With the first semester under our belt and all the grading done, we decided to pack our bags and hit the road again in mid-January - this time to the north, to Uganda. This was to be quite the adventure starting with a chaotic border crossing into Uganda, followed by encounters with seemingly unnavigable roads, Uganda Wildlife Agency (UWA) rangers, wild animals, annoying tsetse flies, and culminating in an uncomfortable conversation with a Rwandan traffic police officer.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves. We will narrate our story through the lens of the four park lodges we stayed at and describe what we did and experienced during our time in and around these lodges.
Leg 1 - Kigali, Rwanda to Gorilla Mist Camp @ Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
The Gorilla Mist Camp is a 3 1/2 hour straight shot north of Kigali, across the border into Uganda. On a good day, one can make the 80-kilometer (50-mile) trip to the border crossing, Gatuna (Rwandan name), or Katuna (Ugandan name) in less than two hours. Border crossings are typically noisy, bustling places, and Gatuna is no exception. It is the major north-south entrance point to Rwanda and handles most of Rwanda's imports from and exports to Uganda. Most goods bound for Rwanda from the Kenyan port of Mombasa pass through Katuna.
When we arrived at the border, we observed heavily laden trucks of all sizes lined on both sides of the road AND in the middle of the road. In addition to the trucks, there were busloads of people, merchants selling all sorts of items from water to produce, money changers, beggars asking for loose change, and lots of people standing around watching the world go by.
Not sure where to begin the border crossing process, we locked the car armed with our passports, car insurance paper for Uganda, and every other car document we had in our possession and headed for a building whose sign read, "Immigration & Customs." The Rwandan official stamped our passports and gave us a white stamped interstate pass and we were on "the other side" (driving on the left side of the road....gulp), weaving in and out of the trucks lined up to enter Rwanda. The procedure on the other side seemed a little more complicated: fingerprinting, more showing of documents, a trip to the customs office because of a missing paper we neglected to collect on the Rwandan side. The bottom line was we were on the road (again, on the left side) after an hour and a half and at Gorilla Mist Camp in plenty of time to catch a sunset, a few beers, and good conversation with Gilbert, our server, our guide, and our host with the most.
The following day, we took a short walk down the road to Ruhija, a small mountain village (we were now at 2400 meters elevation!) which caters to tourists. We took a morning community walk led by our guide Prima, which consisted of a visit to a pygmy (Batwa) community on the outskirts of the village. There we danced with the children, watched a demonstration of fire-making using two sticks, entered the tiny huts, and witnessed a reenactment of how the Batwa used to hunt in the forest. In 1991, the Batwa were evicted from the forest in order to protect the primates. These refugee pygmies had no land rights or compensation and were left to fend for themselves. Only an estimated 1,000 Batwa live in the Kanungu district, which includes Bwindi and Ruhija. The average life span of a Batwa is 28 years of age with one in four children dying before they reach the age of five. In addition to the money made through tourism, the Batwa depend on the Ruhija community for their daily needs. Ruhija is now building a primary school for the Batwa (photo included in the first video below).
Batwa (Pygmies) in Bwindi Ruhija, Uganda about to start fire using sticks - January 19, 2017
Our second stop was to attend a song and dance performance by children from one of the orphanages in the village (Yes, there is more than one!). We were invited to participate and eagerly joined in, shaking our booties and, at one point, were on all fours arching our backs and following the motions of the dance leaders.
Orphans performing a welcome song and dance in Bwindi Ruhija, Uganda - January 19, 2017
The third stop was a visit to some adults in the community. There was a demonstration of how to pound sorghum seeds into flour, an explanation of some herbal medicinal practices followed by some traditional dances. We sampled sorghum porridge and sorghum beer that brought back memories of our Peace Corps palm wine drinking days in West Africa decades earlier.
Woman passing a mug of sorghum beer to us to taste in Bwindi Ruhija, Uganda - January 19, 2017
On the way back to Gorilla Mist Camp, we encountered another group of orphans, one of whom was eager to tell us about his life at his orphanage in the village. We were told by Prima that many more men die than women (AIDS?), and people in the community will sponsor an orphan by paying school fees, etc.
Orphans posing with Mark in Bwindi Ruhija, Uganda - January 19, 2017
Our afternoon tour was just up the road from Gorilla Mist Camp and was a women's basket weaving cooperative called Change a Life Bwindi. This organization helps families around Bwindi National Park to get out of poverty by empowering women and men. The men manage the beehives and make honey. Started last year, it consists of 20 women who weave baskets made of papyrus and sell them to the tourists. The money made this past year went to the purchase of two 10,000 liter water tanks and the sponsoring of three children to go to school in the local community. These women also had a garden at the side of the cooperative.
