Blogs from Kisoro, Western Region, Uganda, Africa

Endlich dürfen wir zu den Gorillas! 2 Tracker sind schon einige Zeit unterwegs, um unsere Gorillagruppe aufzuspüren und per Funk die Position durchzugeben. Wir (7 Touris) dürfen dann mit 2 bewaffneten Guides hinterher - bewaffnet deshalb, damit sie im Falle einer Begegnung mit Waldelefanten oder nicht habituierten Gorillas die Tiere mit einem Schuss in die Luft vertreiben können. Unser Weg führt durch dichten Nebelwald, anfangs auf steilen und rutschigen Pfaden, später direkt durch das Dickicht. Die Guides schlagen uns mit Macheten denWeg frei. Nach 1 Stunde erreichen wir die Tiere. Die Gruppe mit dem Namen Kyogurila besteht aus einem Silberrücken, 3 Schwarzrücken, 7 Babies und 6 Damen. Zunächst können wir sie nur schlecht sehen, weil sie immer mitten im Grünzeug sitzen und dort futtern. Aber dann beschließt eine Mutter, den eigentlich vorgeschriebenen Sicherheitsabstand von 7m (zur ... read more

Geo: -1.28116, 29.6808Today we headed out for our travels to Kisoro. Our guide, Everest, met us at Nkuringo Gorilla Camp and we drove to our drop off point to begin our walk to Lake Matunda. This part of the walk was mostly on narrow dirt, rock, sand road used mainly by locals who walk, bicycle of motor cycle to and fro. We walked by many subsistence farming areas and, once again, the children almost appear out of nowhere to say hello to the masungas. After about 2 1/2hours we arrived at Lake Matunda. It is a lovely lake with very lush islands dotted here and there. Some were even being farmed. Because the area is so hilly the farms are all terraced which makes them even more scenic. The land looks very fertile and the main ... read more

The day after my trek up Mt Sabyinyo, I decided it was time to leave Uganda and head for Rwanda. Rwanda has this curious system of only allowing certain nationalities get visas at the border, Ireland not being one of them. For some reason they insist we complete an online pre-application, before being allowed arrive at the border to get your visa. This is despite the fact that you have to fill in a from at the border, giving the exact same information. This wouldn’t have been a big deal except for the Rwandan Immigration’s website having been offline for the previous few days. It is supposed to take a few days to process and I rang the Rwandan embassy in Kampala to see what I should do. They helpfully advised me that there should be ... read more

As instructed by the Horizon bus company man the previous day, I arrive at the bus stop at 7AM in order to catch the service linking Kampala to Kisoro that passes through Kabale. This is also where the shared taxis depart from and one of the drivers tells me, in tones so solemn I assume he's BS-ing, that the bus passed through 2 hours before. I wait for 15 minutes but there's still no bus, and the shared taxi guy then tells me he's about to leave if I want to go with him. I look inside his car and discover that the stars have aligned for me - not only is he going to leave without a full complement of passengers, but the two women with whom I'll share the back seat are small and ... read more

Hello All... From the title of this Blog you can tell we are currently in Gorilla country and I am struggling with words to describe how AMAZING this part of Africa is!!! It is totally wild and I am overwhelmed everyday by the diverse landscape, amazing wildlife and beautiful people. Our overland tour with African Trails is fantastic. Currently there are only 5 of us (Dan, myself, our driver Henry who is from Kenya, Nicola a Kiwi, and Stuart a Brit) in a week or so we will be picking up more people before heading South. So right now we have the whole truck to ourselves and get to set the pace in which we travel from one destination to the next which is such a luxury. We all get along great as we are all ... read more