Sat Aug 31
Up at 6. Driver arrived at 8 on the dot! Nice drive to the airport. Countryside was a bit different (less industrial than what you see from the train). Saw another windmill (yeah!)
Arrived at the airport just before 9. Crazy busy, long lines but all moved along quickly and efficiently. No issues going thru security…….smiley, pleasant people working there. Bus from the gate to the plane. Left on time at 11:20.
Long, long plane ride….almost 11 hrs with the 1 hr or so stop in Kigali en route. Arrived at Entebbe just after 11. Very slow, slow process going thru customs and immigration. Even though we did all the visa stuff online (including scanning a passport photo) they still take your picture and print out a visa to stick in your passport….so cool that we have that rather than just a stamp. Paid the $50 US visa fee. Whole process took at least a half hour or more. I got thru first so collected all our luggage and waited for the others.
Found our driver, Alonso (sp?) with the sign. Not a terribly big or new airport. Not very bright either. Our van with our guide, Dixon, was waiting to drive us to Papyrus House….took about 15 minutes. https://www.papyrusguesthouse.com/ Not much to see in the dark!
Checked in, found our garden room and fought off the lake flies…..gawd awful looking things…..like humongus wasps. Found the little bar, had a quick beer and got our schedule for tomorrow. Thankfully they resprayed our room and patio, so no more lake flies. My first experience with mosquito nets!
To bed after 1AM! Up early tomorrow for our Lake Victoria boat tour to see the illusive shoebills. Can’t wait to see this place in the daylight….it smells wonderful! Quite tropical looking but a bit chilly. We are at 0.04 latitude, so just a tad south of the equator but at 3000ft.
Sun Sept 1
Up at 6AM. Birds….lots of birds. Very noisy birds! Lovely trees and plants…..traveller palms, palms, plumeria, red ginger, bird of paradise, just beautiful!
Breakfast was a “rolex”….a chaptai with egg, tomato and a sausage on the side, pretty good. On the road by 7:40 for our tour of the Mabamba Swamp/Marsh in search of the shoebills. A bit chilly first thing but warmed up nicely as the morning wore on.
Took a motorboat for about the first half hour then transferred to a flat bottom canoe type boat that can navigate the shallow, reedy papyrus swamp. Just beautiful…morning mist. Our guide, Innocent, pointed out many of the birds along the way…..various egrets, jacanas (“Jesus birds” because it looks like they walk on the water), hamerkofps, herons, bee-eaters, weaver birds, flycatchers, kingfishers…the list goes on an on…..a bird watchers paradise!! After only a 1/2 hour or so we found a shoebill. They are HUGE!! Like herons on steroids…..massive birds with up to 10ft wingspans. Prehistoric looking. We sat and just watched if for about a half hour. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoebill It flapped it’s wings every now and again but mostly just moved along thru the grass in slow motion gobbling up a fish or two. The guide knew by it’s actions that it was going to take off…..and it did!! It’s really quite a magnificent bird. Carried on thru the reeds, seen many birds that are endemic to this area of Uganda and the lake swamps. Beautiful water lilies….purple and pink flowers. Really very peaceful and beautiful…..saw only one other boat near the shoebill.
Moved back on to the motorboat and a bit more of a tour around the lake then to an island that has a resort. We stopped for a “health break” lol…..a glass of wine and beers!! Talked to Dixon about Uganda’s political history (he knows about it but too young to have lived thru it), environmental issues and how they are ensuring that the eco-system is preserved. Sounds very promising. He, and most Ugandans, love and really appreciate what they have here. Had a wee tour of the resort and all it’s amenities.
Once on land back into the van for a bit of tour thru the area we are staying. Loved the “life scenes”…..not sure what else you would call peoples day to day activities just living their life as best they can. Shops, people selling stuff at the side of the roads….very bumpy roads!! Kids, cows, motorcycles, people carrying wood on their bikes, the odd person carrying stuff on their heard, the colourful market, people selling huge bags of charcoal. What a wonderful place!! Smells (good), sights, sounds….all just incredible. And of course monkeys!!
Had lunch back at Papyrus house and spent the rest of the afternoon updating journals, reading, chatting or napping (Russ and Cheri) and playing cards in the very pretty gazebo. You pre-order your meals earlier in the day…..ordered dinner for 6.
Dinner was a bit late, closer to 7, but very good. I ordered the “marinated” steak, which was very tasty and very tender, came with homemade French fries and coleslaw.