Sheila chatting with Hilda at Change a Life Bwindi in Bwindi Ruhija - January 19, 2017
Our last stop in the afternoon was to visit the local primary school. The mud and wattle building consisted of ten dark, minuscule cell-like rooms. We were astounded to learn that each of these rooms holds 35 to 40 students, some of whom sit on planks for benches, while the rest are on mats on the floor.
Primary school in Bwindi Ruhija, Uganda - January 19, 2017
Observations:
Border crossings are like visits to the proctologist or gynocologist....nerve wracking and uncomfortable. One just needs to relax and enjoy the experience.
A seemingly tacky tourist experience can turn out well if one realizes that the end result is that one is supporting a community that depends on this outside income to sustain them.
Although not mandatory as tour fees are collected up front, tip boxes abound. We were informed by Prima that it is not a good idea to give out money to individuals who are not doing a service for you, for example, kids on the street. Tips should be given to the staff at the lodges one stays at and UWA tour guides should also be tipped.
We are open and friendly to everyone, especially the children we see on the roads. A smile and a "Good morning" go a long way to being a good ambassador for your country.
We have come to embrace the greeting "Muzungu" ("Foreigner"). We are white Americans and privileged. There is no escaping this. We attempt to be kind and understanding to all whom we meet although we inhabit different worlds.
The following is a 9-minute video which includes events which occurred during the first part of our trip described above. The soundtrack is a popular Ugandan hit by Bebe Cool - Kabulengane. Enjoy!
Leg 1 - Kigali, Rwanda to Gorilla Mist Camp @ Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda
Leg 2 - Gorilla Mist Camp to Baboon Safari Lodge @ Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda
We had intended to do a quick tour of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, but alas, it was not meant to be. Gilbert at Gorilla Mist Camp drew a very detailed map showing us how to get to the park headquarters, but when we missed the first turn (a sign that read Cuckooland), we realized that is was not going to happen. However, we were determined to penetrate a bit of this park before we headed north again to Queen Elizabeth National Park the next day.
Gilbert Asimwe, our 'host with the most', at Gorilla Mist Camp in Bwindi Ruhija, Uganda - January 18-21, 2017
On the morning of our departure from Gorilla Mist Camp, the front right tire of our car flattened about 5 km past the village of Ruhija on a fairly deserted dirt road. No problem because we had a spare and tire changer, Mark who was ready to get the job done. When the tire was changed, we realized that the spare was flat, too. With no help in sight, we decided to drive on the spare flat tire for the next 22 kilometers to the town that had a gas station. This was unrealistic, especially when we passed two off-duty UWA rangers who wisely informed us that our plan would not work.
Ali and Laurencio, Ugandan Wildlife Authority rangers - Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda - January 21, 2017
Ali called the nearest town gas station to see if they had new tires for our RAV4. No luck. The nearest venue was behind us in Kabale, about 50 km and an hour-and-a-half moto ride away. We spent the next eight hours chatting with Ali and Laurencio about all things under the sun: politics, education, life in the village, books, music, their work. Two motos left for Kabale with people on the back each carrying a tire-mounted wheel. They returned hours later with two new tires. They changed the tires and we were on our way to Queen Elizabeth National Park (3 hours of which were on dirt or potted tarmac roads in the pitch dark).
The night drive through Queen Elizabeth National Park was both eerie and bizarre. Ahead in the distance were controlled fires burning in the Park with heat lightning overhead. At one point, we braked hard and missed running into a cape buffalo crossing the road in front of us. A white spotted owl launched off the road with a kill in its beak in front of us. Minutes later, two hippos were drying off by the side of the road having just emerged from Lake Edward. Within meters, we spotted a hyena, a bull elephant, and a lioness following a male lion walking down the dirt road. Wow!!! What a night this was turning out to be! We wish we could share these photos and videos with you readers, but unfortunately, the flash settings on the camera were off!
As we neared the end of our trip, we had difficulty finding the Baboon Safari Resort because we were mistakenly thinking we had booked at the Bamboo Resort Lodge, so no
one knew the lodge...Duhh! When strangers kept repeating Baboon Resort Lodge, we continued to correct them. The 15 km tarmac road was so badly in need of repair that we ended up using the dirt shoulder. You can imagine our delight when we finally located the Resort and received a welcoming cold towel and glass of passion fruit juice at reception.
