After spending more than enough time experiencing Kampala (i.e. boozing with our new friends), Perry and I finally got ourselves organized to move on and start exploring the rest of the country.
After a bit of contemplation, we decided to spring the USD500 each for mountain gorilla tracking permits, one of Uganda’s most famous attractions. There are only approximately 750 mountain gorillas in the entire world, all living in protected areas of Rwanda, Uganda, and DRCongo, and certain groups have been habituated for tourism. We didn’t want to let this once in a lifetime opportunity pass us by.
Because we are such last minute (non) planners, we determined that our best option to secure one of the coveted permits, and to get to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in a reasonable amount of time, would be to use a company called “Gorilla Tours” recommended in our LP. (We met a couple who had actually booked their permits through the Uganda Wildlife Authority in November of 2007!) Admittedly, we potentially could have made it to Bwindi on our own using public transport, but reading the directions in our LP made my head spin. It seemed like about 10 different connecting buses, “matatus”, and potential hitch-hiking that I just wasn’t into. (Are we getting soft? Maybe. Or maybe we always were . . . )
Since the company is actually Dutch, and most of the customers book online prior to arrival in Uganda, I think they were quite surprised when we showed up on their suburban doorstep looking to enquire about a trip. (It was interesting though to see how the “other half” lived in comparison to the Kampala neighborhood our hotel was in . . .) After our varied experiences in Africa, we both didn’t feel comfortable booking anything without a face to face meeting. Lucky for us we had done our internet research prior to the visit and managed to get the company to stick to their group rate for a scheduled one week trip they were advertising online, even though they had no one else booked at the moment. This meant that Perry and I ended up with our very own car and driver, for the price of an 8 person tour. Fabulous!
We were a little surprised when Nathan, our driver/guide, picked us up in a 11 seat van, but it had 4WD and a pop-up roof for game drives so it suited us just fine. Well, at least on first glance it did, as I’ll get to later. In any event, it didn’t take us long to realize that while having a “driver” seemed excessive to our Canadian minds, there was no way that either of us was qualified to tackle Ugandan roads. I’m so glad we didn’t attempt to rent a car and self-drive . . .
Kibale Forest National Park
Our first stop was Kibale Forest National Park, which is meant to have the highest density of primates in Africa. For us, Kibale’s draw was the opportunity for chimpanzee tracking.
The drive from Kampala took us about 9 hours, including a couple of stops. First stop was lunch, one of the tasty, plentiful, and cheap lunch buffets that are everywhere in Uganda. The spread usually includes “matoke” (mashed plantains), sweet potatoes, irish potatoes, ugali, kale, avacado, salad, and usually some chicken, beef, and/or goat in soups or curry sauces. A fairly healthy selection, and usually tasty, minus the ugali of course (that’s just me . . .). Second stop was for some “minor” car repairs. Turns out the brake lights on our van weren’t working. Now, this is definitely a problem wherever you are, but here in Africa where everyone is driving, let’s call it “extremely aggressively”, it is a bit of a death wish. We were thankful Nathan noticed the issue, and more than happy to wait while it was fixed.
We arrived at our tented camp around 4pm or so and were welcomed by three guys in uniform who carried our bags and brought us juice. Luxury! I have to say that I have become happily accustomed to the “welcome drink”, which is consistently provided upon arrival at most accommodation here in East Africa. The drives are normally dusty, hot, and long, so a glass of fresh passion, orange, mango or other fruit juice is so fabulous.
The camp itself, Kibale Nature Lodges, was really quaint and prettier than those we had stayed at in Kenya. The bathroom was less advanced, but in a way cuter. We had a “bush toilet” where instead of flushing, you just shoveled in a few scoops of dirt each time. Ingenious. There was no running water, so in order to take a shower, the staff would heat water for us and fill up a sort of tank, letting us know when it was ready for us to turn the shower on. The water lasted maybe 4 minutes. Those who know me and my too-long showers at home will wonder how I managed this. However, I tended to feel a little guilty for all of the work that went into my wash. So, I learned to make it quick, because once your water runs out, it is out. There are no second chances for rinsing off that soap. Unless of course you want to be the high maintenance jerk asking the poor guys to heat and carry more and more water. (I didn’t! I swear!)
