Blogs from Uganda, Africa - page 14

We arrived at the Entebbe airport and the change was drastic. The walls were postered were tourist attractions. It only took 45 minutes for a visa instead of 2 hours. Armed security guards were only by the doors separating those in from those outside. As we taxied to Kampala, our driver explained the majority of the expanded highway from Entebbe to Kampala was now complete (the project started 5 years ago). However, as we neared the city, it was evident much remained the same: women bent over sweeping the highway with stick brooms; workers chopping grass on the wayside with machetes; Bodas and cars making 3rd and 4th lanes of traffic appear out of no where; people living and selling out of shacks, the smog and presence of an elephant on my chest while trying to ... read more

The drive from Bwindi to Kibale (where we have a permit for Chimp trekking tomorrow) takes us up the western side of Uganda through the Queen Elizabeth National Park. We don’t expect that much from the park, but do want to try to find the tree climbing lions in the south of the park. The lions are actually quite easy to find – there are 6 in one tree but these are the only ones we see. I manage to bog the Rav4 in a boggy part of the trail. My travel companions are a bit worried about out pushing us out as we have just seen lions up the road, but another vehicles comes past soon and it doesn’t take too much effort to push us clear. We drive along the main road through the ... read more

For more details, cf. entries "4 weeks in Uganda" and "10 days of farming in Gulu"... read more

ok, I know I just posted a blog, but thought I would post a couple more pics because right now we have very fast internet in Nairobi, and tomorrow we leave for a 4 day safari in the Masai Mara which I know i will have a gazillion photos. So, the 2nd Ugandan park with gorillas is called Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. And impenetrable it is. It was such a difference from Mgahinga in terrain. Mgahinga had some wide open areas where we were very lucky to see the gorillas. Bwindi has a narrow trail for a short distance and then it is up, as our guide slashed a 'trail' for us with his machete. The vines and trees were so dense that even as he slashed we had difficulty following. We were lucky that we ... read more

So a little disappointed that we failed to see the Tree Climbing Lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park. It seems they haven’t been seen for a few weeks and eerily we were around 10km from the Congolese border in this park. Apparently animals that wander over the border, especially elephants but lions too meet a sinister fate never to return. On the way out of the park we saw the sign post to the border post with just 7km separating us from Congo. Our driver Stanley even got the “welcome to the democractic republic of Congo” notice on his cell phone. Weird. Anyway as you know from the previous post we had made it along more effing rough roads high high up into the mountainous Bwindi Forest and the next day saw us ready to go ... read more