We drove a game trail in our car the following day and along the road before the entrance to the park, an elephant and a warthog appeared for a Kodak moment. One will not see a lot of animals in the late morning or afternoon during the hot season, so except for hundreds of different types of antelopes, including the eland, the world's largest antelope and the kob, Uganda's national antelope, we saw few animals.
The next morning, we entered Queen Elizabeth NP again and took the scenic crater ride. The landscape along the ridge of the craters should have captured our interest. However, the relentless swarms of monster tsetse flies were on the attack. If they weren't entering the car through the windows and vents, they were patiently sitting on the car waiting for us to crack open our window so they could come in and bite us through our shirts and pants. This was a NEVER-ENDING CRATER TOUR! Later on, we rode the channel crossings drive which runs parallel to the channel linking Lakes George and Edward. This was easier and less traumatic as there were fewer pot holes in the dirt road and fewer tsetses. We did see a couple of elephants, warthogs, and the ever present antelopes.
Warthog in Queen Victoria National Park, Uganda - January 22, 2017
Observations:
We realized that in order to relax, see lots of animals and not worry about our car navigating the difficult roads of the game drives, it is a good idea to spend the extra money and join a tour or rent a 4-wheel-drive vehicle and hire a guide who is always in contact with the other guides who are tracking where the animals are.
The best times to do the game drives in the hot, dry season is as soon as the park opens or in the dark at night. These are the times when it is cool and wildlife has left the water and moved inland to forage.
Our learning curve continues to grow. In the future, we will ensure that our car is in tiptop condition before traveling, and that we pack first aid kit for us and one for the car (rags for cleaning the windshield; Windex for cleaning the windows of all the dust that will accumulate while driving the dirt roads; an empty jerrycan for gas; a spare tire that is fully inflated; brake and transmission fluid; distilled water; printed maps showing paved roads, etc.).
We looked forward to a few cold beers after our long days on the road. Nile Premium, a Ugandan product, turned out to be our lager of choice as it was good tasting, inexpensive and available wherever we ventured.
On one of our trips into the Park, we came across Mweri Safari Resort, stopped and had pots of coffee and tea. We considered staying there on our return trip south from Murchison Falls NP, but at $406 a night, it was not going to happen.
Below is a 5-minute video of our adventures on the second leg of our Ugandan trip. The soundtrack is an instrumental by Eric Clapton - Further On Down the Road.
Leg 2 - Gorilla Mist Camp to Baboon Safari Resort @ Queen Elizabeth NP, Uganda
Leg 3 - Baboon Safari Resort to Sambiya River Lodge @ Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda
The third lodge we stayed at was located in Murchison Falls National Park and was our favorite though it took forever to get to because of our confusing GPS app on our phones. We drove down dirt paths and through villages that had probably never seen a foreigner. At one point, we thought we would never see a paved road. More than once, we didn't know where we were and where we had been so there was no point turning back. At about 11:45 p.m., after 13 hours of driving down uncharted paths and dirt roads, we arrived at the Sambiya River Lodge and were warmly welcomed by Debbie Malik, the owner, and her smiling staff.
The Sambiya River Lodge, located 15 minutes from Murchison Falls, is described as "the perfect location for those who want to experience the tranquility of unspoiled Africa." Our thatched cottage near the dining hall was the perfect spot to watch cape buffaloes graze below in the river valley in the early morning. Debbie informed us that leopards and elephants also frequent the area. At the time we visited - during the hot, dry season - the Sambiya River below us was just a dried up river bed.
Debbie, the gracious host we spent a lot of time with (mostly picking her brain and hearing about how she and her husband found and built the place), helped us plan our 4-night stay there beginning with a short drive to Murchison Falls to view the awe-inspiring rushing falls.
Debra Malik, owner of Sambiya River Lodge, Uganda, with Mark and Sheila - January 28, 2017
After viewing the Falls, we booked a river cruise tour up the Victoria Nile in the afternoon during which we saw hundreds of hippos in and out of the river, crocodiles swimming by and sunbathing on the banks, and dozens of elephants cooling off in the water.
The next day, we took a ferry ride to the north shore to do a game drive with our guide Robert. Mark drove while Robert narrated the drive and helped us navigate the roads. At one point, he told us to go offtrack because he was told there was a lion resting under a large clump of trees and bushes in the distance. This was done somewhat surreptitiously as there were signs all along the road that warned that a $150.00 fine would be imposed for going offtrack. We got up close to the lion but not very personal as the bushes practically obscured the lion. Like finding Waldo in a crowd, we barely made out the lion. The thrill was the ride to the bush wondering if we would get stuck and attacked by the hidden lion. We also saw a hyena feeding on the carcass of a kob antelope. Our game drive ended back at the ferry crossing where we were treated to music by a group called Hot Music in the Park. (Click on the bold-faced link to watch a 10-minute video of part of their performance; the video below includes their music and excerpts from their act.) It was a lovely ending to a perfect day.
