24: Queen Elisabeth NP to Kampala (Uganda)

Pictures Here

Week 24 Update:

Queen Elisabeth NP, Lake Nkuruba, Murchison Falls NP, Kampala

Day 162:

We did not bother getting up early. The manager of the cam site told us that they had to start their “hot water preparations” the previous day as they were expecting guests and it took about a day to get the tank nice and hot. On another inspection of how they do things, the reasoning dawned on me.

The staff accommodation was on the top of the hill. The camp site and facilities were at the bottom of the hill and about 250m away. The hot water boiler was… by the staff accommodation, 250m away from the taps to the showers. No wonder they struggled, but at least the pressure was fantastic! We waited until the heat of the morning sun baked on the ground, at the 250m pipe from the water tank before braving the showers. They were nice and warm then. We also decided to laze the morning away at Hippo Hills… as you do when immersed into Africa.

Our plan was to enter the Queen Elisabeth National park that day and stay overnight. The permits were valid for 24 hours. So the plan was to enter after lunch and give ourselves the morning of the next day in the park. Just as we started getting our lunch ready, we were invaded! An overland truck from Nairobi arrived with its 24 hungry, tired and dirty clients. The truck tried its best to park us in and the noisies, after pitching their tents, tried to evict us from our peaceful hiding place inside the cooking Banda. It was time for us to leave anyway, so no harsh words were needed.

As we left the village, driving up to the marker indicating the start of the National Park I had to laugh. The animals, it seemed, could also read the signs as there was a big herd of Elephant and another herd of Buffalo walking on the unfenced park boundary towards the lake. We arrived at the gate just before 14:00, paid our fees ($30 pp and $50 for our car) and started a slow drive towards the information centre and camp sites. It was a hot and humid day, but still we saw plenty of game and masses of birds.

According to our guide books, no trip to Queen Elisabeth NP could be complete without a Launch Trip on the channel leading into Lake Edward. We found the jetty without much problem and enquired about prices and procedure. The UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) boasted two big floating vessels taking up to 100 people at a time and at our time of arrival were packed with school children. The Mweya Lodge on the other hand had an 11- seater flat bottom boat costing a minuscule $3 per person more than the UWA barges. The latter was fully booked for the 15:00 trip, but we were offered a 17:00 trip, provided that we could find at least 2 more paid seats, or pay for the minimum 4 seats ourselves. At the information centre we paid for our camping for the night and while standing around I overheard an American asking about the launch trip.

They were a party of 3 film makers, shooting some 3D stuff for Discovery Channel and really wanted a private boat to do their thing. I interrupted the man in charge and suggested that we share a lodge boat with them, which they happily agreed on. So after paying our $18 per person at the lodge reception, Catt and I went off on a game drive. We drove along the channel and saw very little to be honest. We did spot a White-Browed Coucal for the very first time and a Black-Headed Gonolek which was also a first. On our way back to the Jetty, with not so much time spare, we were obviously barricaded by the obligatory grumpy Elephant who would not let us pass. He gave up the game within a minute or so and moved off with his mommy, so no great train smash there. The other interesting ungulate we saw was the "Defassa" Waterbuck, the ones without the ring on their backsides we first spotted in Kafue National Park in Zambia.

We met up with the film makers at the boat of our choice just before 17:00 and just in time to see the huge rain clouds move in to haunt us once more. It was hardly surprising; being on the Equator and next to a rain forest, but a bit of golden light would have been welcomed by us all. The guide we had, Yusuf, was phenomenal! He powered the boat across the channel and allowed it to slowly drift past the masses of Pied Kingfisher nests in the banks, pointing out the huge variety of birds and telling small facts about each one. We came upon a big herd of Buffalo, wallowing and wading in the water and the pods of Hippo were never ending. The film makers were having a ball of a time and so were the two photographers, Catt and Dawie.

There seemed to be another herd of Buffalo around every corner and every herd was doing something else which was interesting. The Hippos seemed oblivious to our craft and came up for air within centimetres of us many times. I kept an eye on the guide to see if any kind of nervousness came over his face, but it seemed like the appearance of hippo in that proximity was something that happened daily.