Early to bed….just after 9. Luckily there is only a one hour time change between Amsterdam and here, so hopefully I’m over the not sleeping properly thing. Up very early tomorrow….we head to the airport at 5:50AM. Will be my first ever Cessna plane ride!
Mon Sept 2
Very early start! Up, dressed, packed and to breakfast (ordered last night) by 5AM. Two fried eggs (done perfectly!), bacon and toast….very good. To the airport at 5:50 as planned.
Check-in and security went quick. Gate 2 for departure….then by bus to where the small planes are. Our plane holds 12 people. Very small. Hand luggage goes in a cubby at the back when you get on. Seats are config 2 and 1. I took a single. Pretty much have to crawl into your seat. Was kind of neat to be able to see the entire cockpit and all the control panels and what the pilot/co-pilot were doing. Wasn’t too sure about this whole little plane thing but turned out to be great. Take off was really smooth….other than the size you would not really know you were in a very little plane.
Took off out over Lake Victoria….very picturesque, beautiful! Flight was just over an hour. The closer we got to Kisoro the landscape became more and more mountainous. The terraced hillside and valley fields turned into mountainside terraces. We flew at 14,000ft so the closer to Kisoro (alt approx. 7500ft), the closer we got to the land too…..the banana trees and palms looked like little green stars….just wonderful to see it all so close. And the mist in the valleys made you really get the “Gorillas in the Mist” thing! Landing was a bit bumpy because the runway is a mix of gravel and broken asphalt! Flights was just over 1 hour.
Our guides Jackson and Moses were there to meet us with our Nkuringo Safari Truck….as were about 5 other trucks. Drove thru the town of Kisoro then stopped near the market where Jackson took us for a bit of a walking tour. Lots of cooking bananas…..truck loads! People selling used stuff, “Irish” potatoes, yams etc. Tons of kids, women in beautiful brightly coloured clothing and wraps (called kangas??). The women, and the odd guy here and there, often carry stuff on their heads…..baskets full of who knows what, sacks of potatoes, bags of charcoal AND whole stocks of the bananas….Andrea and I together tried to lift one and couldn’t!! Some carried all this stuff with babies on their backs. Lots of motorcycles used as cargo vans and family vehicles…..3+ people on many of them, some with huge baskets on the sides, like paniers. The main road thru town was asphalt but other roads were a combo of broken asphalt and/or red dirt….open gutters for the drain system. Just another day in the life……such a hard life just to eke out a living or exist! The things we take for granted at home!!
Met back at the truck to change into our hiking boots for our hike (had no idea we were going to be doing this…..but I guess because it was a little too early to check-in at the lodge???) thru some rural hillside communities and to Lake Mutanda.
It was quite the hike!! UP thru the hillside villages. Some reasonable type houses, others put together with anything and everything people could get their hands on. Many were built of locally produced mud bricks. Lots and lots of children that all wanted to “high five” you. It’s incredibly hilly and mountainous. Up and up we went on very rough red dirt roads….incredibly strong people with unbelievable stamina to be able to walk miles everyday up and down on terrible roads, some in totally inappropriate foot ware, or no foot ware at all!. Passed a few women heading to market with their goats that had tin cans tied to their faces so they wouldn’t eat gardens on the way!!
Everyone appears to live off their land….matoke, sweet potatoes, bananas (fruit and cooking ones). Didn’t see, or at least notice, any other types of crops/vegetables. Mostly women seen working in the fields and gardens. Some men but according to Moses, often the men have jobs during the day or out of town….and that’s why women do all the work (hmmmmm……). You do see some men working along side the women but you also see a lot of them standing around. Many young boys, maybe 7 or 8, seem to be working the land as well. The communities or villages that we went thru were quite remote and have no electricity or running water…..there are wells and pumps but still have to fill and carry the heavy water containers. No road access either, only very rough trails/walkways of red dirt/clay that turn into small running rivers when it rains. Just about all the little kids (babies to about 10) have shaved heads???? Easier to care for per Moses.
The views from the higher parts of the trail are just spectacular. Lake Mutanda, cultivated hillsides, smoke from cooking fires and from the brick kilns. And of course the people (mostly women)…..carrying incredible loads on their heads or their backs….huge stocks of bananas, sacks filled with sweet potatoes, or Irish potatoes, baskets filled with shopping, charcoal, full buskets of water, you name it they have to heft it one way or another. Bikes wouldn’t even be an option on most of the trails because they’re so rough or because of the steep inclines. The people are just incredible…..beautiful. Bright, cheerful, coloured clothing….all with waves and smiles on their faces. Are they really happy?? Are they really happy to see us???
