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Published: October 16th 2007
We were pleasantly surprised with Sophie's as it had been described in the trip notes (we were at the start of a three week overland tour of Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania with Geckos, the tour group we used for the Galapagos and the Inca Trail) as 'quite basic by western standards' and didn't really think that it was fair to call it basic. We had a large room with 3 single beds, good mozzie nets around each bed, a t.v. (although it was quite temperamental) and a bathroom with all you could need, even hot water. The rest of the hotel was clean and tidy and pretty well decorated and all the staff were friendly and helpful, although one of the young guys was trying to get a ticket to England through Dani!
We basically spent the next two days in our room catching up on sleep and reading (Dani finally finished Lord of the Rings! It only took her the full trip!) and preparing ourselves for the hectic three weeks ahead. We ventured out for food occasionally just in the hotel restaurant as we weren't too sure about wandering around Uganda on our own. The food was simple
but decent and included things like onion soup and vegetable curry so we both remained well fed.
On the 16th we met up with the rest of the Geckos group in the evening where we also met our two guides and heard a little bit about what was going to be happening. The group was made up of 14 of us, and they were mostly Aussies. There were a couple from Canada, Doug and Janine, who were on their honeymoon and the rest were from Oz. Our guides/drivers Shaq and George were late for this meeting and did not live it down for the rest of the trip! They were both very nice and a good laugh. Even though they were late for the first meeting, they were pretty well organised for the remainder of our week with them (we got a new guide for Kenya and Tanzania) and made it really enjoyable. That evening the whole group headed out for dinner together. We walked down to the waterfront and a relatively posh hotel where we had pizzas that were really good, though they may have been what gave us both rather dodgy stomachs for the next couple of
days! It was nice to be out of the hotel and we realised that the area around the hotel seemed pretty safe and there were a number of nice looking hotels around that we could have tried instead of eating all our meals at Sophie’s!
The next morning, 17th, we left Entebbe for Kabale in Stacey, a truck, and our transport for the following week travelling across Uganda. She became our second home and she wasn't a bad one either. She had 14 seats with large windows down both sides and an open roof that was covered with a tarp. There were nets above our heads for our 'hand luggage', though this wasn't a particularly safe place to put it as it tended to bounce out and hit you on the head when Stacey hit a particularly large pothole! We sat on the back left which was a little cramped but we soon got used to it. The roads were very bumpy and rather dusty and surprisingly busy with people, cows, petrol tankers, bikes etc etc but the scenery was amazing. It was so incredibly green and hilly with loads of banana plantations and farms and long horned cows
everywhere. The people are really poor and their homes are extremely simple, some made of mud, some sticks and straw and others with concrete foundations and tin roofs. There is a lot of dirt in the towns but they are very small compared to everywhere else we've been. We didn't even see one McDonalds! But you can't miss all the mobile phone advertisers which contrast completely with where they're situated. There are young children everywhere and they would all wave and smile at us, though the older people weren't quite so friendly and often when walking around you'd hear the word 'Mzungu' used a lot which means 'white person', though our guides assured us that it wasn't derogatory!
After a few hours of driving we came to the equator where there was a memorial and a number of curio shops. We stopped here for about 40mins. We took a few photos and visited some of the shops. We were very good though and didn't spend anything this time! We continued the journey for another few hours and then stopped for lunch at a restaurant in one of the small towns and grabbed a small bite to eat. Dan didn't
eat anything because of his tummy and we still had a long way to go! We arrived in Kabale around 5.30pm after a long day of driving and a lot of bumpy roads. We checked into the White Horse, which wasn't bad, although there was a rather noisy wedding going on in the gardens. We had drinks with the group in the bar and then a buffet dinner at around 8pm, which felt pretty late after our long day and then hit the sack.