While watching a Fish Eagle eating its prize catch we spotted the smallest of Hippo calves in between a mass of female Buffalo. Yusuf floated us closer and we could not believe our eyes. He pointed out the female who gave birth to the calf, and she was still tired and unable to move from her labour. The calf was so new to the world that it had zero balance and fell over its own feet, sniffing Buffalo after Buffalo, evidently trying to find its mother. We watched this spectacle, laughing at the obscenely confused Buffalo for more than half an hour before the poor youngster found its rightful teat and disappeared under water for a good feed. It was truly amazing to be able to experience such a bizarre twist in nature.

By this time the rain was coming down pretty hard and we had to close the one side of the boat with the strategically handy canvas sheets. It was also close to the end of our trip and after Yusuf explained the significance of a 50 year old fishing village and how the Queen (Elisabeth obviously) had had a big influence in the community in 1954, he turned the boat around in the mouth of Lake Edward and sped us back to the Jetty, arriving at 19:00 sharp, as the brochure dictated. As we stepped off the boat I had to mention to all that shared it with us, that it was by far the most interesting and rewarding boat trip in any national park I had ever been to and it was by far the cheapest. Uganda seemed to rise in my estimation on a daily basis still.

We reached the huge open camp site just before dark and pitched camp and made our modest coal fire with great efficiency. The friendly camp site manager came around asking if we wanted to make a camp fire, pointing at tree trunk and logs the size of our car. I thanked her, but declined and she proceeded in apologising for the congested camp we found ourselves in. There were two overland trucks with probably 25 clients each and us in a camp site that could easily be inhabited by 1 500 tents. I appreciated her concern though. The night was windy and chilly and more rain threatened us from all sides, but never reached us. We went to bed fairly early, planning an equally early start to the next day.

Day 163:

Sunrise, according to the trusty GPS was 6:54. We got up at 6:45, packed up camp, visited the clean and neat ablutions and hit the road by 7:10. We drove the shortest route back to the gate we had entered slowly and again saw very little game. We crossed the public through road and entered the north western part of the park which boasted some volcano lakes. The morning turned from cloudy to perfect and the light was a photographers dream! I took some photos of Maggie on the plains and in the Elephant grass, some general landscapes and started praying for some wildlife to place in the perfect images. We found some Kobs. They could best be described as a cross between an Impala, Reedbuck and Puku and although not endemic to the Queen Elisabeth NP, still provided us with a first sighting of the species… in perfect morning photographic light none the less.

Our drive took us up some hills and along some ridges until the sight before us completely took our breaths away and rendered us speechless for the best part of twenty minutes. We had found our first crater lake and it was more beautiful than words could ever explain! Lake Kitagata was the name on the map. At a guess I would say that it was 800 feet below us in a perfectly round volcanic crater with crystal clear water. There was not as much as a breath of wind which meant that the lake was also as smooth and as reflective as a freshly polished mirror. It reflected the crater rim around it; the Buffalo who were drinking from its side and the half cloudy sky above in such a way that it was hard to distinguish between the real part and the reflection. The track skirted the rim for half the circumference and offered a few peculiar stopping points where we strategically parked Maggie (in gear), walked around in awe and said very little. I tried to imagine what the land would have been like when the volcanic activity was at its height. I could imagine the Jurassic Park like creatures strolling around and dominating the skies with the plumes of smoke from the constant eruptions surrounding them. This truly was a mystical and breathtaking land!

