Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 28

Geo: -1.25418, 29.9928Had an early morning start as we had to drive 50km in very mountainous terrain, average altitude is 1900mtrs. The drive took us into some magnificent country through little villages. Unbeknown to us tourism into this area is relatively new thus people were having a good look.. one lady even ran away then stopped to have a look, I gave her a big wave and all was forgiven. The track is very good considering the terrain we were lucky our drive in was dry.. however once we arrived at the camp site the clouds rolled in and a thunderstorm started.. hence writing this blog in the early afternoon. The roof top tent is holding up well and has not leaked at all.The forest we are going to walk in was part of the forest ... read more

It’s not all work, work, work here, of course! I’ve treated myself to two amazing trips while I’ve been here, the first to go Gorilla tracking in Bwindi, over in the west of the country, and the second, last weekend, up to Murchison Falls, around six hours north-west of Kampala. The Afro-alpine landscape of Bwindi (sometimes known by the wonderfully romantic title ‘Bwindi Impenetrable Forest’) is very different from Bujagali, and although the distance is little more than from London to Manchester, even in a private vehicle the journey took us fifteen (yes, really!) hours. Much of the road on the way is still unsurfaced, and the last two hours of the journey took us crawling in pitch darkness up a narrow and precipitous mountain dirt track to the Nkuringo campsite, a comfortable tent and a ... read more

Left for Uganda on 6-11. The boarder crossing was amazing. I never seen anything like it. The truck that we are traveling is very large and yellow and screams attention. Every time that we stop we are swarmed with people. The boarder was no different. You can buy fresh water, simosas (my new favorite African food), and you can also exchange your currency with men that are standing at the boarder crossing wearing yellow coats. They looked like stock exchange people. Uganda is so much pretty than Kenya, it is very green and for the most part the roads are a lot better, meaning that there is more pavement here. On the way to Lake Bunyonyi, we stopped in Kampala, the capital and stayed the night in a hostel, called Red Chilies. Nice grounds with show ... read more

Mgahinga Gorilla National Park is only 14km from Kisoro but the prices I'm quoted for transport there and back suggest it's more like four times that distance. I'm told that the road is "very bad". I find this hard to believe - though the Mgahinga mountain gorillas are currently in DRC, this is still one of only four places in the world where you can (sometimes) see these creatures. And one rule of Africa so far seems to be that governments will spend lavishly on tourist infrastructure even while ignoring the needs of local people. I grudgingly hand over the money, fully expecting it to be a rip-off. My driver knows that I need to be at the park early in the morning so as to meet my guide for golden monkey tracking, so I'm less ... read more

Yet another Fort Portal power cut on the morning of my departure for Lake Bunyonyi means a hot shower is not forthcoming plus I have to complete my packing in the light from my headtorch. We have been told to be at the bus office for 5:40AM, though the bus doesn't show until nearly an hour later and we don't depart Fort Portal until a further thirty minutes after that. The bus isn't completely full and in fact only one other passenger joins Sonja and I in the five seats at the very back. We learn that Ugandan speedbumps are extremely effective, even at low speeds. The road is never in brilliant condition, and the rougher parts are something of a trial given the slick plastic covering on the seat and the complete lack of handholds. ... read more