Our hike finally started heading down towards the lake. Came to a park where a bunch of kids were attending a summer camp…..a bunch of them came running out to “high five” us and ask questions. One of the little girls came up behind me and pinched the back of my arm??? I ask why and she just laughed….and went running off. Maybe not so happy to see us! Unlike India not one child or person asked for money (or “bananas” as Moses called it). We are referred to as “Mazungas” which, we were told, simply refers to a white person and is not a derogatory term……
Passed stacks of mud bricks, ready to go into the kilns, and the fish farms. Talapia is the fish in the lake and the fish farmed here. Finally after almost 2 hours we got to the lake. There’s a nice “rustic” little bar set up. We all ordered beers ($7US for 4) and headed to our dugout canoes, which are made from the trunks of eucalyptus trees. Told them we too have dugout canoes in Canada! They’re the same idea as ours but much, much narrower and rather tippy…..also rather challenging to get into if you have big hips!! Lots of laughing and flailing about trying to work ourselves into them sideways. Sat back on our soft cushioned and backed seats for a nice paddle around the lake. Very relaxing. Very pretty lake surrounded by beautiful mountains. They’re hoping to bring in a couple of shoebills to start breeding in this area. Lots of reeds and marsh like Lake Victoria. Everything in this area of Uganda is very lush and fertile which makes you wonder why they don’t grow other crops….beans, corn etc.??
Back on land we hiked for another 1/2 hour or so to where Jackson was waiting for us. Was happy to see a paved road but that was short lived…..lasted for about 5 min then we were off to enjoy our “African massage” on a very bumpy, teeth rattling drive to Nkuringo Gorilla Lodge. As you drive further up and up it changes to rainforest. Even more lush. Spectacular views as it got more mountainous and the clouds rolled in……not for the faint of heart if you don’t like narrow, rough roads with no guardrails!! But oh so beautiful!
Passed a limestone cliff where men and boys were working. One or two at the top using big sledge hammer things to break off chunks, then others further down smash the chunks to make gravel or sand, then another bunch of guys shovel that into the back of a truck….all back breaking work. Incredible. This work will keep them employed for years. At home someone would have came in with big machines and mowed and ground down that mountain in a day or two!!
It was about an hour drive to the lodge. https://www.mountaingorillalodge.com/ Got there just after 2. They met us with lovely warm, wet face clothes, which were very much appreciated after our hike! Had a quick look around….lovely! A look at our rooms (adjoining with R and A)…..very nice, spectacular views. Passed the lady bringing our bags…..carrying mine on her HEAD!! It weighs 30lbs!! To the lounge for a brief introduction, filled in forms etc. and our lunch, which we’d pre-ordered with Jackson before our hike, toasted ham and cheese sandwiches with yummy, crispy homemade French fries and coleslaw. He’d picked up some snacks for our hike but everyone was starving…..we’d had breakfast at 5:30!
A quick trip to our rooms to clean up a bit. Up and down stairs, which would not normally be a problem but at 7000+ft you are breathless in no time!! Tomorrows hike should be interesting! Our rooms are beautiful, nice big bathroom (hot water for showers on request….eco lodge!!), nice deck with a view looking out over the valley and mountains. Got sort of organized and up to the lodge for drinks and our crib games.
Thunder had been rumbling since we’d arrived but the storm really started a few minutes after we’d sat down……thunder, lightening (from every direction!) and unbelievable rain…..was really quite lovely! They came to take our dinner order (pre-order all meals), usually 2 or 3 choices…a meat dish, a veggie dish and a local dish. Ordered the chicken for 7:30.
After dark it had gotten quite chilly and damp so in between downpours we quickly….and breathlessly…..ran back to change from our summery stuff. Jackson joined us for dinner. Gave us information for the trek tomorrow and told us about the local people, education, economy etc. The storm was getting wilder and wilder…..they just go around and around in the valleys. Dinner was excellent! Appie, soup, main and dessert! Sat and chatted after dinner for quite a while. Arranged for coffee and tea for our 6:30AM wake up call and made a mad dash back to our room in the rain.
They’d asked us earlier if we’d like a fire in our room….we said yes so the room was nice and toasty warm…..a bit too warm and also a bit smelly since the fire is charcoal…….we had to open the windows. Our beds were turned down and had nice not water bottles in them…..all very nice touches!! What a great day! To bed by 10:30. Gorillas tomorrow!!!