After stopping for some more buffalo, Kob, Zebra and elephant we reached the Equator gate with its quaint little internet coffee and coffee shop. We did not pause longer than what it took to check our permit and open the gate before crossing the big public tar road linking Katanguru and Kikorongo to enter the wetland part of the park in the north east. Here we followed another public road to a small village called Hamukungu. There was no gate or access control in this part of the park and when I spotted a whole heap of Vultures around a carcass I did wonder if driving off road would be frowned upon in those parts. We stopped in the road and identified the usual suspects: White Backed, Cape and Lappet Face vultures fighting over the scraps of the remaining Kob bits. We could not see what had killed it or when but when a man on his bicycle passed us, frowning at us, we decided to move on without investigating closer. In the village we were pointed at and accompanied by the familiar sounds of “Mzungu, Mzungu” by the local kids while stretching their hands out in a begging gesture. We were obviously not the first Mzungu to go there.

We followed the GPS to the closest meter and drove along a congestion of cattle tracks which I described as off road and Catt tried to convince me was the road. The cattle tracks disappeared and according to the GPS we were about a kilometre away from the actual road. Heading in the general direction we criss-crossed the actual equator unceremoniously several times, only noticing it every once in a while and after avoiding the marshes and swamps we eventually spilled out onto something resembling a road through the bush. I really liked it there and wanted to stay as long as possible. The bush was lush green and littered with life. There was little to no undergrowth and the big succulents (“Naboom” in Afrikaans) were standing at salute to the great open plains. Kob were running around and having fun and we saw huge herds of thousands of Buffalo and even a few Elephant heading towards the closest lake. Maggie was in 4 x 4 to deal with the odd mud hole or two as well, for the first time since…. I could not actually remember the last time we needed 4 x 4.

By mid day we had worked our way through the flood plains and herd of animals to the small fishing village of Kasenyi without as much as seeing another vehicle or person along our way. The best part for me was that the particular part of the park we found ourselves in seemed to have unrestricted public access, which meant that it was free. We did our tour of the village to the great delight of children and elders pointing and shouting greetings at us before heading back towards the main road and on to our next destination. The park was great and interesting and fun, but did not offer enough to warrant the expense of a second day for us. I was very keen to stay another day to drive the “free part” again, but Catt was equally keen to leave… so we left.

We stopped briefly for a lunch of cheese, tomatoes and home made bread at the Equator gate before stopping at the actual signposted Equator for the obligatory photograph of our first official crossing of this invisible line. We did remark that it would not be the last time we would cross 0 degrees, but the first time was always worth documenting.

We headed further north through the town of Kasese until we left the tar roads in favour of small, yet well maintained dirt tracks through the mountains. We skirted the border of the Kibale Forrest Primate Reserve, famous for its Chimpanzees. The road we were on became smaller and smaller until only a footpath remained. It was wide enough for Maggie to negotiate and looked like vehicles may have used it in the past, so we decided to persevere until we had to turn around. It had started to rain again and the track became as slippery as black ice. I stopped to engage 4x4 once more, but even with that and our Mud Terrain tyres I still ended up sliding sideways in the track on more occasions that I was comfortable with.

The run off water from the storm seemingly decided to use the same route that we had to use as we were driving in a river most of the way. Every time we had to leave the grass all together and cross a slanted part of muddy incline, Maggie refused to go where the wheels were pointing and although predictable, it was not as much fun as you may think. After an hour of this adventure we found a village and a relatively main track that took us right to our destination of the Nkuruba Community Camp Site on the shored of the Nkuruba Crater Lake. We arrived around 16:00 and though that we had found utopia… again…

It was still raining, so we were welcomed to the tin roofed restaurant and bar. The community who owned and ran the camp site explained the facilities and offered us a hot shower which we gladly accepted. The shower in question was a bucket hanging from a tree with a screen around it. The hot water was boiled on a fire and presented to us in a 20l container, complete with a 20l container of cold water so that we could choose our temperature of comfort. It was very “Dr Livingstone” and we loved every second of it.

The evening brought some more rain, but this time we were prepared. The tent was pitched, the awning out and the Cobb lit for cooking. Our famous home made burgers were on the menu which received great respect and a fair amount of comments from the other guests who walked past as we started cooking. It was obvious that this place was popular with other travellers. It attracted for a wide range of people who all used the place in harmony with the rest. It was fantastic to fall asleep in the dead quiet and very dark night.

