Bungle in the Jungle (Uganda)

Not quite done yet!  Our midnight bus was standing room only (seating not as guaranteed as promised).  After a ticket refund and a night at a flea bag hotel (even for me), we hired a car for what turned out to be a lovely five and a half hour drive, through a National Park, along rolling hills and all paved (albeit for 10 times the price of the bus – a tough decision especially for me).

The next two days were spent at a lovely “real” eco-resort on Lake Bunyonyi, nestled in the volcanic mountains that form the border between Uganda and Rwanda.  This is also nearby to the series of National Parks in both countries that are home to the Mountain Gorillas (the animals have dual citizenship).

Crowned Crane - National Bird of Uganda

Our plan was to overland to the Rwanda side and so we hired a car to the border (only about 20 minutes), exchanged some cash, went through the Uganda immigration exit formalities, walked across the “no man’s land” bridge, and then were promptly refused entry.  Apparently, less than two months ago, Rwanda changed the rules for Canadians (used to be free and no Visa).  A Visa was now required and was strictly not available at crossings (but rather has to be secured via the web two days in advance).  We returned to the Uganda authorities and begged them to rescind our exit, they complied (with a very official x-out on the exit stamp) and we exchanged our money back, got in a cab and returned to Kabale.  The Rwanda web site made no mention of the change in requirement, so in a huff, we turfed Rwanda from the itinerary.  They don’t want us – we don’t want them!

Snapping into action, we found a travel company and booked ourselves for Ugandan Gorilla tracking the very next day at the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest – sounds ominous.

After a brutal 3 hour drive to the overnight mountain resort and eight hours of Dave’s orifices emptying (haven’t been sick much – but this was bad timing), we decided to proceed - nauseated, dehydrated and with some remnant diarrhea despite ingesting all the drugs I had (I would have lost the $500 entry fee – so not much decision there). 

Finding the Gorillas normally takes anywhere between one and three hours, I was hoping for more on the former side.  No such luck.  The apes were spotted in a clearing, requiring us to traverse up and down three steep 400 metre embankments lined with thorn bushes and biting red ants.  It ultimately took us four hours, the last 45 minutes via new trails through dense forest blazed by our guide and his machete.  But we did it – we penetrated the impenetrable.

There they were - a family unit of about eight, a full grown Silverback male and even some youngins’.  I was just happy to have stopped walking, and dreading the four-hour return trip.  After our hour with the Gorillas (strictly enforced), we began the journey back (some rehydration, little nausea and woohoo – no more diarrhea). 

The guides admitted that after the first few hours they didn’t think I’d make it and were surprised they didn’t have to call for the porters with a stretcher. 

We received our certificates and slept through the three hour bump fest back to Kabale.  Two days of recuperation later, we braved the bus back to Kampala (slated for 8 hours, took ten), spent the night, and got a flight out to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania the very next day.

I guess we should have paid more attention to those foreshadowing grey clouds at the Kenyan-Uganda border crossing.  Here’s to clear skies for our flight tomorrow. 

For more Uganda photos - see flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoobers_pics/sets/72157626006114150/

Shock the Monkey (Uganda)

After a few days of unwinding at a garden Backpackers on the outskirts of Kampala (with awesome wifi connections), we decided it was time to go.  Even though we’d be back on a bus, it was only suppose to be four hours to Fort Portal (we figured six at the most).  After only four and a half hours on a half way decent paved road, we arrived, found a travel agency, booked a B&B and a car/driver for the next day.

The area is known for a series of crater lakes and nearby rural villages (who have been supplementing their agricultural income with modest eco-resorts or as we like to call them, campgrounds).

Our guide Meable, all of 20 years old, was on loan from the town to assist the locals in their development.  We spent a couple of hours meandering through fields and villages learning about their lives.  Much of this land is owned by a British vanilla concern with an arrangement to provide local jobs at the plant (for export) and rent free land for living and personal production farming.

One thing about Uganda, individual greeting is compulsory, and not simply hello or hi, but some inquiry as to their well being and that of their families.  This is so ingrained that often the response to a simple hello is “fine thank you and you”.  As we approached groups of pre-school children we could hear them practicing with each other in English shouting “hi, how are you?” and then giggling as we reached them and responded.