Tues Sept 3
Wake up call for 6:30…..came with coffee and tea….how nice is that! What to wear?? Layers……tee shirt, button up cotton shirt, jeans tucked into socks (biting ants!!), raincoat and rubber gardening gloves packed in backpack. Quite chilly first thing in the morning but as soon as it starts to get bright, it warms up quite nicely. Very pretty sunrise this morning. Bright and sunny at that point! Breakfast at 7:30. Perhaps not a good sign…..they had box lunches to go for us……lol was hoping to be back here in time for lunch!!
About a 15 minute drive to the trekking station where we got prepped by a ranger on the hike/trek….what to do, what not to do etc. Told us about all the conservation stuff that is being done for the lowland gorillas and how it benefits the local economy and people. Got our walking sticks and assigned our porters…..my guy was Bryan (with a “Y” he said but that was about all the English he spoke), a local Batwa person (a pygmy!) $15US for the porter. Besides this helping out the local people, he was a godsend on this trek. They carry your backpack for you and push, pull or drag you whenever necessary. I communicated with him through one of the other porters….all very nice and very, very helpful.
They only allow 40 people per day on the hikes. We were organized into 5 groups of 8 with a ranger/guide. Today our group visited with the Nkuringo gorilla group. Treks are generally 4 hours or so…..they allow for 1-1/2 hours in and out and one hour with the gorillas…..that is barring any issues tracking down the families, in which case you could be out all day! The trackers had headed out earlier to find the gorillas.
Started the Nkuringo trail hike at 8:30. Down and down……and down we went on what they referred to as “the road”…..definitely not passable by a vehicle of any kind. Rocks, boulders, ruts, very steep in some places, most of it gets washed away every time it rains, which is just about every day. All I could think about going down was having to come back up….2.3km down to the river where the forest trail starts!! We passed a number of local people going up and down the “road” with bundles on their backs or heads, again in totally inappropriate (to us!) foot ware or bare feet. A couple of young guys with a herd of goats. Alli said some of these people travel 4km each way every day to get to school, work or market.
Once we got to the bottom and crossed a stick bridge (one of a number we eventually crossed), we were into the impenetrable rainforest. Just beautiful! Beautiful huge trees, covered in moss and vines, peek-a-boo views every now and again of the surrounding mountains. Other than the trail, which in some places was a bit sketchie, it truly was impenetrable. Fantastic walk. Quite slick and steep in some places, so was very glad I had my stick and my porter….he grabbed my hand when necessary to keep me on my feet. We hiked for another 1/2 hour or so and got word from the trackers that the gorillas were just down the hill.
We had to leave our bags with the porters on the trail and then follow the ranger and trackers down thru the bush. Was very glad to have my gardening gloves…..as they bushwhacked ahead of us we grabbed whatever tree, vines or branches you could on the way down…..very steep and very slippery in many places, lots of tree roots etc. very dense forest. Down and down we went for 10 minutes or so. And there having a nap in his nest was a big silver back!!!
How exciting and amazing to see this magnificent animal! He appeared to be quite comfy laying there, turning over every now and again. The ranger hacked away a branch and the gorilla jumped up and went after him…..the trackers got in there really quickly just in case….although Alli (the ranger) said he knew the gorilla was not really being aggressive but just showing his annoyance at being disturbed……sure!!! He moved over a few feet and started snacking on some leaves and making some noises, which they said was to let the others know to come and join him or that we had arrived. Our silver back is the head of the family of 15.
He moved on again and so did we, hacking and slashing further down the hill. We came to more of the family….two females lazying in a bed, 2 young ones about 4 years old playing in the trees, another female kind of hiding behind a tree and bushes with a wee little 2 month old baby. Another female on her own and a couple of “black backs”, which are like the teenagers (12-15 yrs) of the family. We saw 12 altogether, which was pretty amazing. The 4 yr olds were very entertaining…..one was sitting on a branch/vine and using it as a swing, the other one came along, flying thru some branches and made his way to the top of a tree, then crashing down to where the swinger was, where he started pulling and munching away on the leaves. We were very lucky to have come with 10ft of most of them without having to follow/track them further thru the dense forest. There were more around that we couldn’t actually see but you knew they were there because the branches and trees were going like crazy. We were allowed to spend 1 hour with them, observing their routines, which included 2 of the females grooming each other. What an amazing experience it was!!