Day 164:

It was Sunday morning and we decided to use the day as it was intended. The rain had persisted through the night and into the morning, so there was no rush to get out of bed. Once we did and had coffee we both lost interest in doing anything for the rest of the day.

As the rain came and went we read our books and hid under the awning with copious amounts of coffee and tea as well as the obligatory chocolate biscuits in the mid afternoon. If we had made the effort of cooking a roast, it would have been a bog standard Sunday. Even with the absence of a roast, we still managed a long siesta; hiding some more from the rain and an afternoon swim in the lake sufficed as the day’s activity.

Late in the afternoon we were joined my Mark. Mark was a Ugandan, living in Kampala and working for MTN, the cell phone company. He was there, simply because he got tired of European tourists telling him how beautiful his own country was. He told us how he grew up in a country submerged in war after war through the Idi Amin era and how Ugandans, like most Africans, did not travel much. He was, as he explained it, at the forefront of the movement to change that. We talked politics and philosophy for a few hours and I instantly liked Mark a lot!

Dinner was, as usual an absolute feast and before we knew it, it was the end of yet another day in Africa and with heavy eyelids we headed back up the ladder to the tent, falling asleep instantly. It had been a fantastically uneventful day!

Day 165:

The day started in a similar way to Sunday. We got up late, used the rain water caught overnight in our washing up bowl to wash the previous evening’s dishes and moved at a very slow rate. We did, somewhat half heartedly, wander over to reception to enquire about hiking in the area and that was when we met Debs and Doug’s. Debs was a volunteer doctor from the UK who had been in Uganda for about six months and Doug’s was a plumber from Lancaster who had come out to visit her. They were about to go on a guided walk to a place aptly names “The top of the world”, so we decided to join them.

The walk, although mostly uphill wasn’t very taxing and the four of us chatted about life and the universe as we went. The local guide said very little, but I did catch him listening to our conversations with the keenness of a scholar. I had the idea that he was absorbing knowledge on plumbing and photography as well as medicine as we went. We reached our summit, and “the top of the world” sign within an hour. The sign was planted in brightly coloured flowers which could be seen from a few hundred meters away and the sight itself offered fantastic views over the neighbouring forests and farmland. Our guide told us the names of the three crater lakes we could see (which I can not remember) and answered questions about the general agriculture and habits of the locals. It was interesting to learn that the huge banana plantations we had driven through for days belonged to individual farmers. Only one farmer’s plantation would seamlessly grow into another’s and only they knew where the boundaries were.

The walk back took about half an hour and after chatting some more to the other Wazungu Catt and I bid them “safe travels” and marched towards the village in search of fresh produce. As usual, this was not hard to find. The first shop we went into provided us with avocados the size of small footballs, a papaya, a pineapple and a mountain of trumpet sized bananas for $2. It struck me that I would really miss the quality, quantity and ridiculously low prices of fruit and vegetables after our journey!

The walk back to the camp site was accompanied by hordes of children greeting us in the way everyone learnt to greet in a foreign language. It was fun trying to converse with them and to see the smiles widen when we stopped for a chat. Not that the conversations were long, as we did not even know what the local language was called, and the children’s English was limited to “Hallo” and “How are you”. We did beat the rain though and arrived back at the lodge hot and sweaty and ready for a bathe in the lake.

Picture this: I really needed a shave. I covered my face in shaving cream and waded into the shallows to attend to my facial hair. Every time I picked the razor up to my face, a crab or fish or something nibbled at my toes in the murky waters and made me jump. Being a crater lake, it wasn’t like this body of water gradually got deeper, so once I stepped off the rock I was standing on, I had to treat water to keep afloat. It was windy and cold out of the water, so the only comfortable way for me to shave was by doing so while treading water. It did make Catt laugh out load and it provided me with more than my fair share of exercise for the day. Later Catt admitted that she was highly impressed by the skilful way I handled the razor while treading water. It was, to be honest, a perfectly acceptable smooth shave, but also the first time shaving got me out of breath and tired.