The other thing which was lovely about camp, and seems to be unique to Uganda, was the wake up call we received each morning, at this and all of the camps during the week actually. One of the guys would come by and call out “good morning” to us, leaving us hot tea and biscuits outside our tent. How spoiled are we! I’m trying to convince Perry this would be a nice tradition for him to take up, but he hasn’t come around just yet.
We spent two nights at this camp, but really only one day of activities. The morning was spent chimp tracking, and the afternoon on a “swamp walk”. The chimpanzee tracking was amazing! We were lucky in that there was only four of us; Perry and I, and a nice older couple from Washington D.C. The guys at the hotel warned us to wear neutral colors, long sleeves and long pants, and to tuck in our pants to our socks to avoid “safari ants”. We were geared up for an arduous hike. In reality, we had walked not even 15 minutes when we heard the first chimpanzee sounds. They are loud! They use vocalization and also bang on trees to communicate with each other over distances. (Our guide also used these sounds to track them.) We saw one male actually cross the road (a photo opportunity which I unfortunately missed because I had the camera on the wrong setting . . . oops!) and basically followed him to a larger group. We saw a mom and baby playing and the baby breast feeding. At one point, there was a chimpanzee sleeping on the ground a meter or two away from us and we didn’t even notice him until he got up! Overall, we saw about 15 individuals, and we were allowed to spend an hour with them. It was really incredible to just hang out and watch them. You feel like they are really making eye contact, interacting with you. The pictures didn’t turn out so well because of the lighting (you can’t use flash of course), but you can still make out some of their antics and funny facial expressions.
After lunch back at camp, we went for a walk in the Bigodi Wetland Sanctuary, a community project nearby. The swamp, called the “Magombe Swamp” provides the opportunity to see loads of bird species, butterflies, and more primates, mostly various types of monkeys (black and white colobus, red colobus, red tailed monkey, grey cheeked mangabey, etc.). We saw all of the above, plus papyrus, which I had never imagined what it looked like, and of course baboons. People don’t get so excited about baboons because they are everywhere and considered a bit like pests, but I think they are so cute and hilarious to watch. The walk was just that, a leisurely stroll, boardwalked over the actual swampy bits, and of course we were guided by a local man (you can’t do anything without a guide in Africa it seems). Our guide was called Julius, and the best story he told us was about the hornbills. According to Julius, hornbills are life partners, always together. Even if one bird dies, the other will never find a new mate. How romantic! Julius found it funny that Perry and I were just as impressed with the baboons and monkeys as we were with rare birds such as the great blue turaco, which apparently some people make this trip solely for. It was a nice way to spend the hot afternoon, and we were happy that the entrance fees, guide fees, and profits from our inevitable souvenir purchases were going towards useful projects in the local village.
Queen Elizabeth National Park
We left the Kibale area early the next morning. Our destination was Queen Elizabeth National Park, which was actually just a bonus for us due to booking the week long safari, as we hadn’t originally had it on our Uganda destination list. On the way we stopped to see various crater lakes around Kibale NP. I don’t think this was on the original agenda, but as soon as I enquired about them, Nathan made a point of giving us a chance for a stroll and a look. Accordingly, a couple of days into the trip, we were feeling lucky with Nathan, who was really friendly, not intrusive at all, and very professional.
The best thing about QENP was our accommodation. It was the most lovely place. I wanted to stay longer. We had a little “bandas” (i.e. cabin sort of structure) overlooking the Kazinga Channel. Directly in front of our balcony, albeit a safe distance away, was a favorite spot for hippos. There was not one time during our stay when there were not hippos bathing in that spot. We could just sit and watch them, and we could hear them at all times. It was really amazing! Although we didn’t actually experience any of them getting uncomfortably close, we had an escort to and from dinner each night just to be sure. I especially enjoyed the morning tea wake up calls at this spot. Sitting there in the early morning, drinking my tea, listening to the hippos and watching them entering back into the water after a night of feeding, I couldn’t help but feel so so lucky with my life and my surroundings. Add to this the absolutely magnificent menu and chef, the nightly campfires, the cute outdoor shower, and the fact that everything was shiny and new (the place had only opened a couple of months prior), and I was in heaven.