The ranger and trackers hacked and slashed a different way back up to the trail which was just as tricky going up as the other was going down. Once back on the trail we met up with our porters and headed back out on the good-ish trail. A torrential downpour started so raincoats came out! Unbelievable rain, even under the canopy of the rainforest! It made the trail very slippery as it did the various stick bridges that we had to cross. Took almost an hour to get back to where we started at the river. We were then faced with the 2.3km hike back up the “road” to the ranger station. BRUTAL!! No other way to describe it. It was still raining but thankfully not as hard and it did finally stop part way up. The rain had washed away some of the places that we’d used to get down, in other places there were mini rivers. Where it was flat-ish, lots of large puddles that you had to step around which was a little scary because the footholds were so slippery in some places or the rock that you stepped on would just go out from under your foot……thank goodness for Bryan many times!! What made it even more difficult was the fact that we were up over 7000ft. I can’t even count how many times we had to stop to catch our breath.
The Germans were gone…….whoosh up they went like nothing!! Caught up with them for our lunch break. About half way up we stopped for our “boxed lunch”. The porters grabbed bunches of branches and leaves to make seats for us to sit on! 15 minute break and we were heading up the road again. The entire time we are huffing and puffing and slipping and sliding there are the locals going up and down passing us with ease. Bryan had the footing of a mountain goat and kept wanting to grab my hand and pull me along quickly, which really didn’t help too much on this part…..I finally asked one of the other porters to ask him to go slower and just show me where to walk/put my feet. Finally after quite a few more breaks we made it back to the top. I’m really glad I’d been diligent about going to the gym and my power group……I just can’t even imagine doing this without being in some kind of reasonable shape. Got our “Gorilla Trek Certificates” and in to the nice warm jeep for our 1/2 hour drive back to the lodge thru the beautiful tea plantations…..it was a domestic product for eons but they now export it internationally.
We were so filthy dirty, wet, hot/cold, you name it. Lots of thunder rumbling so good timing to have gotten back. We had to take our boots off outside on the deck and they clean them for you. Also have complimentary laundry so threw all my clothes in the basket. A nice warm shower and up to the lodge for celebratory drinks and our daily crib games. More thunder, lightening to go with it and an absolute torrential downpour. Rain came and went for a few hours….just incredible how hard it came down. Part of the road next to the lodge had turned into a running river of red mud. 
Once the rain stopped people were quickly out and about. We had a little song and dance show put on by the local orphanage.
Spent the rest of the afternoon chatting with other guests, cards, updating journals. When they came to take our dinner order, they brought a nice big bowl of popcorn, which was a very nice little snack!
Dinner was excellent! Again the choice of 3 things, meat, veg or local, I picked the local which was goat stew. Appie was simply a couple slices of avocado with diced tomatoes, minced onion, topped with a very tasty dressing…..really good. The goat stew flavour was amazing, I’d had it before but have to say this was one of the best. It came with irish potatoes, sweet potato (very yellow compared to ours) and veg.
Managed to stay up until 10 and that was it. No fire tonight, but I am wearing my socks!! Quite chilly up this high.
The trek was amazing and the opportunity of a lifetime to the see the gorillas. The only negative was having to come back up that damn hill. Everything else was really exceptional. Absolutely fantastic and very memorable day!
Wed. Sept 4
A bit of a sleep in this morning. Coffee delivered at 7…..enjoyed it out on the deck. A bit chilly to start but so, so beautiful with the mist hanging over the mountains across the valley.
Breakfast at 8:30. Beautiful morning!
We’d pre-ordered the night before at dinner……very good. Today we got to order our lunch for after our excursion to visit the Batwa people. The dining room/bar is a separate building just below the lounge…..nice little deck with spectacular views out over the valley and the 7 volcanic peaks. We are very close to the border with both Rwanda and the DRC….supposedly can see both from here.
The Batwa people are the pygmy tribe that was displace back in 1991 when they created the conservation area for the gorillas and Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. Sadly they were moved out of the area with no compensation and very few resources to help them resettle into the local communities. Luckily they are now benefiting from various tourism and awareness programs that they operate. Beekeeping being one of their most important projects.
https://beesabroad.org.uk/projects-page/bwindi-batwa/
Jackson drove up to their “camp”. The guide and a Batwa fellow gave us an orientation about their history. Very few of the older Batwa people speak English so our guide was also the translator. Started off on the “Buniga Community Forest Trail”. The trail is a remake off how they would lived before being moved. As we went along they told us about the plants that are edible and medicinal. Beautiful trail and very rainforest-y. The tree ferns are my fav. 