With bathing dealt with we walked back up the hill to Maggie and after some well deserved afternoon coffee we decided to take on the “Forest walk” unguided. We were both a little lazy, do didn’t bother with shoes and appropriate dress as we knew the circular route only took about an hour to complete. Within the first fifteen minutes we were however ankle deep in stinging nettles and neither one of us could remember what Dock Leaf looked like. So with itches and scratches we soldiered on until we found ourselves in a marsh. I had to laugh when Catt almost lost her flip-flop in the bog and as I did I lost my balance and seeped ankle deep into the mud myself. We did manage the pleasant walk in less than an hour, but emerged muddy up to our knees with mud covered sandals for our efforts. Fortunately the washing up bowl had filled up again from the sky, so we had water to wash our feet in.

The camp site had a festive atmosphere in the late afternoon. Some French/Ugandans had arrived and was playing badminton on the lawn. Fresh Brits had arrived as well and were strolling down to the lake and a couple from Germany had just come back from their guided walk to the top of the world. Everyone was smiling and happy. It was with a little sadness that I remembered that we had come to the end of our three nights there and that we had to move on the next day.

The bill came to a total of $25 which included three night’s camping for two, a guided walk and one beer from the bar. I handed over the equivalent in Uganda shilling with a huge smile on my face before tending to dinner, wine and well deserved sleep.

Day 166:

As advised by the guide we set the alarm early. The rain had stayed away during the night, but it was still a fairly dark and cloudy start to the day which meant that we really struggled to get out of bed. We managed to pack up and get going by 7:15 none the less.

Our mission for the day was to get as close as we could to the Murchison Falls National Park. According to our maps and GPS we had about 300km of dirt road to cover with an eta for 11 hours after starting. I did not much look forward to that at all as we had not had such a long driving day in months.

Within the first hour of meandering through the perpetual African village and past numerous tea plantations I noticed that our eta had decreased significantly and by the time we stopped for a fresh mug of the good coffee it was evident that the GPS had it all wrong. I could only conclude that the person who logged the tracks first had to drive in very wet conditions. This was not disappointing at all though!

Our secondary mission for the day was to track down the elusive “Orange data card” Orange, the cell phone network had a recent presence in Uganda and offered broadband internet for very little money. The catch was that you had to buy a specific data sim card, not compatible with voice cards, to load your data bundles on. Their marketing was great and we knew exactly what we wanted, but their money saving idea was obviously not to keep stock of the cheap items. Since we had entered Uganda we had stopped in every big town at every Orange shop and without fail they could not provide us with this card. After the second shop for the day, I put my foot down and announced that we would not stop at another Orange shop until we reached the capitol of Kampala.

We stopped for lunch on an escarpment between the villages of Masindi and Kabango after being stopped by a man in military uniform and the ever present AK47 slung over his shoulder. His only remark was “Your speed was high”. I told him that I was driving at 40km/h, well within the speed limit and I was being over taken by taxi after taxi. This satisfied him and made him wish us a “safe journey” which I also felt we needed, judging from the driving ability of the minibus taxis in question. The approached us from front or rear at lightning speed, blindly confident that we would move over and give them enough space to pass on the small roads. Most of the time we could, and did, but sometimes the tracks were just to steep on the sides, in which case I stopped, arguing that if we got hit while standing still, we could not be at fault. This was met with flashing lights and big white smiles, but no aggression. I had to conclude that the locals either had a super human ability to judge the whereabouts of the most outer parts of their vehicles by the millimetre, or they were incredibly lucky not to hit everything they tried to pass. I am still not sure which one it was. But we never got hit despite me turning my head away and closing my eyes on numerous occasions.

I digress: The view down to Lake Albert was wide and open and hazy and I had the feeling that we were driving on a flood plane. We overtook about seven big trucks with constructions offices on their backs so I assumed that the narrow, potholed road to the port on the lake was scheduled to be tarred. This had no bearing on us though. In the village of Biso we turned north again, following the shores of the invisible lake until we found the Nile safari Club which we had identified as our stop over place. This very fancy, very exclusive and very expensive lodge also had a $10 per person camp site called “Shoebill Camp”. It was my very first sight of the Nile River. The Victoria Nile to be exact, on the edge of Lake Albert.

