Blogs from Western Region, Uganda, Africa - page 21

Diary 6 - Queen Elizabeth National Park We camped at the Simba Camp Site in the Queen Elizabeth National Park, in Western Uganda for 2 nights – 21-22 July. The area had a bar, dining and lounge room, and a variety of accommodation from double rooms, rooms with multiple bunk beds and the tent area. The park covers an area of over 1978 sq kms between Lake Edward and Lake George, around the Kasinga Channel connecting the two. The park has a wide variety of terrain, including volcanic craters, some forming lakes, grassy plains and tropical forest. The Kasinga Channel has the largest concentration of hippos in the world! This park is like a more concentrated version of East African parks as far as animals are concerned, although, unless the mist-shrouded Ruwenzori Mountains are visible, there ... read more

Wow...where to begin? The team told us when we got to Africa that the end of the first week was always the hardest and they were absolutely right. Yesterday was by far the most difficult day that we have had since we arrived. Before heading to the school we decided to stop and pick up school supplies at Mr. Patel's. While we were there his wife made us his famous and absolutely delicious chai tea! When we arrived at school the children were in the midst of chapel. We listened for a while to their beautiful singing before getting out of the matata to join them. One of the teachers that I am working alongside came to speak to me during the chapel time and told me that her son was in the hospital, beside the ... read more

Well, this was a long anticipated day. I was going to see gorillas in their natural habitat, at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest NP, a Unesco World Heritage site. After breakfast at 7:00, I headed to the park entrance at 7:45 for a film on gorilla behaviour plus the UWA briefing for gorilla tracking. Basically, stay 7m away from them, no flash photography, and no eating, drinking or smoking in their vicinity. We were told to expect anywhere between a 15 minute and 6 hour hike through tough tropical rain forest. We were to have sturdy boots, with pant legs tucked into the socks to avoid fire ant bites, and to have at least 2L of water each. We also needed to have rain gear and long sleeve shirts were strongly recommended to avoid getting all cut up ... read more

Wow! So much has happened since we left home! Unfortunately, access to the internet has been more limited than we expected. We tried to use the internet cafe a couple of days ago, but the network was down. I'll do my best to give an overview of everything that has happened so far! In the past week I have laughed more than I have in a really long time.... When we arrived at the airport in Entebbe, we were greated by Bob, our driver. His job was to not only get us safely to Kampala, but also to cram 6 adults and 24 suitcases into a matata (large passenger van). Luckily the drive was only an hour, because there certainly was not much space to sit. This was our first real glimpse of Africa. One of ... read more

Uganda is home. While I did not play much of a tourist in Uganda, I was the tour operator and travel consultant, so I did travel and enjoy the perks of going to tourist destinations such as Bwindi and other national parks in the country. To say gorilla tracking is a thrilling adventure is to understate it, nothing speaks of adventure like spending a whole day in thickets tracking giant black primates that could easily kill you. Of recent years Gorilla tracking has become one of Uganda's leading tourism activities: Uganda boasts of two National parks in which mountain Gorillas inhabit. The first and most popular is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the second being Mgahinga which closely boarders Rwanda. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park is found in the South Western region of Uganda, at edge ... read more