Uganda Bradt Guide
Travel Report
Kampala & Ssese Islands
Tracking the Gorillas
Queen Elizabeth & Kibale NP
East to Jinja
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Travel Notes
Kampala
Kampala 2
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Kampala & Ssese Islands
Gorillas at Bwindi NP
Queen Elizabeth NP & Jinja
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Travel notes from Kampala 2
Hi Everyone,
I made an early start on Tuesday as I heard through the grapevine that there was a bus that left Kampala at sometime after 06.00 and went all the way to Butogota, the nearest village to Bwindi NP HQ, 17km away. I had two days to get to the NP as I had booked a permit for 31 Jan to track the mountain gorillas. My information was slightly incorrect, the bus was there at 06.00 but we didn't leave until just after 09.00, after you couldn't squeeze another passenger or chicken onto the bus.
The trip took all day travelling for half the time along dirt roads winding through the mountains and valleys to reach Butogota by about 19.00. It was one long cramped and exhausting journey but well worth it for the views and scenery. There were eight other travellers on the bus heading for the NP, so from Butogota we hired a pick up truck and climbed in the back for the last 17km to the park HQ at the settlement of Buhoma where the villagers run a community campground.
After the massacre in 1999 of eight tourists at the park who were gorilla tracking, security has been seriously tightened up. Soldiers were everywhere and anyone going out into the jungle had to take a military escort with them. My first day I went for a hike by myself to the top of a mountain that overlooked DR Congo. It was more like being on army manoeuvres with a soldier in front, followed by a guide, then me and another soldier bringing up the rear. The scenery was incredible, thick rainforest covering every mountain side in sight. The Buhoma campground was in a valley with jungle all around us: a very quiet and peaceful place to spend a few days. There was a communal dining room and after dinner we all spent the evening sitting around a camp fire drinking slightly chilled beer. The weather was perfect: during the day fairly warm and the nights cool. At the altitude we were at mosquitos and other blood-sucking insects were not a problem.
Tracking the gorillas was one of those once in a lifetime, incredible experiences. There were six of us in our group, the maximum number of visitors to each group a day, plus two trackers, four soldiers and four porters (for the elderly Americans with us). We set off at 08.30 and it took about an hour and a half hiking to find them. They were on a steep slope in the jungle lying around eating and playing. To be standing in a jungle only a few meters from these rare animals and to look into their eyes is to look into a mirror. They sat there staring back at us with such human expressions on their faces that you could almost see what they were thinking.
Later that afternoon a group of us hiked out into the forest to a series of waterfalls. Below one of the falls is a deep plunge pool where we went for a swim to cool down and refresh ourselves after a days hiking. It is wonderful to swim in such pristine surroundings, deep in the forest, miles away from civilisation (if you could ignore our army escort, that is).
A couple of British guys at the camp had hired a vehicle for a few days and I hitched a ride with them, initially to get back to the main road to hitch to Fort Portal. We went via Queen Elizabeth NP and on the way went on a game drive at Ishasha. We saw a couple of lions, loads of Uganda Kob, baboons and hippos in the Ishasha River, which forms the border with DR Congo. By the time we reached the main road it was getting late so I stayed with my lift to the Mweya peninsular in QENP, where we spent the night. Sat at a bar that evening overlooking the Kazinga Channel watching herds of elephants on the opposite shore coming down to drink.
Next morning we went on an early morning game drive and the highlights saw a small pack of hyenas munching on a buffalo and another couple of mating lions. I was dropped off on the highway at midday and it didn't take long to hitch another ride north the 30km to Kasese and from there a matatu to Fort Portal and another to the Kibale NP. Spent 3 nights in a banda in the forest relaxing and doing nothing except watching monkeys swing past my little home in the forest. Kibale NP is another forest reserve and is home to about 600 chimps. I went chimp tracking one morning, it was a much longer hike that the gorillas as chimps seem to move about more but we eventually found them. The trees were alive with chimps, about 50 in all around us. The only other primates we saw were the red tailed colobus; but I had a family of them living in the trees outside my banda, so that wasn't so exciting!
It was tough to uproot myself from the forest (sorry for the pun there) but I had to get back to Kampala to spend a couple of days visiting embassies and sorting out visas for my onward journey. Once that is all completed I will set a course east for the Kenyan frontier. Meanwhile I'm back at the Red Chilli Hideaway in Bugolobi district, Kampala - my home away from home.
Regards,
Geoff.
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