As far as activities at QENP, we did a couple of game drives, and a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel, which connects Lake Edward and Lake George. I have to admit that Perry and I were both a bit “ho-hum” about the game drives, as we had so recently been spoiled with wildlife in Masai Mara. However, you don’t really tire of seeing huge wild elephants and their young crossing the road in front of you. We actually saw a baby elephant breast feeling from its’ mother. I am consistently surprised at how the animals go about their lives without barely a nod in the direction of our safari vehicles. On one of our game drives we had an interesting park guide who was adept at making up information regarding animal habits, etc. Some of the things he told us made no sense at all, or were in direct contradiction to what we’d learned previously. We just smiled, nodded, and said “Oh really? How interesting!”. Afterwards Nathan commented that some guides just “talk too much”.
Matthew, the inaccurate park guide, was interesting nonetheless, not due to his knowledge of the wildlife and their habits, but because of his experiences as a park ranger throughout Uganda’s history (he had about 20 years experience). He told us about how during certain periods the rangers just gave up and could do nothing because there were so many poachers who were just better armed than they were. A sad truth, which is evidenced by the lower concentrations of wildlife in the park. Matthew wasn’t all shining armor, wildlife protector though, as he tried to convince Nathan to go off the marked path so that Perry and I could take closer pictures of some lions; an action that would surely invite hefty fines if caught. (We assured Nathan that we already had more than enough lion photos and were happy to observed from a distance . . .)
The Kanzinga Channel boat trip was interesting because it allowed us to see more and more hippos and buffalos in the water, as well as the chance to spot crocodiles. In actuality we only saw one tiny croc, which we of course zoomed right in on to get a photo. The interesting thing about the channel is that it’s current changes direction depending on the lake levels.
The boat also went past some of the local villages situated near the water. Certain local people, who inhabited the area long before establishment of the national park, are allowed to reside within park boundaries. However, they can only fish. They cannot grow anything or have any domestic animals. All of their needs must be met by selling fish at market, which seems a tough existence to me. We saw certain very brave locals fishing and actually getting out of their boats into the water right beside groups of hippos! Nathan’s comment was, “Those boys really don’t value their lives”. I tend to agree with him, as I felt the one big hippo who swam up from under our larger boat carrying probably around 20 tourists The locals were in a tiny wooden canoe. Nathan told us that approximately 15 people die each month in the area due to run-ins with hippos and crocs in the water. (We didn’t really have an opportunity for verify that number . . .)
The absolute most exciting part of the boat trip though, was when the wind came up and the weather completely changed in about 30 seconds. One minute I was completely sweating and wondering how we’d managed to end up on the sunny side of the boat with absolutely no shade, and the next minute I couldn’t get my rain jacket out of my backpack fast enough. It was incredible how the change happened so fast.
Bwindi Impenetable National Park
Next morning we set out for Bwindi Impenetrable, home of the mountain gorillas and our ultimate destination. It was not reached without incident.
First stop was a small village where Nathan wanted to buy some meat for his father-in-law, who lives in Kisoro, the town nearest to Bwindi where we would also be staying. No problem of course, we said, we would wait in the van. The day was hot as usual, so I had my window open. With our experiences in Uganda to date being so friendly and favorable, I saw no reason to close the window when we stopped. That is, until a scraggly looking man came up to it and thrust a banana at me, stating, “Take this banana or I will beat you!”. Strange. Not in the habit of accepting anything from crazy strangers, I did nothing and attempted to close my window. The man continued to carry on, yelling and throwing bananas at us and our vehicle. The other locals around seemed amused, and mildly embarrassed, by the incident. A few of them tried to chase the crazy guy away, but to no avail. The tipping point for poor Nathan was when the guy finally picked up a rock as if to throw it at us as well. Nathan had to abandon his thoughtful gesture, hop back in the drivers’ seat, and take off in fear that this crazy man would damage his vehicle, and perhaps also his clients. In truth, there are quite a few “crazies” to be spotted be the roads and in the small villages along the way. Nathan blames the local brew for their behavior, and apparent mental issues.
Safe and sound on the road, we had a bit of a laugh and continued on our way. Perry and I were settled back into our books, when and hour or so later we all felt and heard some sort of crack/snap/pop coming from our vehicle. I thought we had popped a tire. Nathan pulled over to take a look and although all of the tires looked fine, it didn’t take him long to figure out the problem. We had actually broken the rear axle. Not that I know anything about mechanics, but this didn’t seem to be a minor problem! I can’t say whether the break down was due to poor vehicle maintenance (perhaps the brake lights were just foreshadowing?), Nathan’s aggressive and very fast driving (skilled, but aggressive), or the general atrocious state majority of the roads are in, but at this point it didn’t matter. We were hours from Kisoro and stranded in the middle of nowhere.
