Monkeys, guns and avoiding snakes

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Do I want to walk in the forest at night looking for snakes? And pay $40 for the experience? No. Absolutely not. But thanks for the offer guys! This was during our first night in Uganda, in a dark forest where our accommodation is at the end of a very long path, amongst the wildlife, making me nervous of every dark tree root and stem by torchlight on my way to bed. Even in my hiking boots, I did not want to step on a snake.

After a 24 hour journey from home via Birmingham airport, Istanbul Airport and Kigali airport, we finally arrived at Entebbe, having had very little sleep - screaming children put a stop to that. It was warm and still dark and we soon found our guide, Didan, who Glyn had booked with around a year ago. I think the company is his and it’s called Mambo tours. He’d wanted to call it Jambo tours, but that name was already taken. Mambo is Swahili for ‘high’, and the location of his almost finished lodge is high in the mountains.

Didan is Ugandan and has travelled to various African countries, the Netherlands and USA. Three of his four children live in Seattle. He thought that after our late arrival, we would want to go for a sleep and put the itinerary back a day. Absolutely not! I came here to watch wild animals and they’re not going to photograph themselves! So Didan took us to a cafe at a petrol station where we had a nice enough breakfast.

To find the toilets, I had to exit the front of the building and follow the perimeter to the back. I wasn’t sure if I was going the right way until an armed guard waved me in the right direction with his rifle. Apparently, a lot of businesses have armed security and I quickly noticed that there were many guns about. Didan explained that it’s because they don’t have CCTV like we do in the UK. Some of the guns are rather worn and old, but still, it takes getting used to, seeing so many bored guards casually waving them about.

Next we went to another petrol station where we met our guide for the next 10 days, Zedius and his dusty jeep. Didan appeared to tell him off for it being dirty. But I don’t care, we have it to ourselves and don’t have to share with other tourists. We were also supplied with wifi, so no excuse about getting my blogs uploaded daily!

So Zedius is our driver / guide and he told us a little about the history of Uganda which has a population of 49 million with 3.9 residing in the capitol, Kampala. There’s an old African word for hills that’s something like ‘Kasos’ and lots of impalas live on these hills. So the name is a combo of the two words. The impalas were nowhere near the heavy traffic caused by the building of a flyover.

I heard sirens as a couple of trucks came bombing up the wrong side of the road carrying soldiers in full camouflage gear, face masks and shiny machine guns. They would be protecting some important government person who clearly thinks the road rules don’t apply to them. Much of the traffic was motorbikes, some carrying three passengers, most without helmets. It was 29° and the sky very blue, a rich contrast against the warm orange ground.

As we got further away from the city centre, I started seeing goats, chickens and cattle by the roadside. Some of them had huge horns. No sign of any cats or dogs yet. The road was lined with stalls selling just about everything. There were also a plethora of trees, including banana trees. Zedius asked if we were ok with his driving, he was anxious to get us to our first destination quickly, but didn’t want us to have a bumpy ride. However, the roads so far have been better than those at home, but that is a low bar, so they mostly were a lot better than home.

At one point, we could hear the tune of ‘Jingle Bells’ jingling from a motorcycle. The lone rider had a massive cool box from which he sells icecream. So a similar set up to our ice cream vans at home, only it was a bit odd he was playing it when we were nowhere near houses. Maybe children in passing cars make their parents stop?

We had to slow down once as the police had a line of long and lethal spikes across the road, this is so they can do routine checks to prevent wildlife being stolen, but also to stop people speeding. They pulled the spikes away as we slowed down, waving us through. Apparently they rarely pull up tourist transport.

Now the jeep had broken down when we first met Zedius because the tank was too empty. With help he’d gotten it going, but along our journey he looked for a roadside mechanic as the electricity wasn’t recharging. We eventually found the right one and he had a lift with us to the Green Palace Motel in Kyegegwa where we had lunch, so he could fix the jeep while we were eating. He had to get a new part and walked off somewhere nearby to get it. Meanwhile we had vegetable stew, rice, spaghetti, coleslaw and matoke (mashed green banana that tastes like mashed potato).

A nearby tree was full of bright yellow weaver birds making a lot of noise. They have lots of little round nests dangling from the branches. A small lizard chased another lizard close to us, so we were getting a wildlife show already.

The journey today was meant to be 5 hours as the wild animals don’t live near the city. Due to looking for mechanics and jeep trouble we were running a little late, so Zedius took us to Bogodi Swamp before we checked into our accommodation.

We were almost there when Zedius stopped to show us a tea plantation, the more popular cash crop in Uganda as it’s easier to grow than cotton or coffee. As we were taking photos, two youths pulled up on their motorcycle and were speaking to Glyn, we struggled to know what they wanted, but when Zedius came over, it turned out they were asking for money. It was amicable, they were just being a bit cheeky. I hope!

We drove alongside Kabali Game Reserve but it was getting too late to go there today. I’ve no idea why we were running so late, the mechanical repairs didn’t seem to take that long. But we were blessed with a stop as a bunch of Olive baboons were hanging out at the roadside, including some babies. Apparently they hijack vehicles as one baboon steps in the road to stop it and then with a pincer movement, their cohorts jump through any open windows and steal your food. Don’t even try fighting them for it, you’ll come off worse.

In the nearby village to Bogodi Swamp, Zedius had to convince a guide to take us around and it took some effort by the looks of it. We were losing the light as it was almost 6pm, but in the end the guide, Matthias relented and took us for an hour’s walk around the swamp. Zedius stayed with the vehicle that decided to stop starting again.

The swamp was heavy with insect sounds and bird calls. I’m glad I was wearing long trousers and hiking boots. It’s home to a variety of monkeys, birds, lizards and probably snakes. Matthias couldn’t promise we’d see anything as he led us through narrow paths enclosed by foliage. He made various whistles and honking noises, I presume to attract the wildlife and not just for a laugh. It paid off as we soon saw black-faced vervet monkeys spying on us from high above. It was hard to see them through all of the leaves, even harder to photograph them due to the low light and they were quick.

Further along, even higher in the trees was a group of red-tailed monkeys, bouncing through the branches. They seemed to be following us, but never came any lower. We heard the calls of a snow crested robin chat and I managed to get a photo. Finally, across a road that bisected the park, we found distant red colobus monkeys, again high in the trees. It was getting a bit dark now and Zedius had managed to repair the jeep. We tipped Matthias and gave him a lift back to the village.

Our final destination was our accommodation for the night, Kibale Safari Lodge, which was down a dark track within the forest. A covered open area was where we were welcomed with some juice and was also where we had dinner. It was here that I was offered a night walk in the forest. The guy listed the potential wildlife we could see, but when he said snakes, both Glyn and Zedius laughed. We were so tired, it wouldn’t have been an option even without snakes.

The guys there carried our luggage to our distant lodge. It’s wonderful that it’s deep in the forest and we needed torches to get there. Not all the lights work, so we unpacked in the dim light and we’ve covered the four poster bed with towels as the mosquito nest is full of holes. It has a porch that looks out directly into the thicket. When we entered, a small lizard scuttled out of a hole in the ceiling, I do hope no snakes scuttle in during the night!

Final question, what’s the difference between a jungle and a forest, this was my question tonight and the reply was that a jungle is full of predators, whereas a forest is a lot safer. I would disagree if the forest is full of snakes!

We fell into a much needed sleep listening to the crickets and insects that flapped around our ceiling. In the distance I could hear chimps calling, I had this confirmed the next day by one of the guys at the camp as he asked the following morning if we’d heard all the racket. We’re very close to where we are chimp trekking tomorrow.

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