That afternoon we drove to the Kibale National Forest for some Chimpanzee tracking.   Our group consisted of an American couple on the last two weeks of an 11 months world trip and another couple from The States who were part of a church mission for orphans (kids not chimps).  After our ranger briefing, we began the hunt through some pretty dense woodlands, but only catching glimpses as these apes seemed to be toying with us, scampering away as we got anywhere within photo range.  Then some squawking on the walkie-talkies and we were off through the bush, this time we apparently were being led in circles and as far from any convenient path as possible.  I know Chimps are suppose to be smart (they share 97% of our DNA), but could they be leading us down the proverbial garden path?

After about an hour of this, we emerged to a clearing, a marshy area frequented by forest elephants.  Yes, these primate cousins are quite smart, using leaves as cups to drink out of puddles made from Elephant footprints.  At this point they appeared oblivious to our snap happy group, as we were allowed to approach them (about a half dozen) to within a few metres.

Quite a rewarding day, with no mishaps!  Well not so fast.  We exited the forest to learn that our car was having brake problems and we’d have to travel back to town with the American world travelers.  Fine with us, some journey stories shared, some laughs and then their car broke down – ran out of gas.  We were quite the spectacle for the locals lounging on the side of the road awaiting resolution and trying to decide if we were the jinxes (this was around the time we learned of the civil unrest in Tunisia which we had visited some two months earlier).

After about an hour, we got a ride the remainder of the way back to town with the other American couple and their group – who seemed genuinely worried when we explained both our vehicles had broken down.  We made it safely to town and proceeded to wait for the next six hours for our midnight bus (scheduled eight hours) south to Kabale.  Were we out of the woods yet…stay tuned?

Highway To Hell (Kenya to Uganda)

It began like any other day in East Africa, a painfully early morning cab ride to the intercity bus station (in this case inter-country) for our scheduled 10 hour trip from Nairobi to Kampala, Uganda.  This was well within our defined 12 hour bus trip limit we had set for ourselves and the coach even had reserved seating.

After being in Kenya for eight days, it seemed an oversight for us to just notice the street cages set aside for public smoking – Kenya seems to be among the first nations to ban such activities save for these defined enclaves.  We were also remiss to notice that the bus route pretty much duplicated the first three hours of our return trip from Lake Nakura (which means we could have stayed there, avoided two three hour journeys and caught this bus at the civilized time of 11am).

Then things really started to degenerate.  Our bus was stopped at, what had been up to then, one of a hundred perfunctory highway traffic stops, but this time the officer made us turn around and drive, with her aboard, back to the town police station.  It seems corruption has not totally been eradicated, as the bus was to be fined for a broken windshield (we’re not sure, but we can’t remember seeing a bus without a broken windshield).  Then the officers came on board to search for other potential safety violations in an effort to pad the offences into an even larger fine.  How surprising when they found most seatbelts and many windows non-operational.  Meanwhile, the indigenous passengers, most likely used to this sort of thing, taking it in stride and using the stoppage as an opportunity to relieve themselves – finding privacy behind the bent and mangled vehicles of the traffic accident compound.

A half hour’s worth of fine enhancements and we were back on our way, but the sinister signs were all there.  Four hours later (total seven hours so far) – we reached the border.  Just as we were to disembark for the Kenyan immigration exit extravaganza, the sky (which to this point was blazingly sunny) turned an ominous grey and torrential rains soaked the poorly draining area.  All windows now closed on the non-air conditioned bus for the five minute drive to the Ugandan entry immigration post.  Passengers scurried in the downpour, mud slapping at every turn, many slipping and falling, and then a power failure.  We were the only Mzunga on the bus (a southern, central and eastern African slightly derogatory term for "person of foreign descent" - more recently coming to mean "language of the aimless wanderers" ), and we were therefore responsible for holding up departure awaiting our required entry Visas.

And we were off!?  Well, not so fast.  There was a line of about transport trucks five kilometers long now blocking our passage – eight hours and counting. 

Our bus bobbed and weaved his way through in only an hour.  So, why can’t we traverse the nearly 250 km left in one hour, it had only taken us only nine hours to come the 330 km so far?

We passed one unattractive rural town after another until sundown then streams of roadside stall and shop lighting emanating from lanterns and compact fluorescents for another eight hours.  Some Sunday traffic entering Kampala slowed us a bit more (must be those folks returning from the cottage) and the finally tally was 17 hours for our 10 hour max. bus ride.