In about 3 minutes we were surrounded by onlooking children, but not one motorist stopped to see if we were alright, and not one person walking by offered assistance. One girl asked if I would give her my clothes, and one lady assured me “not to fear”, which I hadn’t until she said that. (Fear what!?! Is there something to fear? Oh dear . . .) Luckily for us though, we had Nathan. I now believe that he is the handiest man on earth. After about an hour, the use of various large stones, an archaic jack, and what I could see was extreme and sweaty effort, he somehow managed to fix the car using only a stick and piece of rope. Yes, that is correct. He basically tied the axle back together with a stick and a piece of rope. It was unbelievable. We had to stop once to replace the stick, but apart from that his “repair job” got us the remainder of the distance, maybe 2 hours or so driving over horrendous roads full of pot holes, to Kabale, the next town. (Not to be confused with Kibale National Park, our first stop) Perry and I were pretty much useless to poor Nathan, apart from obediently searching for rocks and sticks when asked. It was slightly embarrassing.
The second most amazing thing about Nathan, apart from him fixing the vehicle with a rope and a stick, was how completely calm he remained the entire time. He did not show any frustration, although it took him numerous attempts to accomplish the job. He even dropped us off for lunch in Kabale first, taking time to introduce us to the waitress, rather than heading straight to the mechanic. It was commendable. I don’t believe I know anyone else who could be so cool in such a situation.
After leaving Kabale, we realized just how lucky we were that the breakdown happened when it did. The road from Kabale to Kisoro was actually the worst we’d been on in Uganda yet. It was a mountain road full of hairpin turns with no guard rails. And of course it was extremely bumpy. Perry told me to relax and “just trust” while Nathan sped along, trying to reach our destination before dark. Instead I hung on in terror for most of the ride. We eventually reached Kisoro safely around 7pm and checked into the Travelers’ Rest Hotel, which Dian Fossey (Gorillas in the Mist) had called her “second home”. If it was anything like it is now back then, I can see why. We enjoyed a fabulous 4 course meal by candlelight, in the company of a couple of other Canadians which was a nice treat, prior to heading straight for sleep in our comfy bed. We needed to rest up in anticipation of the next day’s gorilla tracking.
We started the day at 5am, breakfast at 5:30. We had a nearly two hour drive from Kisoro to the park entrance where our gorilla briefing was to take place at 7:45am. Now, you’d think that after the previous day’s heroics, I would never doubt Nathan, but I have to say I was a bit nervous that we were going to miss it. Our LP stresses how strict the process is, and that if you are late for the briefing they will just carry on without you, and will not refund your USD500 permit fee. I kept telling myself that Nathan had probably been there so many times that he knew the way and how to arrive on time. However when he started stopping for directions after about an hour and a half driving I was really concerned. Turns out I just needed to remember that, “There is no hurry in Africa”. We arrived no problem and were lucky to find that there were only 4 tourists tracking that day, including Perry and I. (Normally there are 8. How anyone could afford to not show up for something like that, I don’t know.)
Again, we were prepared for a strenuous hike through the rain forest. We were covered in deet, with our pants tucked into our socks and our shirts tucked into our beltless pants . . . looking really cool. We were excited and a bit nervous. “Could be up to 9 hours of steep climbing!” “Could be very tough going and you are likely to encounter rain!” I think all of this warning is really just conditioning so that you will feel justified to hire one of the local porters to carry your daypack. (Of course we did, and I once again ended up with a stinky bag . . . this time unnecessarily.)
In reality we walked only about hour and a half along an enjoyably moderate trail before finding the group we were in search of, which was comprised of around 35 gorillas. It was an eventful hike though, if not a strenuous one. We were happily walking along, chatting quietly to the English couple tracking with us (so as not to disturb any wildlife) when suddenly we heard a very loud crack, like a tree falling down. It was actually a tree being broken by the giant elephant which was about 10 feet away and moving towards us. Perry actually saw the elephant’s face come out from the foliage, but I didn’t. I just heard our guide yelling “Run! Run!” and saw the fellow with the big gun, who had been leading the way to protect us, fall flat on his bum in fear. Anyone who’s been hiking with me before knows that I have an irrational fear of hopping rocks over streams, even when the water is maybe a foot deep. Well, this time I had no trouble sprinting back, up hills and over water. Our “protector” eventually managed to fire a few shots in the air and scare the elephant away. We stopped for a few moments, and then continued on our way.