We saw the typical family home, which consisted of 2 or hut like structures…..one for cooking and one or two for sleeping. The sleeping one was very small, even had a fire going inside for warmth….pretty well the whole family slept in it huddled together….would not be possible for them to lay down! The women were at the cooking one showing the types of vegetation they would cook up. They all dipped into the pot (boiling hot!!) and ate it. The lady holding a very cute little baby pulled some apart into little pieces and put it in the baby’s hand and took it up to it’s mouth.
The clothing they were wearing was a mix of what everyone else around here wears as well as the animal skins and leaves etc. that they would have worn. There was a treehouse structure too across the path from the family camp that was for the young bachelors. They did a dance for us…..they sing and dance to celebrate everything….thanks for food, thanks for visitors, rain etc. Had a demo of how they hunt with a bow and arrow. Very, very agile people….they sort of squat jump and move very quickly in every direction keeping very low to the ground, always pointing the arrow at the ready. We all got a shot at shooting the arrows……Andrea hit the tree target, mine went right by!!
Further along the trail we came to a “shrine” of sorts where they would put their dead. After they go thru a ritual of spitting on the body and making motions like farting or pooping on it to say “get lost evil spirits”, they cover the body with leaves and leave it to decompose or get eaten by animals.
Showed us the very primative wooden traps they’d use to catch small animals and gave us a fire starting demo. All very informative and interesting. After all this they did another thank you happy dance for us……Andrea is sure this is where rap got it’s start!!
At the top of the trail they had some beautiful handmade crafts for sale. Lovely pots, baskets and plates woven out of grasses and reeds and very pretty rustic jewelry with beads made of paper. https://batwacrafts.org/collections/jewelery I bought a very nice basket for buns and a bunch of necklaces for gifts back home (4 necklaces for $10US).
The tour lasted a couple of hours. A bit “touristy” perhaps but all very interesting. Love the drive to and from the site……the villages, the people and spectacular scenery.
Lunch at the lodge today. Appie was roasted eggplant and tomato salad with cashews and bit of finely sliced red onion (v.good!), main that I had was chicken a la king….OK but a bit dry, fruit salad for dessert.
Spent a nice quiet afternoon updating journals, reading, playing crib and chatting with other guests…..where they were going, where they’d been, their experiences…..all so incredibly interesting. People from the UK, Spain, Denmark…..and the US. Young couple from the US were unfortunately a little over the top…..very loud and knew it all about everything and anything, had travelled everywhere, had lots of money because they were good investors, on and on and on. Told the couple from Spain to not waste their money going to Canada as there is “nothing there worth seeing”……that just about had us up out of our seats but just bit our tongues. Chatted with the couple from Spain later and let them know there was actually a lot to see in Canada…..they said of course they knew that but sometimes, well you know it’s just not worth saying anything….and you’ll hopefully never see those people again….so true!
Dinner was excellent…..the food is all really quite good. Coleslaw to start, minestrone soup (v.v.v. good!!), lamb chops and lemon mousse for dessert. Had been told originally to not expect gourmet meals, but certainly cannot complain at all about everything that we’ve had so far.
Early to bed….up at 5AM tomorrow for our second gorilla trek!
Thurs Sept 5
Up early….had coffee delivered with the wake up call. Breakfast at 6.
Rashaga sector today for our trek….about an hour drive in the opposite direction. Started out still dark but was very interesting to see all the villages along the way waking up…many people walking along the dark road, which was potholed, rutted and full of rocks and very bumpy. In some places also very narrow….no guard rails anywhere with drops down into oblivion…..kind of scary!
Had our orientation, got our walking sticks and our porters and off we went. Our group today is us 4 and a family from Hong Kong…..very nice, friendly people and spoke excellent English! I really thank my lucky stars so many times for people around the world that have learned English….it makes our life as travellers so much easier. I only wish I had a knack for languages as it would be wonderful to reciprocate.
Beautiful forest again. Much easier trek today….no mega hills. Trail was really slick and muddy in places and lots of big elephant (smaller bush elephants here) foot prints that were a foot deep and filled with water. How the elephants maneuver up and down the steep slopes I have no idea, but you can clearly see where they’d come thru and basically flattened all the forest en route to wherever they were heading.
Porter was very helpful pulling me along and keeping me from slipping many times. After about 45 minutes we had found the gorilla family. Had to leave the porters on the trail again but thankfully the 3 rangers were very helpful. The slashing and bushwhacking started as we headed further and further down off the trail. A number of people went sliding down on their bums. Again we were grabbing anything and everything along the way to keep upright. Only a few minutes and we came to the big silver back munching away. Another show for us of jumping up to let us know who was the boss! He went back about his business munching and slowing wandering on thru the bush. We tracked him as he went. What incredible creatures they are!!!