The site seemed neglected and a little dirty, but did save a late entry into the National park. It was also HOT! While pouring a cold beer down my thought in the lodge’s bar Catt and I tried to recall when the last time was that we had experienced temperatures that high and concluded that it had to be in week 1… In the Richtersveld National Park. The lodge wanted to charge us an additional $10 per person to use the swimming pool, so we settled for a welcoming, yet limiting cold shower without towelling down and sitting in the shade of the cooking Banda in the camp site… which was free.

We discussed the expense of the camping that night while sweating away and I have to honestly say that I was appalled by the state of the camp site. I thought that people would, and we certainly did, choose a camp site attached to a lodge and expect better facilities than the community sites. This place, although not expensive in global terms, was till more than four times the price of the community camp site we had just come from. The shower was the all too familiar “runny nose” instead of water pressure and the single toilet had no door. There was a tap in the grounds with ample water, so there was no real excuse for the shower. The cooking Banda’s roof had almost been destroyed by a troop of baboons and there was litter lying all over the place. I was not too impressed, but it was our only option outside the park.

As if someone from the lodge could overhear our conversation, the staff suddenly started to appear around 18:00. The maintenance man fixed the leaking toilet and allegedly the shower. He also picked up the thatching that had been thrown about by the baboons and piled it onto the already existing heap. We got introduced to the night security guard, with bow and arrow as weapons of choice and we even received two paraffin lanterns for light. It was a nice touch, but no one bothered to pick up the litter or improve the camp site.

We scaled the ladder to the tent fairly late and just in time to batten down the hatches before the rain storm hit. It was formidable and I really felt sorry for the poor security guard. We did, to be fair, leave a chair and table out for him and he did move his fire to the Banda after we left. When his cell phone rang for a minute before he picked it up after midnight, I stopped feeling sorry for him…

Day 167:

Murchison Falls National Park is both the oldest and the biggest national park in Uganda and this was the day we would enter it. The usual 24 hour rule prevailed so we didn’t really want to enter before mid morning. This meant, as it had become our custom, a lazy and relaxing morning. The security guard bid us farewell after 7:00 and warned that the troop of Baboons were still around. I could not spot them.

I did see with somewhat of a shock that our water supply was running out and judging from the colour of the water from the taps, they were pumping directly form the Nile. There was only one thing for it… we had to break out, for the very first time, our four stage reverse osmosis water purifier. It took the modest machine about 20 minutes to produce five litres of purified water. As we were having a lazy morning, I lined up another 10 litres and made some more coffee.

We left… or should I rather say “tired to leave” the camp site just before 10:00. The rain from the previous night had an interesting effect on the access track. It obviously turned it muddy, but it also turned it so slippery that Maggie slid to a halt on the first incline and refused to move an inch. I had to roll back onto the grass and engage 4x4. Once that was done, with the awesome help from the Bridgestone Muds, the track proved no great challenge. The rest of the 4 or 5 kilometres to the gate were fairly similar. We passed a small overland truck (Empty apart from driver) in the last village, skidded up a hill and arrived at the entrance gate to do our paperwork and pay our dues.

The truck driver arrived within a minute and had some argument about gaining free transit through the park. This was solved easily enough while we had a chat. His name was Mark Stephenson, an Australian who just acquired a piece of land in between the gate and the Shoebill Camp we had just left. He kindly offered us free camping for as long as we wanted to stay. It was a great pity we did not meet him the day before.

Inside the park I had one small mission and that was a launch trip to the Falls, where the Victoria Nile passes through a 6m wide gorge and it had been described as the most exciting thing to happen to the Nile in it’s 6 700km journey. I had seen photographs of it and it looked spectacular. The two options were a private company called “Wild Frontiers” for $20 per person, or a Uganda wildlife Authority barge for $15 each. Because of our fantastic experience with the smaller vessel of the lodge in Queen Elisabeth National Park, we immediately decided to fork out the extra few $’s and judging by the state of the UWA barge, it was a good decision.