Our time with the gorillas was surreal. First you can see the trees and bushes moving, and you can hear them. The trackers vocalize as well to alert the gorillas to our presence. Then suddenly, a big silverback was right there in front of us, all relaxed and having his breakfast, i.e. devouring entire trees. We sat and watched that one silverback for maybe 15 minutes. I swear he looked directly into my eyes. We were less than 2 meters away from him, but he barely seemed to care that we were there. He would look over now and then, and just continue on with his feeding.
We were able to see females, males, and babies eating, drinking, playing, and crossing a stream. Perry saw one male actually “charge” one of our trackers, basically just making a show of strength to keep us in our place. He said he was glad the tracker was in between him and the gorilla. No kidding! The entire time was really an incredible, once in a lifetime experience. I thought the most interesting part about them was their facial expressions. They are so human! We were able to spend only about an hour with the gorillas, so as not to cause them stress. It went by really quickly, but the experience was fully worth the $500 spent.
On the hike back we ran into another elephant, thankfully this time at a safe distance. And, our guides pointed out a puff adder, one of the more deadly snakes, on the side of the path. Yikes!
On the drive back to Kisoro we also ran into another “crazy”. This time the man tried to play chicken with our vehicle, just planting himself in the middle of the road. I think I have mentioned how fast Nathan drives, so you can realize that this was really a bold thing to do. Nathan stopped just short of running him over, and when the man refused to move, he just went around him, clipping his face with the side mirror. A ranger, whom we were giving a ride back to Kisoro, reached out the window on the way by and punched the guy in the face as well! We are definitely not in “non-confrontational” Asia anymore . . .
We spent the remainder of the day at the Travelers Rest, doing just that, and reading books about gorillas. I intended to buy Gorillas in the Mist at that point, which I’m at the moment reading, but I think the book they had in the bar there was more interesting. It was a collection of Dian Fossey’s personal letters, and scandalous stories about her life’s affairs and temper tantrums. I didn’t realize that she was such a strange character. I suppose you have to be a little bit “unique” though, to spend years and years in the forest all on your own.
Home to Entebbe
Next day we made the long, dusty drive all the way back to Entebbe, which is a town on Lake Victoria just about 30 minutes from Kampala. Nathan thanked us over lunch for being relaxed clients and not giving him any “headaches”! He said that many of his clients are “complicated”, stopping short of implying that many tourists are unreasonable and demanding. We were glad he didn’t find us to be so. We tipped him generously, which he fully deserved not only due to his handy work keeping us on the road.
One sad observation from the week was the extent to which begging appeared to be the norm in the Ugandan countryside. Neither of us remember experiencing that, even in the poorest areas of Cambodia or Laos. It seemed that nearly all of the children we met would ask for money. Each time the car slowed down a bit we were greeted with chants of “Give me money!” and outstretched hands.
We saw a lot of gorgeous, green landscapes in Uganda, which surprised us. For some reason, green lush landscape is not what either of us envisioned prior to coming to Africa. We also enjoyed numerous stunning sunrises and sunsets, which is true of our entire trip really. I’ve never noticed before how gorgeous the sky is; the clouds, the colors, and the vastness of it. I don’t know if Asian and African skies are truly more spectacular than those at home, or if I just never took enough time to look up. I really feel like these past months have given me a chance to stop thinking, and truly enjoy my surroundings. One memory from this particular week in Uganda is brushing my teeth in our outdoor bathroom near QENP. I could hear sounds of birds and hippos, and a bright red bird flew down, landing on the fence in front of me. The bird just sat there looking at me while I brushed, and I thought how relaxed and happy I felt, just to be there brushing my teeth. After 7 months, I’m finally learning to slow down.
Uploading photos is a bit of a challenge in Africa, but I'm working on it. They will soon be at http://gallery.me.com/adamschen
No comments:
Post a Comment