The following morning, 18th, after breaky, we headed for Rwanda. We made one stop to get some t-shirts ordered and then headed to Kisoro. It was only 80km away but took the whole morning because, as with the rest of Eastern Africa, the roads were really bumpy, windy and we had to travel through a couple of rather scary mountain passes that had Dani on the edge of her seat, especially when we had to squeeze pass a large tanker! Again the scenery was stunning and it kept us entertained for most of the journey. We stopped for an excellent 3 course lunch in a small hostel/hotel in Kisoro where we met a group of
street children. There were about 10 of them boys and girls, from babies up to teenagers and all of them were orphans. We gave them some chocolate and some of the others gave them sweets and pens and other food stuffs. It was really sweet but extremely sad as well to know that they had no parents to look after them, they only had each other to rely on. They were all dressed in dirty, holey clothes with dirty faces and runny noses. There was one little boy whose trousers were completely ripped along the inside of both of his legs and he was still wearing them probably because that's all he had to wear.
We headed into Rwanda after lunch, but had to wait at the boarder for an hour, which was a little longer than we expected but before long we were on our way again. The countryside in Rwanda is very similar to that in Uganda and the only noticeable difference was that they speak French rather than English, drive on the opposite side of the road and there were also more people walking on the roads than there were in Uganda.
That night we
stayed in a little town but didn't venture out of the hotel as it wasn't supposed to be that safe. We all sat and had drinks together and then a very nice meal, although it took quite a long time to arrive. We headed to bed early because we had a very early start the next day.
Nobody slept well that night as the beds were rather uncomfortable but we were all excited about the day ahead. We were up around 5.30-6am, had a quick breaky and made ourselves some sandwiches for lunch (though we rather stupidly made some tuna sandwiches that turned to mush!). It was about a 30min drive to get to the Gorilla centre where we signed in and then waited to meet our guides. We were divided into two groups; we had the choice of going in a group of 8 but possibly walking further or a group of 6 that probably wouldn't have to walk as far (although the gorillas are always moving so they're never 100% sure where they are though they have trackers following them continually so they have a reasonable idea and they can pretty much assure you that you'll see
them). As our group was made up of 8 Aussies who were friends/family they wanted to all go together so they chose to take the longer walk. It could take up to 4 hours to find them so we were a little pleased that we'd probably not be walking that far! Once we'd chosen our groups we then met our guides and were told about the gorilla families that we'd be visiting.
We were to visit the youngest silverback and his family. There are about 13 gorilla families; each family has a silverback and at least one baby as well as females and blackbacks (male gorillas that aren't yet silverbacks). Because our silverback was the youngest, he was also the smallest though he still weighed a good 200kg so we didn't mind!
We had to drive another 20-30mins in Stacey before we arrived at the start point and began walking at about 8am. We started in a little village and had to walk up through farm lands until we reached the edge of the thick jungle that the gorillas live in. We'd only been walking about 20minutes and were still on the edge of the jungle when we
got our first look at the gorillas. We could see one up in a tree, and none of us could believe that we could see them already especially as we'd been expecting to have to walk a fair distance and we weren't even sure that we would see them!
Once we'd spotted them we knew where to head and so started the vertical climb up the pathless, wet, slippery, muddy, super stinging nettle ridden hill towards them. This climb was extremely difficult and we really wished that we'd brought some gardening gloves like the rest of the group as we had to hold onto all sorts of plants, roots and leaves to try and keep our footing! Dani was lucky as one of the group lent her one of his gloves but Dan had to struggle on and the stinging nettles were pretty vicious!
Just before we arrived at the top, the guide became a little separated from us, although we still had a man with a gun behind us, and we could hear a grunting behind the bushes ahead of us. This began to freak Dani out and then all of a sudden the silverback ran at
us, crashing down all the bushes, stopping just hidden about 3m from us. This sent Dani over the edge and she burst into tears, not sure what the gorilla would do and there was no where we could escape to if he did decide that he didn't like our company! However, he left us alone and we moved into a small clearing where all the plants and bamboo had been flattened by the gorillas. The guide directed us over to the opposite side of the clearing where we sat down on some of the flattened plants at watched.
In the clearing there were only 3 young gorillas around 3 years old but you could hear more gorillas moving in the bushes all around us. This kept Dani on edge for most of the time we were there and she became especially nervous when the silverback appeared again though he only strutted across the clearing on the far side and then sat with his back to us eating and watching the locals on the hill opposite. Unfortunately this meant we didn't get any photos of him but at the time Dani wasn't worried about that!! At one point when he
had moved out of sight we heard him banging his chest which was a little scary because we didn't know what that was for.
