The safari - part 2
Trip Start
Jun 09, 2011
1
26
Trip End
Aug 30, 2011
Where I stayed
Kampala, Uganda
Monday, August 29, 2011
On the 17th we got up really early and did a game drive before breakfast. It was great. We saw lots of elephants, buffaloes and kobs again. But we also saw other antelopes (water buck's) and hyenas, and one lion. After breakfast and lunch at the lodge we went for a boat cruise on the Kazinga Channel and on the way there we passed more elephants and wart hogs. On the cruise we saw lots and lots and lots of hippos, elephants, buffaloes, crocodiles, eagles and antelopes. It was pretty amazing! But then in the afternoon one of the highlights of the trip occurred. Our guide got a phone call from another guide that there was something spectacular to see in the national park game drive area. So we set off at high speed hoping it would be a leopard as that was the only one of the big five that we could see, but had not yet seen. (The rhino is not present in the national park we went to so we could only see four out of the big five, in the end we saw three of them) When we came to the other car they were standing watching lions sleep just a couple of meters away. It was amazing! And they guides said that thi group consisted of eight lions so more were hiding in the grass. And we got to see them all! After a while the drivers moved up closer to where we had seen some paws in the air (they were lying on their backs) and there they were! The other six lions. We were just two meters away from them while the sun was setting on the savannah. Pretty amazing!!!
The day after we set off for the very south of Uganda, the south west corner bordering both Rwanda and DR Congo. It took us a full day of driving through mountains and fields. And then on Friday the 19th we went to Bwindi National Park and the impenetrable forest to search for the gorillas. We (especially me) were prepared for the toughest hike of my life. I was so nervous after having heard so many stories about how steep the hike can be, and that it sometimes takes seven hours just to find the gorillas! But it actually wasn't bad at all!! It took us an hour and forty-five minutes to find them. And only the last 20 minutes or so were steep up hill away from the path. But the encounter with these big animals was great! We found a group that has 23 members, and we got to see 17 of them. And at one point the main silverback came and walked right by me! Not even a meter away!! SO COOL!! It was special to be so close to them and see how relaxed they were having us there. They just sat and ate and barely took notice of us. We got some pretty good photos, especially with my dad's fancy camera. And after an hour and 15 minutes with the gorillas it was time to hike back. It was tougher to go down the steep mountain than it was up! And I fell several times (on the way up I only fell once, into a hole with my leg :P). It seemed to always be me who got stuck on branches and kept falling, but I think that's part of the hike! We had our packed lunches at a nice river, and then climbed back up the valley on the opposite side of the forest. It was such an amazing experience!!!!!!!
On the 20th we started the drive back to Kampala, but got delayed in the southern town of Kisoro due to car trouble for four hours :P We got back here around 11pm on the 20th. We had two relaxing days in Kampala with some shopping and chilling before we headed north to Jinja. Jinja is about two hours drive from here. There we relaxed, Lukas did some rafting (I chickened out), we did some shopping and had a lot of coffee :) Nice final days of the trip!!
They all left on Saturday and yesterday Eva and two other people from LWF had planned on going to Entebbe and I was going to join them. But instead it rained all day long and we went to Garden City, the shopping center, and walked around for a bit and then went to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. It actually tasted proper Mexican! I was impressed :) And then Eva and I chilled here at the guest house in the afternoon and evening watching TV and finishing the night off with ET. What a great movie!
Today is my last day here and I'm trying to sort some final stuff out. I also need to do the final packing. And in the afternoon I'm going down to the office one last time. It feels weird it's the last day here in Uganda, but it will be nice to be back home for a while before I go back to England again.
xx
