Driving from northwestern Rwanda to western Uganda, we noticed a change in the strategy for farming on hills. Rwandans preferred to construct terraces, like broad steps climbing up a hillside. A patchwork quilt of farm plots and crops blanketed the Ugandan hills. Ugandan farmers appear to prefer working on slopes.
Water and red earth clay make great bricks for building homes. This is true in many of the African countries we've traveled through. Madagascar had a huge brick making area just outside the capitol.
Along roads well-traveled by tourists, children appear, hoping for handouts. Boaz made some new friends at this stop. Notice the lake in the background.
Our first view of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park was taken from a small hotel perched at the top of a hill. The view was stunning but, due to a miscommunication, they didn't have rooms for us. We were disappointed.
There were at least 50 steps up to the hotel from the parking lot!
Our first Ugandan excursion was a trek to see forest mountain gorillas. The day starts with a briefing by the rangers, but first some local entertainment performed by a group of women. They were incredibly energetic dancers for 7:30 am.
Each trekking group includes 8 clients and a ranger and is assigned to one of the habituated gorilla families. A maximum of 10 groups go out in the morning so only 80 permits are available each day. Approximately 15% of the wild gorillas in the forest are considered habituated to
Homo sapiens observers. Early in our trek, we passed a spot where a gorilla family had likely slept the night before.
After 2 1/2 hours of hiking, mostly uphill, we found the silverback male of the Bweze family. He was watching females and young in the family tear apart dead trees to eat termites.
We stood about 25 feet away and watched for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, the females and youngsters decided to leave and the silverback moved in to try the termites.
Eventually they all left the remaining termites and moved down the mountain. We followed them for an hour, losing them as they bushwhacked easily through the forest and we stumbled and struggled. We would eventually catch up when they stopped for a snack. A few went up into the trees to find fruit and shower us with seeds falling to the forest floor.
This is where we left the Bweze gorillas, feasting on greens. It was more than amazing to be so close, watching them in the wild, free to move when and where they want, feeding themselves, taking care of the young, just being gorillas. The permits to do this are quite expensive and you have to be in decent shape to handle the trek. One woman in our group really struggled and at one point sat down and sad she couldn't go any further. The rangers and trackers seem very committed to their jobs and the protection of the gorillas. The area is fairly remote with the forest extending into Rwanda, Congo, and Uganda. Long live the mountain gorillas!
More kids along the road as we left the Impenetrable Forest. These had a couple chameleons to show off.
The next day we visited the Kibale forest to see chimpanzees. This female was sitting on a downed tree across the trail. Above her were the alpha male and a young male. Earlier we watched a female and her baby in the tree tops. They spent most of their time in the nest pulling branches to eat more leaves. During our forest hike we also saw blue monkeys and red-tailed monkeys. Monkeys and chimps moving high in the trees don't make good subjects for pictures!
We stayed in a lodge in Queen Elizabeth National Park. There was no fence, just a sign on the path to be aware of wildlife. On the bed were two elephant heads.
Within the park is a channel that connects Lake George and Lake Edward. We took a 2-hour boat tour on the channel. Our boat was the white and blue boat in the right of the picture.
Our first wildlife sighting was a monitor lizard.
And then we saw the hippos.
And more hippos. There are so many hippos in this channel that it claims to have the highest population density of hippos of anywhere in the world. We saw the backs of several hundred. Then we watched a maternal group of elephants come to the water to drink - at a place without hippos!
The elephants were all different ages and sizes with only female adults.
Our driver back to the lodge
From western Uganda, it's a 7-8 hour drive to Kampala. Political posters for the upcoming elections lined the road in every community. This is the president, running for reelection after having served for 5 decades. Our guide said the vote didn't matter. He would continue to be president.
We stopped for lunch at the Equator. Chris is posing with Boaz and our guide, Bornlight.
An entrepreneurial young man set up 3 basins at the equator. One was on the equator and the other 2 were about 10-15 meters on either side. He filled the yellow basins so you could watch the water spin out the drain in the bottom. South of the Equator, the spin is clockwise while north of the Equator is spins counter clockwise. On the Equator there is no spin. It was very cool but I wonder if there was some trick like a subtle difference in the shape in the basin to make it work so well. He also sold certificates to document the experience.
We spent one night in Kampala and were picked up early the next morning to go river rafting in the Nile River. Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile, also called the White Nile here, and is the only major river flowing out of the lake. The paddles are hand carved!
There are several dams now and they discourage hippos and crocodiles from inhabiting the river. During a calm section, Chris swam for about 45 minutes. He passed the swim test and was allowed to take off his helmet and life jacket!
Some parts of the river are not navigable so we walked around and the guides and kayakers with us carried the raft.
Here we go!
It was quite an adventure! and the end of our visit to Uganda
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