge to shower and eat then headed to the second lodge Mweya Safari Lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park. We crossed the Equator and may have taken the most desolate photos ever since there was NOBODY at the equator crossing site. The lodge we stayed at is on the Kanaza Channel which connects Lake George and Lake Edward (which are both connected to the Nile River). The lodge is next to a Uganda Wildlife Authority Ranger station - this ranger station was the site of a leopard kill the week before. A ranger's child was taken from the yard and killed- it made international news. The lodge required us to have an escort after dark and our guide who was a former ranger actually knew the ranger :( The rangers tracked the leopard and killed it (and confirmed it ate the child). Sadly the leopard had 2 cubs who are just old enough to survive alone but they are worried they could be dangerous to humans now.
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| One of the many tea plantations in Uganda |
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| Trucks loading bananas for market- we saw more bananas in a week in Uganda than I have seen in my entire life |
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| View from the room at the Mwyena Lodge |
Next day we safaried in Queen Elizabeth Park - thankfully both Andie and I have been to Tanzania and seen amazing safari because this park was a bit lacking on animals. We did see some elephants, Cape Buffalo, hippos, Uganda Kob (antelope) and Spring Boks. The park has a bit of a problem- they have allowed people to remain on the grounds (for historical reasons) and fish but this has turned into raising cattle which is not compatible with lions. So last year the locals in the park poisoned a huge pride of lions for killing their cattle. The wildlife authority doesn't seem to have a lot of options available to them to manage this tough position. After lunch we took a river cruise on the channel and saw lots and lots of hippos and buffalo. We also saw many crocodiles - interestingly the crocs were right next to many animals and lots of birds- the guide told us they prefer dead meat in this section and rarely kill anything. We also saw the local fishing village where locals were bathing in the water next to hippos!
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| Hippos! |
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| Mixed herd enjoy a dip in the water |
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| Nile Crocodile |
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Hippos feeding
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The next morning we were off again for Biwindi National Park - the home of the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda. We safaried out of the park looking for the famous tree climbing lions in the Ishasha section of the park- to our guides dismay we didn't see any. We did stop for a picnic lunch on the Ishasha River (which mean suffering) and enjoyed the grunting of hippos. The river makes up the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uganda has the greatest number of refugees in any country in Africa- accepting refugees from both the DRC and South Sudan.
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This big boy tried to rush our car but our amazing guide knew how to scare him- bang on the car! He quickly tucked his ears and retreated
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Next up Gorillas!
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