UGANDA: Part 2

From tree climbing lions to gorillas and gorgeous lakes

TO THE QUEEN

We leave Kibale Forest for the Queen Elisabeth N.P. Soon we turn off the main road and take a mildly bumpy dirt road along crater lakes and through banana plantations. The scenery is simply the best. 

We started with bomasa palms, woodlands, rainforests, followed by maize fields, high grasses, swamps, then the tea and coffee plantations and now the bananas. To be honest so far I like this part the very best. The landscape is very hilly and we keep seeing slopes full of banana trees, interspaced with little houses where colorful laundry is drying outside, kids run towards the road to wave at us. The weather is sunny and not too hot yet, it’s just perfect. All to soon we reach the main road again and are back on the highway 70 south from Fort Portal (at 1480m) to Kasese. From Fort Portal away, the Rwenzori mountains are dominantly present in the west. No snow capped peaks to be seen at the time, at over 5000m they are almost always in the clouds. 

Soon after Kasese we reach our lodge on the shores of Lake George. Lots of British royalty represented here in the lakes, starting with Lake Victoria, then we passed Albert, now George and soon we will do a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel joining George and Edward. Only Charles is missing, ha ha, he probably has to die before he gets his lake. 

In the late afternoon, when it has cooled down minimally, (we are now down at 800m with much higher temperatures) we leave for a game drive in the Queen Elisabeth N.P., in the northern Kasenyi sector. It is still extremely hot. At the gate our guide Judith joins us and lets off her pep talk like a well oiled machine, but still, she is nice. A mere kilometer into the park she points at a big Candelabra tree lions in it, in a cactus ? We get our big lenses out and zoom in, damned she’s right, and not just one ! A big male, a female and a few more smaller ones incredible! How do they get up there ! We don’t see them very well so we move on, there’s not much else to see here except kobs, buffalo and hippo. The scenery is also the least good so far, just flat with dozens of candelabras, not a real tree in sight.

GAME DRIVE AND BRIDGE PROBLEM

Early the next morning another game drive. I told Anatoli before, if its just kobs and buffalo we can go home at 10:00, which we did. We saw fighting kobs, muddy buffalo and hippo, a herd of elephant near the lake and some birds. Am seriously afraid Jürg is turning into a birder !

In the afternoon a boat trip on Kazinga Channel. The ranger post and info center host a small museum. It is in such a terrible state that we advise them to rather tear it down than show another soul. The posters are so faded you can hardly read the information on it (which by itself is quite interesting), the skulls have fungi on them and have parts missing and the bird collection is falling apart, literally rotting away, thank god they already took the very decomposed ones out (which is more than half of the miserable collection). The boat trip on the other hand is extremely pleasant and we see a lot of wildlife ! When we almost reach Lake Edward we see how the community lives alongside the wildlife. One guy sits there washing himself and points at the water 10m in front of him, seconds later a hippo pops up. There are elephants just beside the village and buffalo walk through it like a herd of cows. Nobody seems to mind, it seems to work.

BUTTERFLIES INSTEAD OF CHIMPS 

We leave as planned at 06:30 and pray the bridge which had been closed the past few days is now open (or we do a 4 hour detour). Can’t believe our luck, just beside the road, we find a lion family with 2 super tiny cubs, so cute ! The bridge is open as promised, and we pass it in 2 seconds flat. 

After the bridge the landscape changes again, we now have wide savannah plains dotted with akazias, almost like the Masai Mara. We turn off and soon reach the Kyambura Gorge. The land is almost flat and the gorge just cuts into it, a deep 26km long cut filled with rainforest and hopefully chimps. We hike down in the gorge and soon hear the chimps screaming and our ranger Harriet spots them and gets going. We follow but the rest of the group soon falls back. I get a short glimpse of one chimp before they disappear forever in the jungle. So the rest is a nature walk through a beautiful green jungle. Who cares, it is still sensationally beautiful.

We leave after having taken a few shots from the top overlooking the gorge. The savannah is soon replaced by a Maramagambo forest, the road is a good dirt road and the best part is there is hardly any traffic, better even, there are hundreds of butterflies. Sometimes it is like driving through an orange or white cloud. We are now in the Ishasha sector of the park.

We are ready for the next game drive. Which last about 15min, we don’t even reach the gate to pick up our guide. Fat drops hit the windscreen and is grey in just about every direction we look, varying from light grey to very very dark. Soon it pours and we even get some hail ! On the way back to the lodge the rain ceases a bit, so I decide we will do wet kobs. Preferably one shaking himself, like a dog when he’s wet. I really do get one, this is cool ! So after that wet topi, very nice also. The black in their skins shines like its been polished, but they never shake the rain off and mostly turn their backs, buggers. 

On the way home Anatoli tells us there is a surprise sundowner party planned…just as it is getting darker and grayer by the minute. Can’t be a party pooper so we go, and to be quite honest, have a great time. We get ourselves a G&T, make it a double with the Ugandan Waragi Gin, which is, how else could it be… made of bananas ! Must admit it is much to my liking.

