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Published: July 10th 2015
From Kenya we crossed the border into Uganda and headed into Kampala, the capital city. We stayed in accommodation just outside the city but did get an experience of the manic traffic, and also the beautiful sunsets. Our night here was fairly chilled out as we had a very early morning to try and beat the traffic out in the morning. We were successful and made very good time to get out and stop on the equator for photos and some breakfast. Today was a bit of luxury as we had bacon and eggs! We also got plenty of photos with the equator sign as well as a ‘magic show’ showing us the water circling in opposite directions either side of the equator. Following this we headed out to our next destination - Queen Elizabeth National Park.
We were at Queen Elizabeth National Park to trek and try and find the chimpanzees which the area is famous for. What made it even more entertaining is that our guide was carrying a rifle as there was a chance (albeit quite small) that we could stumble into lions, elephants or hippos whose first reaction would be to attack us! Thankfully
the rifle was not needed and we did manage to track the chimps down and get some great photos. It was a fantastic experience even without the chimpanzees as wandering around this lush forest was very serene.
Our next stop was Lake Bunyonyi where we setup base for our mountain gorilla trek – our highlight for this leg of the trip. The weather was fairly miserable for our time at the campsite but thankfully it was fairly clear for our trek. We decided to do the trek as our first activity as there was the chance we could do it again the following day if we could not find the gorillas. Thankfully this wasn’t needed and we found them after a little over two hours trekking and bush crashing through some fairly thick jungle. What happened next was a once in a lifetime experience as we spent a little over an hour watching a family of gorillas eat, play and watch us. We were lucky enough to see a silverback male, a black back male, a mother and child, a young gorilla playing at the top of a tree, and a male who was scarred from losing
Equator in Uganda #3
The final four - Luke, Lauren, Stacy and Ia fight against another male in a challenge for dominance in the tribe. In the end we didn’t want to leave! But we were all in very high spirits as we made our way back to the campsite.
The next day, our adventures didn’t stop as a few of us took the opportunity to head across the border into Rwanda but that trip will be detailed in a separate blog.
After leaving Lake Bunyonyi, we had a long driving day as we went back through Kampala all the way to a small town called Jinja which was located near the source of the Nile (Lake Victoria if you were wondering) and is also a hub for adventure sport in Africa. We spent a few nights here recharging our batteries and personally I was delighted as the place was owned by a South African so there were all the rugby and football games on TV! Bliss.
I did attempt to get out and do some white water kayaking on the Nile but due to an admin stuff up on the accommodation side, I missed out. Never mind as we had all signed
up for the sunset cruise and I got to break out my music for the group which was very well received. We did our best at drinking the bar dry whilst also taking numerous photos of what was a beautiful location. Eventually though we had to return and carried on back at the accommodation bar. None of us were feeling the best the next day which was alright as we didn’t have a lot planned.
Sadly our time in Uganda came to an end and we crossed the border back into Kenya. Uganda is not a country that receives a lot of attention tourism wise which is a great shame as it is an incredibly beautiful country – so green and vibrant, and there is so much to do as well.
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