Arriving anywhere at 11pm to an inner city bus terminal is sub-optimal, but a third world capital is actually worse.  Despite the hour, a throng of service providers (read touts, taxi drivers and all round “operators”) closed in on us.  After 17 hours, courtesy was tossed aside and we donned our backpacks and bolted.  After another hour of wandering through central Kampala (our new champion of ugliest world Capital visited, displacing previous co-leaders Vientiane, Laos and Asuncion, Paraguay), we managed to find an ATM and a hotel.  Maybe a shower and some sleep will expunge today’s memorable journey…There has been a bus trip story from hell on every one of our extended travels; let’s just hope this is the “one”!

Talk to the Animals (Kenya)

So where else do you find a giraffe in the distance as you exit the international airport parking lot?  Yes, this is East Africa – Nairobi, Kenya specifically.  After some much needed $US replenishing at some “real and recognizable” UK banks, we were ready to pay for our 4 day national park safari, leaving the very next morning.

We drove for a bit over an hour before descending into the rift valley and a quick stop to join in with a couple from China (by way of Saudi Arabia – where they are grad students, yeah, we were a bit perplexed as well).  Three more hours of bumpy, potholed “highway” and we were at our tented camp home for the next three days and two nights at Masai Mara National Park (a large canvas tent under a permanent lien-to with zippered access to a concrete and tile bathroom, an actual wood frame bed / mattress and generator electricity from 7 – 11pm and 6 – 9am…luxury). 

 

Then it was time for our late afternoon / dusk game drive – and our Safari intro was no disappointment.  Seconds into the gate we encountered Zebra, Impala, Masai Giraffe, Wildebeest, Hartebeest, Topi, Buffalo, Elephant, the small but necessarily fast Thompson Gazelle, and a myriad of birds (Guinea Fowl, Vulture and Secretary Bird).

The CB radio then started buzzing with Swahili excitement and we took off in the direction of dust clouds (it seems the best way to find wildlife in National Parks here is the same as in Canada – check for the cluster of cars at the side of the road, only difference is that here the cars are 4WD safari trucks).  We approached more slowly and promptly established what all the fuss was about – a family of Cheetahs sauntering about virtually ignoring the throng of vehicles and simulated digital camera shutter snaps, and then a second “coalition of Cheetah” (hey that’s the name) emerged nestled on a rocky outcrop. 

Our Chinese friends were still recovering when we heard a loud gasp - a small pride of lions wished us well en route to the park exit, a fitting way to end our first day.

We spent the next day exploring the nether reaches of the park with the following new animal encounters:

• Bat-Eared Fox, Mongoose, Warthog, Hippo, Crocodile, Tortoise and for the fowl - Ostrich, Eagle, and Crowned Crane. 
• We stumbled on a sleeping pride of Lions – this time with an adult male and his magnificent full mane.
• Two Masai Giraffe started entangling their necks – which we mistakenly believed to be affectionate, but based on the increasingly aggressive neck whacks we determined that they were two males actually competing for the affection of a nearby female.  

That evening we took a short stroll over to explore the nearby Masai village where many of the young men in traditional garb performed a traditional dance (more like a grunting and jumping contest that they couldn’t resist having me compete in).  Being invited into one of their mud huts was eye opening, as this 150 square foot abode was actually subdivided into four living quarters, housing as many as six family members with one of the rooms reserved for the animals at night.  Moreover, the useful life of this modest accommodation is only six years.  

We couldn’t have imagined anything fresh on the final dawn game drive (pre-dawn the next morning), but we were wrong, dead wrong.  Oh great, another two lions, ho hum, but what’s that carcass doing there?  Yes, right out of National Geographic, a lion was dragging one of two freshly killed Topi behind some bushes for safe keeping.  The first had already been consumed, as evidenced by the White Headed Vultures finishing it off a few metres away.  Other notable additions include: Dik Dik, Black-Back Jackal and Servile.

Another 6 hours of driving was required to reach Lake Nakuru National Park, an alkaline lake supporting a vast aviary population and a few more animals to add to the checklist, including one more of the Big Five – a White Rhino, as well as

• Olive Baboon, Waterbuck, Rock Hyrax, Rothschild Giraffe, Vervet Monkey as well as Flamingo (pink and white), Stork (Mariboo, Yellow-Billed, Saddle-Billed), Pelican, Egret, Heron and Plower.

Four out of the big five – maybe Tanzania will provide the elusive Leopard.

We also learned that most of these Savannah fauna are herbivores, but it was the carnivorous cats that left that lasting impression.  So, we returned to Nairobi and immediately had a dinner of as much meat as possible – at least we didn’t have to hunt and kill it ourselves.

Safaris really are all about the photos - check out our faves on flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thegoobers_pics/sets/72157625975419724/