TO THE GORILLAS

After our morning game drive, where we finally do see a lion in a “proper” tree, we move on to Buhoma. Tomorrow is the big day ! Gorilla tracking day. We leave at 07:30 and drive 10 min to the park headquarters. We are greeted by a group of woman who perform local dances and get a nice cup of tea before the briefing starts. We get the Habinyanja group with 2 silverbacks. First get in the car and drive about 40min to the little village Namashamba, then the hike starts, out of the village, through the tea plantation and a little upwards and after a mere 45min we already we see our first gorilla, that was not the normal procedure, that was easy. Jürg said it was just 45min till we saw them. Lucky us, I’ve heard other hiking stories.

We now enter the dense bush, but the rangers keep chopping at the vegetation so we get a clear view. One guy in particular is my friend, Marvin, he keeps pulling me along, come, come and hacking away at stuff, getting me in a good position. I believe he has had more photo people here ! There are 3 or 4 females and a silverback. This is so cool ! But shit, it starts raining once again. At first a little but soon it turns into a proper downpour. So we hide under the big trees and the gorillas go into hiding as well. The good thing is they are not moving around now, so we get great portraits. The bad thing is it is really dark, and we are all getting soaking wet in spite of all the rain gear. No matter how expensive, no matter how wet, this is worth the USD 600 permit (each)!

At the lodge we are greeted at reception by the housekeeping man who will clean our boots, and he insists on taking my trousers, they do look horrible ! About an hour later he is back with the shoes, they look like brand new, he’s a miracle worker.

PYGMEES AND FORESTS

A tour to the Batwa Pygmee Tribe. Another sad story, these nomadic people who lived in the forest  for centuries, are now forced to be farmers and live on a shitty little plot at the edge of town. They show us how they used to live and hunt, how they set traps, make fire and cook food in wrapped in banana leaves and buried in the ground. They even dance and only when I see the photo of Jürg dancing with them, I realize how small they really are.

We drive on to Ruhija, and drive our Anatoli half mad, requesting stops over and over again, the landscape on this part is my absolute favorite, it is more than beautiful ! There are valleys filled with bananas, eucalyptus, neatly organized fields with crops, tea plantations, flame trees flowering in bright red, colorful hoses on the slopes. Of course we have to take part in the national sport: waving at the mzungu. Anatoli said the kids even position themselves strategically so you really do see them, and they see you. Imagine a Swiss pass but surrounded by a jungle in many shades of green, the road is not tarmac but a long winding bumpy dirt road, at times badly eroded and even more bumpy (if that is possible). Not that we scare easily after Madagascar. At the gate we reach the altitude of 2400m, we’re high up in the mountains and it is still very very green.

From Ruhiji to Kisoro and then it is only about 20min more. The road is awful, but it could have been much worse. The views on the other hand are once again spectacular. Lake Mutanda comes into view, there are lots of little islands in it, there are beautiful clouds in the sky and the sun is slowly setting, bathing everything in a golden glow. This is awesome. The more we see of the lake the better we like it.

2nd GORILLA TRACKING

Our second gorilla tracking today at Rushaga. Just the trip there is an adventure. There are lots of locals getting their goods to the market in Kisoro, the kids pop out to wave, the road is good competition for a Madagascar one, it is incredibly bad. But we keep moving, although at a very slow pace. We need about an hour for 30km and barely make it to the gate with a very flat tyre. All solved by the time we get back from the hike.

After the briefing we get teamed up with a bunch of old Canadians. The easy group again, I am almost ashamed of myself. We are going to the Bwesa group, 9 individuals, 1 silverback, 4 females, 2 juveniles of about 3 years old, and 2 babies of 3 months old ! Lets go ! We walk along a nice path, sort of a good mountain bike trail which gradually goes upward, I really enjoy this hike. The jungle around us is once again amazing. I don’t believe it, after 20-25min we hear a call from the jungle to our right. I remembered from last time, trackers ? Jacqueline our porter nods, and smiles. So we leave the path and scramble through the dense vegetation, soon we see them. This is great, and the best thing.. the sun is shining and there are two babies !

3 LAKES: from MUTANDA to MBURO to VICTORIA

Again a lot of driving today. We leave Lake Mutanda and my beloved mountains behind. I do some more street photography from the car, incredible what one can transport on a boda boda. Just about anything from up to 5 people, but you can also use it for tons of bananas, heaps of pineapple, eggs, gigantic tea leaf bundles, bundles of grass, wooden poles about 3-4m  long and I am told even cows and pigs are transported this way. Then there are the markets filled with fresh fruits and all is so colorful it is a joy for the eye, and of course there’s all the little shops, bars and whatever else. This is fun. 

Lake Mburo is a nice little park with hundreds of zebras. Unfortunately they all seemed to have left for a holiday, we saw one. From behind… So we focused on other things and had a great time anyway. Now just drive back to Entebbe and that is the end of our tour. Incredible how fast 3 weeks and 3000km can pass when you’re having such good fun. 

A big thank you to our super driver Anatoli, for showing us the best of his beautiful country.

copyright : Astrid Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch