PART 1 : From the source of the river Nile to the chimpanzees in Budongo and Kibale

Where exactly is Uganda again ? It is smack in the middle of Africa. Right on the equator, flanked on the right by Kenya, on the left by the Democratic Republic of Congo. The experienced traveller will say there are better places to go for an „average“ wildlife safari. That may be true, but Uganda is sensational for gorilla and chimpanzee tracking,  has great national parks, and on top of that it is the most beautiful country I’ve visited in all of southern and eastern Africa.

If I get the driver to stop to take „just landscape“ photos, something is seriously wrong ! I do people and wildlife photography ! But here I just had to stop over and over again, it is so lush and green, so spectacular and ever changing, I am so glad we booked a road trip and didn’t do the fly in&out. Beside that, it is also a very safe country to visit, with incredibly friendly people.

This is not really a „Banana Republic“, but boy they do have lots of bananas here. Call them matoke, which is also the name of our tour company: MATOKE TOURS. Lets hit the road, we’re here for a three week trip, in which we will cover almost 3000km, in an old Toyota Land cruiser with Anatoli our driver.

RHINO SANCTUARY AND MURCHINSON FALLS N.P.

We start our tour in Entebbe on Lake Victoria, which is the source of the river Nile. The country is beautiful, we pass swamps with papyrus beds as far as the eye can see. Then it gets hilly, palm trees, bananas and lots of other green stuff I don’t recognize. It is as any big African city, just very much greener. Lots of shops, roadside markets, and more motorbikes than cars. Just about every young man who has a motorbike and is out of work (which is about 99%), now offers his services as motorbike taxi. They drive like hell, and use every inch of space they can get into, in Uganda they call them Boda Boda. 

By 11:00 we reach the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary, the only place in Uganda where you can see, and walk with rhinos. Which we definitely want to do. No rhinos left in the country by the 1980’s, but their breeding program which started with 2, then 4 more, now has 36 individuals. When their numbers reach 45 they will start setting them out in the wild, lets hope that works. Until then they have 24/7 hours protection from a guy with a gun. Which is actually totally sad, but the only way for them to survive. The walk was cool and got us really close to the rhinos. Lucky us to see a female with calf.

We reach the Murchinson Falls N.P. and our lodge by 17:30 and after a quick shower head for the „riverside bar“. The river in this case being the mighty Nile ! It is beautiful ! We sit, have a beer and enjoy the views over the slow flowing and very wide river. Right across is the Murchinson Falls National Park which we will visit tomorrow, can’t wait to do some wildlife photography again.

GAME DRIVE AND A BOAT TOUR

The next morning we cross the bridge and enter the park, it is beautiful, reminds us of the other great river, the Zambezi, and the open stretches are a bit like the Masai Mara, just this time in green not yellow, with bomasa palms instead of acacia trees. The light breaking through the last thunderstorm clouds is just brilliant and the place teems with wildlife, there are waterbuck, hartebeest, Ugandan kobs, something like an impala but with black stripeS on their front legs, no stripes on the flanks and a bit bigger, plus buffalo, elephant, giraffes and the very cute oribi, a tiny antelope the size of a baby impala when fully grown, and soon we get the message there is a lioness with cubs, but it is far.

We know the drill, hold on. So we race past everything and end up with a leopard spotting, though very far away, then on and again leopard in a tree and two in the next. The sighting is not ideal, and since we can’t leave the roads, rather far away from where we stand, but still brilliant. About 100m further on is the lioness, with a very fresh kill. The cubs move away, but we stay put and are rewarded, they return to mum. From there we slowly head back, stop for ages at a tower of giraffes, there must be more than 30 on both sides of the road ! Now get in position to get them all lined up perfectly, poor Anatoli… it sounded like : yes, no, 2m back, no go forward, more, more…yes ! stop, stop. He must have thought us crazy !

 

 

After lunch, which  was delicious, we went on a boat trip to the Murchinson Falls, on a big two deck boat with a lot of other tourists which almost go overboard at the first hippo they see. Not really our kind of thing but it is really hot, so we are glad to be moving and enjoy the cooling breeze. Every now and then there is the occasional hippo, once an elephant, a bee-eater colony (which was very cool by the way), we see some kingfishers and a big herd of buffalo coming to drink.

Here’s some Nile geology: it starts from Lake Victoria, is then called the Victoria Nile, it turns up, then to the west, passes through the Murchinson Falls and flows into the northern part of Lake Albert. From there on it is called the Albert Nile and flows almost due north till it is joined by the Blue Nile coming from Lake Tana in Ethiopia. From there on it is the White Nile flowing to Egypt and the Mediterranean. It is the longest river on earth. And we are now on it, and I am almost falling asleep it is so slow and boring. We take well over 2 hrs to reach the falls. The falls are nice, but we barely make it back. There are thunderstorms and massive grey clouds all around us, the current is against us and so is the wind, which is also picking up dramatically,  it really starts to pour and most passengers flee to the lower deck, which isn’t much better anyway so we stay. We make it back.

RAINY SEASON GAME DRIVES AND A RAINBOW

At 06:30 sharp we leave, that is Mzungu time we are told. A serious Ugandan is always one to two hours late, unless you specifically say Mzungu time, then it’s important to be punctual. A Mzungu is a foreigner, a white man 😉 The scenery is amazing, lots of Bomassa palms, so exotic and beautiful, we see buffalo wallowing in the mud, giraffes and birds and of course the daily kob and oribi. We stumble upon an elephant family, they all stand close together in the shade of a big tree, just about every size is represented. We are 10m away at the most, but they just stand and stare, and so do we. 

Beautiful backgrounds of storm clouds and greens, so cool. It gets even better when it starts to rain, we get a beautiful rainbow which gets stronger and more colorful by the minute. Besides that it’s a super background for just about any animal. By the time we get home the rain has stopped and the rainbow is gone. We know by now it is the start of rainy season in September, but for photography that is just perfectly alright !

TOP OF THE FALLS AND BUDONGO FOREST CHIMPS

Today we visit the top of the falls. The Murchinson Falls are only 7m wide and a lot of water wants to pass through that space, so much that in the floods of 1962 the water found a way around and created a second fall, the Uluru Falls, I find these even prettier than the original falls. Great views from all the viewpoints ! From the furthest viewpoint we take another route back and get to Devils Cauldron, where the water really churns and currents swirl, the spray is so strong, no chance of taking a photo. Within minutes we are soaked, it is like standing under a shower, but that’s not such a bad thing on a hot day. And it turned out that wasn’t the only time we got soaked today. 

From there to the Budongo Forest chimp tracking. We start walking just as big fat drops start coming down, yes we know, rainy season ! The jungle is dense like hell and every tree looks the same, we could die 10m from the highway and never know, thank God we have a guide ! We follow our small ever smiling guide Robert, and not 10min in the forest he hears a branch crack, stops, and says look up, he is there. It takes me about 5min and I have to reposition 3 times before I see him. A chimpansee. The chimp is there but he is on the top branches feeding and it doesn’t look like he’s coming down soon. I get cramps in my neck from looking up so steeply, we are at the bottom of the tree and he’s at the top, about 25m above us. The lens is sprinkled with raindrops every time we try to shoot upwards, and it is fogging up for all the humidity. So now I have a bad photo of a chimps backside from very far down. This is not as I had planned ! 

Robert tells us to stay and he runs off to find a better viewing. At some point a guy stands there, in the middle of the jungle, looking totally at ease, and I have a hard time finding Jürg who is a mere 10m away. He calls us, hello hello come with me, huh ? Where did he come from ? I’m sure not going anywhere with some stranger. Turns out Robert sent him to fetch us. In the meantime there is thunder and lightning and the rain has gone  from rain to torrential downpour, we are soaked. Thank God the trees shield us from the worst or we would be swimming out of here. But as we follow the other guy and reach Robert my heart rejoices, there is a chimp, sitting on a branch at eye level, looking me straight in the eye. Shit my camera won’t focus, it is dark in the forest anyway, but with this rain shooting a black chimp in a dark green forest with no light is almost impossible. But honest we did see them, and it was so very very special ! Thank you Robert for all your effort !

KIBALE FOREST CHIMPS

The next day is spent driving from Masindi, where we spent the night in Ugandas oldest hotel, which really was rather old, to Kibale Forest where our next chimp tracking is to take place. Just please, no rain tomorrow. The Turaco Treetops is the nicest hotel of the whole trip, and we are here for 3 nights, juhui, love being a rich bitch for some days at least ! 

We leave at 07:15 for the chimp tracking. It takes 8min to get to the main road, 5min more to reach the start. Much too early ! This is a Mzungu-time-overdose. After a briefing we get teamed up with a Dutch couple and our guide Bosco, just the 4 of us which is perfect, plus we get the best guide (Anatoli tells me this later). Lets get going. After a while I ask him if he considers us fit, we are walking and walking, it doesn’t seem to end and just jungle all around, though the paths are totally easy compared to Budongo, about 3x as wide ! Yes, he figured we could do with some walking after all the sitting in the car, how right he is. So we keep going, the weather is fine, not so hot and no rain in sight. 

Then, yes there they are. Two chimps chilling on a fallen tree trunk. We get to about 5m, wow, and there even is some light. They start grooming, the one moves away, the other lies flat on its back, a relaxed Sunday morning pose. I figured this was it, after walking well over an hour we get this, then our 1 hour is up, but no. Bosco orders us to follow him, further down the track are more chimps ! After an exhilaration morning we even get a diploma, and tomorrow we get to relax. 

After our day off we will continue our travels to Queen Elisabeth N.P. for the tree climbing lions, and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for our tour highlight: gorilla tracking.  Read the next blog !

For our favorite photos : Go to gallery