Again we were within 10ft of him most of the time. At one point he changed direction rather quickly and came towards where Cheri and I were standing. Luckily one of the rangers was right behind us, grabbed us and said “don’t move”…..so we didn’t!!! Not that we could of anyway, there was no where to go, as we were standing on a rather narrow ledge surrounded by more bush. Our thrill for the trip! He just stopped, had a look at us, turned away and started munching some more leaves and branches.
Tracked more of the family…..a couple of females and younger ones and one momma and with a wee little baby on her back (maybe two months old). Got a good look at some of the beds, or nests, that they make at night. Usually right on the ground or just a few feet off the ground on some branches. Surprisingly they never sleep in the same bed twice because they not only sleep in them but also do their business in them…..which I found interesting and surprising for gorillas.
This family was much more lively bunch than the Nkuringo family……they kept us on the move the entire time we had with them. Seen the silver back again, more young ones playing in the trees, some drinking and resting by a little stream. Just amazing…..there are no words to describe this experience!!
Our hour was up! Made our way slip sliding a bit further back up the mountainside where we met up again with the porters. Since we had moved off the trail so far tracking the gorillas, we were actually much closer to the ranger station than if we’d headed back to the trail we came in on. Somehow they knew that there was, or at least at some point had been, another trail to get us back up…..we’d come down into the valley quite away from the original trail. The rangers slashed us thru a very steep and rough upward climb telling us it was a shortcut. How they even knew a trail was there was beyond any of us…..I guess the forest just grows so fast it covers any sign of trails. A bit of a brutal slog for 15 minutes or so with our porters generally pulling us up all the way. Very slippery and mucky. Don’t know how we would have faired if it had rained like it did the other day. Was very glad to come out at the ranger station!
Such a remarkable experience!! I’m so lucky to have been able to do this, not just once but twice!! I’m glad we did this second trek, very different than the first and much more lively bunch to follow along. Got our certificates and headed back to the lodge.
Drive back to the lodge took an hour but very nice (other than the bumpy road…..haha Jackson said we got another free African massage!) and very interesting to see the people, the bigger and smaller villages that we went thru and fields and terraced hills. Just amazing how hardy these people are….all just in the name of survival! We really cannot appreciate what they do each and every day. Passed a gas station that consisted of one pump, but so few cars or trucks, a few motorcycles here and there. Walking seems to be the main method of transportation for most. Lots of bricks being made and stacked along the road. Great view of the other lake, Lake Muhele (sp??). A few motorcycles and trucks loaded beyond reason.
Total drive to/from, hike/trek, time with gorillas was just over 4 hours. Another great day!
They had packed us boxed lunches again just in case, but we didn’t need to stop for lunch this time so we had our lunch on our deck…..tuna sandwiches, which were really good. Some beer and wine to celebrate a second exceptional gorilla trek.!
Cleaned up and put our laundry in the basket again, fingers crossed it will all get done by the time we leave in the morning. Up to the lounge for card, journals and chatting.
Our last dinner here tonight…..guacamole salad (?? v. good whatever), pumpkin soup (v.g.) steak and rice (a bit chewy but excellent taste!)
To bed early again…..up at 5AM tomorrow for our flight back to Entebbe. Another amazing day!
Fri Sept 6
A quick breakfast at 5:45 and we were on the road again back to Kisoro airport.
Flight back to Entebbe was at 8:30 so we had to be there by 8. Back down that crazy bumpy road again (hopefully our last African massage for a while!). Was a great drive tho as daylight dawned….lots of people on the road and lots of mist over the mountains and valleys. Just beautiful.
Arrived at the airport at 8. Said thank you and our goodbyes to Jackson. Flight left on time….front row seat again. Had a birdseye view of everything. Had a brief 15 minute stop in Queen Elizabeth Park to drop off and pick up 4 new passengers. Very lush and fertile looking land below. Uneventful 1 hour flight on to Entebbe. Very lucky my first two teeny plane rides we very smooth.
Flying in over Lake Victoria was great……you can really see the extent of the papyrus reed beds that surround most of the lake.
Arrived just before 11AM. Ashraf (?) was there to meet us and take us back to the Papyrus Guest House. Hot and sunny! Decided we wanted to do a bit of walking tour and lunch at a local place…..the gal thought it a good idea if we did it with Dixon, so she arranged for him and a driver to collect us at 1.