The baby gorillas were SO amazingly cute! They were completely happy that we were there and continued on playing together, rolling around on the flattened plants, jumping on each other, biting each other, beating their little chests like their dad even! They weren't completely oblivious to us though, every now and again they'd try and get closer to check us out but the guide would keep moving us back. One even came so close he grabbed one of the guys shoes and tried to chew on his shoe laces! Our favourite moment though was when the smallest of the three babies came quite close to us, held onto a vine, swung him self around in circles, then let go and did a number of twirls ending up on the ground rolling around! We also enjoyed watching two of them rolling around together and then the third one take a run and jump right into the other two. It was just like watching young children play!
Once we'd watched the babies for about 30-40mins we
went off in search of some other members of the group. We found a blackback not far off but he was on the move so we didn't get to see him for long. So we carried on with the search and came across a mother and a tiny baby. We didn't even notice that there was a baby clinging onto her until it climbed off! The mother wasn't too pleased at first and had a little run at us but she soon relaxed and we were able to watch as the baby wandered around, played with the plants and acted all cute! Unfortunately at this point our time ran out and we had to leave, which was a bit of a relief for Dani.
The slide back down the hill was a lot better than the climb had been and we were back on the opposite hill before long, looking at the gorillas climbing up into the trees, not really believing that we had been within feet of them just minutes before.
We headed back down to Stacey and waited there for the other group to return. All together, our sighting and walk took two hours at the
very maximum. The other group didn't return for another two hours! While we waited Dan and one of the Aussie guys, Ben, played football with some of the children from the village. We also gave out some pens, which seemed a good idea at the time but for every pen you gave out, another 10 children would appear!
When the other group finally returned, two of them were quite ill from heatstroke and although they walked further it sounded like they had a bit of a better sighting than us as the sun had come out and the silverback actually let them take some photos of him! But never mind, that's just the luck of the draw....it just gives us another reason to go back! Once we were altogether again we headed back to the Gorilla centre where we collected our certificates and purchased a few souvenirs then made our way to the border. It took just over an hour to the border where, this time, we didn't have to wait too long, and then it was only a short trip to Kisoro again. Here we stayed at a very nice little hotel with the rooms set around a
well planted courtyard/garden, a very cosy bar with a log fire and excellent food. Dian Fossey used to stay there herself when she was visiting the gorillas; supposedly she called it her home from home!
That night we relaxed a bit, had a good dinner, a few drinks in the bar and then bed.
The next morning, 20th, we headed to Bushara Island Camp. It took us a good few hours to the boats, followed by a half hour trip in two narrow boats. The scenery on the lake was quitw impressive and watching the locals in their boats was really interesting. They weren't too pleased when we zoomed past in our motorised boats and they had to ride out our wake! We where met at the dock by about 20 people all there to carry our bags as is was quite a trek uphill to get to the reception. Along with the reception there was also a restaurant at the top of the hill with indoor and outdoor seating and fires. There were about 12 tents/chalets spread out across the whole island and they were all named after birds. The island is covered in trees and plants
and is a birdwatchers paradise, so Dan was in his element!
We were in a tent called Bee Eater, about 10minutes walk from the restaurant. It was a large, permanent tent with 2 single beds, a small table and clothes hanging space. Out the front under an awning there was a table, chair and sink. To the left of the tent was the compost toilet in its own shed which smelt pretty bad! And next to that was an open shower that had to be filled up with hot water by one of the staff, which meant you had to order it the day before and they weren't always that good at remembering who wanted one when! It was cool to take a shower looking out over the island and lake and even nicer to have one and be able to look up at the stars at the same time! We had a fantastic view over the lake and there wasn't another tent/chalet in sight!
After we arrived we had a quick buffet lunch, got ourselves sorted then we just stayed around our tent identifying and photographing the birds there. That evening we had a very good dinner
then sat around the outdoor fire.
