After a day in Arusha we headed to Uganda. Due to the size of Lake Victoria and the lack of decent roads, the best option was to take the 18 hour route through Kenya. We were nervous since it was long, involved 2 border crossings (4 border checkpoints), and we didn’t know if the same bus would take us all the way, even though we had been told that it would. But alas, it was an excellent busride. We even got to see (and hear) The Matrix and we got a free coke and mineral water! When we got to Kampala we looked at a couple of hotels and immediately regretted getting off the bus. They were VERY dodgy and our standards are not very high. Eventually we found a nice place on the edge of town well suited for backpackers. From there we went to Kibale National Forest and tracked chimpanzees. We watched them in the trees for over an hour and it was amazing to see our closest animal relatives in the wild. The next day we tried tracking them again and we only saw a couple of them and not nearly as well as the day before. Then we were off to Lake Bunyoni. It was a nice relaxing camp along the lake. We canoed around and enjoyed the beautiful green hillsides. From there we went to Bwindi. This was the one thing we booked before we left the States, Mountain Gorilla Tracking. There are only 600 of them left in the wild and they are all in this area (Uganda, Rwanda, Congo borders). We had ALOT of anticipation for this day and had heard nothing but excellent reports from others who had done it. There is always a chance you won’t see them at all so we were nervous. And if you are the least bit sick you can’t go because you endanger their already endangered lives. We were psyched to be healthy and ready to go! So we were off at 9 with our trackers, at 10 we reached the top of the rather steep mountain and our guide said they should be 20 minutes away based on where they were yesterday. At 1 pm we stopped for lunch and we had been following day old gorilla tracks and turds thus far through VERY dense forest (Bwindi’s other name is The Impenetrable Forest). After clambering all over the backside of the mountain following their tracks we found ourselves back at the top at 2 pm. We were getting concerned we may not find them since we were now exactly where we were 4 hours earlier. We were told the trackers had just found their nests from the night before, so now we were following todays tracks. We were tired, thirsty and feeling pretty beaten up from the rough bushwhacking. But at 3 we heard that the trackers had found them and we were only 20 minutes away. Our first sight of a gorilla made it worth all the effort. It was incredible to see these huge cousins of ours in the wild. Once you find them you are limited to one hour and we savored every minute.

We moved around and saw probably 10 (including the silverback, dominant male) of the 20 in the group. Some you could see well, others were in the dense foliage. They were much quieter than the chimps and we even saw 2 mating. (I guess we bring out the love in these creatures!) The time went by very fast and when we left we were still wanting more. Thus we changed our plans and in a couple of days we will go track the gorillas at the other national park in Uganda where they live. It is very remote and we got stuck in a small town nearby for a day. We wanted to call the hostel in Kampala to cancel our reservation, but the nearest phone was 10 km away.

So now we are back in Kampala and plan to watch the World Cup finals here tomorrow.

Closing Thoughts

Prior Expectations of Africa:

• cheap
• hot
• bad food

Reality:

• expensive (our most expensive destination with safaris, but even
  without them it is 3rd most expensive after Australia and New Zealand)
• cool (our coldest destination since New Zealand – where we saw penguins!)
• good food (lodges in Tanzania and everywhere in Uganda have fed us well!)

Also, in Vietnam you may recall us rambling about an excessively full mini-van. Well, we have learned here that no vehicle is ever full. The minivans (Matatus, Dalla Dalla, etc.) have 4 rows of seats that seat 3-4 comfortably. It is painted on the side that they are licensed for 14 passengers. They are always over-crowded and there is always room for one more passenger. The worst we have been in held 32 passengers (24 adults and 8 children). It is an unbelievable jigsaw puzzle when they stop to pick up someone. It takes about 5 minutes to figure out what airspace they can squeeze into. And no matter how contorted and squished people end up, we have not yet heard a complaint. Even the kids don’t cry, we are still trying to figure how that is possible! At one point when we were going up a steep hill the car stalled and half the passengers had to pile out so it could reach the top of the hill and they all ran up and squeezed back in. The guy I was sitting on said that it is much worse in the rainy season. Oh darn, we leave before that.