Dixon was going to take us to some nice restaurant initially but we told him we’d like to go where he’d go for lunch, so our first stop was “Dinners” Restaurant. Dixon showed us how the menu worked. He ordered his food first so we could see it…..he basically got all the “extras”. Rice pilaf, beef in broth, matoke, yam, pumpkin, avocado, and “posho”, which is kind of like a white polenta but much finer, kind of like mashed potatoes. We then ordered ours. The food was fantastic!! And you got a ton of it…..way more than I could eat, although Dixon cleaned his plate off.
Total bill, with beer, came to 69,000 Ugandan $’s, the equivalent of $5US each!! It was all really good. The broth that all the meat came in was so flavourful…..
It was very hot….and quite muggy by the time we finished. Just as we were leaving a lady carrying her baby walked past us…..the baby had on a snow suit, hat and all!! Many of the guys wear woollen toques….don’t get it!
Off we went on our walk/tour. Couldn’t quite figure out how much of Entebbe we saw. There seems to be a few blocks of a downtown area with some big hotels, a mall and a square, some fast food places etc. That whole area is paved but within a block or two you get on to the red dirt roads, with the odd section paved here and there. Apparently if someone important lives on that road, it gets paved but only their block…..interesting cuz they still have to drive thru the unpaved parts to get there!
We stopped first at a touristy market across from the Sheraton Hotel (all paved), then carried on to the local market, or local shopping street (not paved). Many shops selling anything and everything you can think of. Lots of dress shops and hair salons. Kind of dingy and messy really. Many people just sitting around out front of the shops. A couple of ladies with sewing machines making clothes…..beautiful stuff. The roads here were a bit of a mixture of broken concrete and red dirt, so maybe they’d been paved at some point in their life. The butchers had all the meat hanging out front…some put up bamboo shades to protect it from the sun, but did nothing for the heat. Some people just set up shop in front of their houses…..some are sort of proper shops, others not so much. Car and motorcycle repair places, welding shops where no one uses any kind of protective gear. Furniture shops…..just set up all their stuff, including beds, on the street. A real mishmash of everything. Really interesting and amazing to see.
Went to the covered produce market. Beautiful tomatoes and huge cabbages, onions (red and white), tons of yams, cooking bananas, potatoes and the ladies sitting at the back chatting and shelling peas into big baskets. Just beautiful. Dixon picked up a bunch of the little bananas for us to taste….so, so sweet and delicious. This is the best kind of tour to ever go on!!
Kept walking for another half hour or so. Passed people who had set up their own little produce markets or food stalls on the side of the street. It all looked beautiful….the potatoes piled up into pyramids! The food smelled so good…..but Dixon suggested we not give it a try…..ah sigh.
Our last stop was at the marina, or “Beach-Nakiwogo Boat Club” for a beverage break. Nice little spot…..was much cooler in the shade with a great view out over the lake. A bit tacky by our standards (I know, I know…..). The lady that served us was really cute. They’d ran out of glasses so she brought us straws to use with our beers! Dixon was a great conversationalist….chatted about many different things. He loves Uganda….says they’ve got a long way to go but have come pretty far considering all things….he’s very into being eco-friendly….but all things take time he says and they’ll get there. They are working on banning plastic bags. Not nearly as much plastic laying around here as you see in some places in the Middle East, China or India!
Our walk back to the house too another 45 minutes. Some of it was up quite a hill so really, really hot by the time we got there. Just a few blocks from Papyrus House we passed a park where they were setting up a stage, big lights etc. for a “revival meeting” that was happening tonight…..asked if it would be OK for us to walk down there later, Dixon suggested that it would not!
Cards, journals etc. Chatted with some Americans that were with a medical mission. They were trying to decide what to have for dinner…..told them the steak was really good. The women said she was from California where they had really good steak…..I said I was from Canada, where we too had really good steak….I don’t usually say stuff but sometimes you just can’t help it! Anyway, after dinner she came over and said it was one of the best steaks she’d ever had!!
Too bed quite early…..long day, Great day! Long travel day…..off to Zambia tomorrow for yet more exciting adventures!
All the food was prepared and served on tables that were also in the water. All was delicious! The staff did some dancing and invited people up to dance with them. Just a great time. I could have spent all afternoon there.
He gave us a complimentary cheese plate appy to start. Ordered sangria for Rae and me, Brenda had red wine, Glen a beer. After dinner we had coffees and out came the Spanish equivalent of limoncello….very good. He gave us a gift of a bottle of the red wine Brenda was drinking. 15E each!! Great day, fun evening, good food. Late night for us….home after 11!
My Travel Journals 