It was before mid day and we had about three hours to kill before departure, so we drove back up the hill to the Red Chilli Camp. This pleasant place boasted a camp site, some safari tents, some bandas and a really cheap bar and restaurant. We chilled out in the restaurant with hamburgers and soft drinks watching the local warthog family beg scraps from a school group’s table. This was done complete with kneeling, shaking heads and drawling and provided much entertainment. Catt met an American lady who was busy with a research project in the area. She was highly excited to spot a fellow Mac user as her Mac crashed back in Kigali a week or two before and she was in desperate need of a start-up disk… not an easy thing to find in East Africa. Although the lady couldn’t help immediately, she did produce a business card of a specialist shop in Kampala.

Our time to board the boat arrived fairly soon, so we left the Chilli and headed to the “harbour”. There were a total of 9 tourists on a boat that could cater for 40, so space was ample. The staff was really friendly and the without much delay we set of up stream along the banks of the river. Game viewing was no where near as good as in Queen Elisabeth NP, but the Nile had its fair share of Hippo and Buffalo to keep our interest. We spotted a Red Throated Bee-Eater for the first time, which was always exciting and the size of the Crocodiles were really impressive. We struck up a conversation with a couple from California who were on a two week break and compared notes on primate trekking and the places that we had seen. For the fourth time, as far as I could remember, we heard about a less than perfect Gorilla Trekking experience in Uganda and we were, once again, really pleased that we chose Rwanda for that activity.

We arrived at the base, or rather, close to the base of the falls in the late afternoon. The rain had threatened to spoil our fun all the way there, but the heavy clouds stayed away and the sun even came out briefly to light up the falls for our photos. The guide books did not lie and the photographs were not unrealistic! On our trip we had seen Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, three impressive falls in Zambia, including the 200m high Kalambo Falls, a few falls in Malawi and Tanzania and even one or two in Rwanda. These were by far the most impressive in my book. They were not the biggest, or the highest, but the sheer volume of water passing through such a small space in rock created a feeling of real power and offered much astonishment to all on the boat.

The visit to the falls were over far to soon and as we headed back down stream at higher speed, arriving back at the harbour three hours after setting off. It was three hours and $40 for the two of us well spent! We had decided to stay in the UWA camp site at the top of the falls that night and had about an hour to drive to get there. The roads were muddy and wet from the rain around, so going was a little slow, but still steady. I though t we would make the viewpoints with time to spare seconds before I spotted something I had been looking for for years!

It was late afternoon in golden sunlight and right next to the road were no less than nine massive, muddy, wallowing male Buffalos. I hit the brakes, skidded to a halt and before I could speak, the camera was in my hands and I was snapping away. Catt saw the action immediately and mounted the HD video camera on the window pod and grabbed the other camera to take some more photographs as well. It was such a spectacular sight! These guys were fairly calm, but fairly active and covered in the terracotta coloured mud from the tips of their horns to the ends of their tails and everything in between. We spent about half an hour before the light faded and took hundreds of images.

Slipping and sliding down the final hills we arrived at the picnic spot above the falls before dark. We jumped out the car with cameras and tripods and jogged the muddy path down to the viewpoints, trying to get there before dark as well as trying to escape the tsetse flies that arrived with us. From the top the falls were even more spectacular than from the bottom. You could get close enough to feel the spray on your face and stand on rocks meters away from the powerful force. We spent as much time there as light allowed before running back up the hill to Maggie to find the camp site.

It was not much of a surprise that we were the only people in the camp site that night. I had a feeling that most campers would prefer the comforts of the Red Chilli. Not that we minded off course, it had been a while since we were alone in the world. We pitched camp in an instant, hung our new camping light from a tree and tended to dinner under a star and moon lit sky. It had been an absolutely fantastic day in Africa and we went to bed with all the tent flaps open to allow the cool breeze to blow over us!