The following day, 21st, we were up quite early to photograph the birds. After breaky we joined Ben and went Kingfisher hunting but we didn't find too much so ended up sitting on one of the docks with Penny (Ben's wife) and just chatted for a couple of hours. The rest of the group visited a pygmy village for the morning. We had lunch around 1pm then the two of us took a walk around the island again still birdwatching, and then joined the others around 4pm to watch a performance by a group of orphans. There were about 15-20 of them, all ages from 4 years old up to teenagers. They danced and sang for us then at the end we all had to join in and do all sorts of silly things like stick our tongues out, stick our chests out, stick our bottoms out and sing - all at the same time! It was really good to see and it was nice to see that they were being looked after even though they had no parents.
That evening was the same as the previous.
The next day, 22nd,
it was Dan's birthday! We were up bright and early as we had to leave the island that day. Dan opened his card and pressie then we struggled up to breaky with all our bags. The group all gave Dan a card then we headed down to the boats. Once off the boats we jumped back on Stacey and headed for Entebbe and Sophie's motel again. On the way we stopped at the equator memorial again quickly so that we could all buy some curios and Adrian and Kerry, a couple of the Aussies, got Dan an elephant hair bracelet for his birthday. We arrived there in time for a quick shower and drink before heading out to a very fancy hotel for dinner. We had a good meal and a few drinks, and the guys even sorted out some cake for Dan's birthday, which was really sweet of them and we all sang to him, much to his embarrassment!
The next day, 23rd, we headed out to the chimp sanctuary on Ngamba Island, in the middle of Lake Victoria. The sky was really grey and drizzling a bit but we hoped it would hold off till we at
least got to the island. Unfortunately just as we arrived at the boat it started to pour down. We still didn't give in though and jumped on board. It was a long wooden boat with a metal awning. We all just about fitted on and squeezed up so that the people at the front wouldn't get too wet from the rain. It only got worse. About half an hour into the hour and a half trip the rain was pouring in the front and we couldn't see anything at all, either out the front or back. There was thunder and lightning, both overhead and we were bobbing all over the place. Dani was just trying to keep an eye on the horizon which was pretty difficult. It started to get pretty scary and we were all a bit worried about the boat being struck by lightening. So after a bit of freaking out (not that we were too bothered, we just wanted to get to the island!) and shouting, the guy turned the boat around and started back to shore, not that he knew which direction the shore was even!! We were circling around trying to work out the way
to go when the skipper worked it out, we started the journey back. We probably would have been better sticking it out though as instead we ended up sitting underneath the storm for even longer as it was heading the same way that we now were. We were both really gutted about missing the sanctuary. Instead we returned to Sophie's, grabbed our bags, had a group photo, filled in some feedback forms, said goodbye to Ben and Penny who were continuing on a different tour, then drove to Kampala.
Kampala was about an hours drive away and is quite a large town. We were staying in the centre which was pretty hectic and full-on compared to the places that we'd been to recently. There were people and traffic everywhere and it was pretty poor and dirty, but mostly it was just crowded! After we'd sorted our stuff out with the hotel, we all headed out to change up some money then grab a bite to eat before chilling out for the afternoon. We popped out again later in the day to buy a suitcase as all our souvenirs were beginning to be a bit of a pain to carry.
That evening we walked to the Speke hotel where we had a Mongolian BBQ as was suggested by our guide Shaq. The food was absolutely excellent and the place itself was really nice and well decorated too. A complete contrast to the rest of Uganda and especially Kampala! Shaq and George joined us for a few drinks at the end of the meal then we had to say our goodbyes. They'd been brilliant guides and had made this part of the trip really enjoyable for us. We just hoped that our next guide would be as good.
The following morning, 24th, we were up super bright and early again to start our long journey to Nairobi, Kenya. We travelled the 4 or so hours to the border in a mini-bus which was actually quite comfortable, even though all the rucksacks threatened to fall down on Dan at every bump! Even so, we both caught some more z's but also got to see a beautiful sunrise, that was really enhanced by the tinted windows!
We arrived at the border around 10am and sorted out our visas and money which took about an hour to do. Once on the
Kenyan side we had to change vehicles again but because they had had some problem with our bus we ended up having to cram ourselves into two mini-vans with all our bags. We literally just fitted and it was the start of a nightmare journey....
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