Day 168:

It was just after 4am when the storm hit and what a storm it was! The strong wind shook the car from side to side and we managed to close the tent and tie down the flaps with seconds to spare. Neither one of us slept much after that, but I did get a new found respect for our tent and Eezi Awn who made it. It was a miracle that we managed to stay dry with that much water falling from the sky and flying sideways at the tent!

We got up after sunrise and were greeted by the camp site manager who came to collect the modest $6 per person for the camping. The storm had moved on, but it was still drizzling when we made coffee and put the tent down, still amazed that we were dry inside. The devastation from the storm was visible all around us with big branches broken of bigger trees and grass flattened by flooding waters. I did not look forwards to the drive out!

This time I was taking no chances. I engaged four wheel drive and allowed the massive 4.2l engine to warm up a little before leaving the camp site. The tracks lead us up a steep hill and immediately I appreciated all my preparations. Once again I was astonished by the grip of the mud terrain tyres we had only abused on sand and rocks up to then. We were still slipping and sliding and wheel spinning as we went, but we went, to my astonishment!

We passed the Buffalo wallow before long and joined the main road shortly after. This main road, recently graded, was still not surfaced, so although it was wide and smooth, it was slick as hell and so convex that if you momentarily strayed off the exact middle, you started sliding down the side towards the three foot deep ditch on the side. I drove slowly for while, without incident until we reached a much older, harder and better maintained road in the Budongo Forest area. This area offered Chimpanzee Trekking at half the price of Kibale Primate Reserve, but we had already decided not to spend more money on that after the Gorillas.

We left the park within our allocated and paid for 24 hours and started heading towards the capitol, Kampala. I was pleasantly surprised to find a fairly new, very smooth and pot whole free tar road all the way to the city! The remains of the old gravel road was still visible and provided a fantastic second road from he guys with overloaded bicycles carrying bananas and charcoal, keeping them out of the car’s way.

We reached the city at least three hours before expected and headed straight to the Mac shop to tend to Catt’s computer. I had been dreading driving in Kampala and had back flashes of the sheer madness of driving in Dar Es Salaam. Although these fears were not unfounded in the least, Kampala seemed to be slightly better. It seemed to have a few less vehicles and the drivers were, at that time, not quite as aggressive as I was, so I had right of way most of the time.

We found the Mac shop thanks to the American’s great directions and the friendly Robert helped us immediately. It was no small problem in the end and required a re installation of the operating system. Fortunately Robert could help, so we left the machine in his capable care and went hunting for the ever elusive Orange Data Card. In the first Orange shop we were expertly helped! Not only did the lady know exactly how to answer all our questions, she also offered additional information which we did not even know we needed. Back at the Mac shop Robert had not only re installed the operating system for us, but he also did all the updates necessary. Kampala was very much unlike Africa!

We drove to the Red Chilli Hideaway, reaching it just after 15:00 and just in time for some more rain. Commenting on the rain, the barman smiled and said: “But you chose the rainy season man…” I had been convinced that it was not that time of year yet, but looking at the way Maggie was caked in mud from wheels to roof, it all suddenly made sense! We waited for the rain to at least get a little lighter before we found a place to hide Maggie in the very extensive grounds. We had decided to stay for a few days, making it our base, so we pitched our ground tent for the first time since Nyika Plateau in Malawi some months before.

It was strangely attractive to have internet access for the first time in Uganda, so we spent the evening catching up on emails and blogs and general computer stuff. It was also the first time we had shared a camp site with more than a hand full of people in some weeks and that felt almost civilized for a change.

If I had to do it again:

I would have liked to spend another night at Hippo Hills, exploring the north eastern part of the park in nice light and conditions. I never really saw Uganda as a prime wildlife destination, but Queen Elisabeth was surely impressive! I also realize that it would not be fair if I always get my own way.

The rest of the week was fantastic and we both absolutely adore Uganda!