The final day of our stay at Sambiya River Lodge was a trip to Zwia Rhino and Wildlife Sanctuary (where a 7-year-old rhino named Obama resides). We took a short walking tour with Robert, our tour guide and four tourists from Switzerland, and saw two groups of rhinos (six in total) lying in the shade under some trees. Thirteen of the 19 rhinos in the sanctuary were born there. Did you know that the white rhino is not white at all
and was misnamed? When Afrikaans were observing the rhino's expansive upper lip, they referred to it as wide, or "wyd." English speaking settlers misinterpreted, thinking the Africaans were saying "white" and the name stuck.
Observations:
Rhinos spend a lot of time sleeping under trees to keep cool. They are not particularly exciting to watch during the day.
We will never, never set out on a journey depending only on a phone's GPS. In Africa, we will research paved roads, print maps of such, and be leery of routes not marked in boldface.
As our learning curve continues its upward direction, we will also include backup camera batteries. We have also learned that many lodges at safari parks far from towns have weak wifi connections which may include access for only a few hours a day.
The showers at our lodges included warm water, a luxury provided by solar panels so showers were short and conserving water a necessity.
Following is the third video (10 minutes) of our adventures in and around Murchison Falls NP. The soundtrack is by Hot Music in the Park, a local group of Ugandan players we videotaped on the north short of the Victoria Nile as we awaited the ferry. The complete interview with Dr. Debra Malik, excerpts of which are included in the video below, can be viewed by clicking on the previous boldfaced hyperlink. We hope you like what you see and hear and comment on it.
Leg 3 - Baboon Safari Resort to Sambiya River Lodge @ Murchison Falls NP, Uganda
Leg 4 - Sambiya River Lodge to Rwakobo Rock @ Lake Mburo National Park, Uganda
Our final two nights were spent at Rwakobo Rock, a lodge close to the main entrance of Lake Mburo National Park in the southeast of the country. The rain put a damper on our plans for a boat tour and game drive, but in the end, the R&R was much needed, especially as we had a spent a harrowing 9 hours on the road including a trek through Kampala, Uganda's capital city. This was a little too bustling for our comfort. On the outskirts of the city, our phone GPS indicated turning when we should not have and we entered city traffic at its worst. Traffic congestion in Kigali is never as hectic as we experienced here.
Rwakobo Rock is built on a huge rock, hence the name, and the views and sounds were incredible. Baboons barked and played on the rock and in the trees. Long-horned Ankole cattle walked through the fields and past the restaurant entrance. Antelope fed at the watering hole below the rock. This was an idyllic place to hang one's hat for a couple of nights.
The trip back to Rwanda was a smooth one, except for a hiccough about an hour from Kigale in Rwanda. In our eagerness to get home, we were going a tad too fast. A Rwandan roadside police officer pulled us over for speeding at 71 km in a 40 km zone. No arguing here. However, the procedure for paying a speeding ticket is that the officer takes your driving license. You go to a bank and pay the money for the fine. You return to the spot where you got the ticket and retrieve your license. This was not going to happen as the bank was in Kigali and we were kilometers from the city...somewhere? When we asked whether we could pay the fine to the officer directly, he emphatically said, "NO. That would be CORRUPTION." Yikes! We retorted, "NO CORRUPTION." We ended up getting away with a warning and proceeding ever so cautiously to Kigali. Another lesson on that now super steep learning curve! No one bribes in Rwanda or even considers doing anything illegal. Whew!!!
For enjoyment and entertainment, while traveling throughout Uganda, we noted quotes on the trucks, buses, and taxis. Here are a few:
This is the fourth and last of the videos of our trip. It is 6 minutes long and captures some of the highlights of the last leg of the journey. The soundtrack is a popular Ugandan hit song called Addiction by Eddie Kenzo and Alaine.
Leg 4 - Rwakobo Rock to Kigali, Rwanda - HOME!
Suggested Reads
This is a quick read and we particularly enjoyed and appreciated the chapters of the book which covered the adventures of the nineteenth century explorers in search of the source of the river. Our reading coincided with the journey in Uganda that this blog post describes, to many of the locations that these early explorers reached.
Here's an excerpt from a review by Publisher's Weekly, "The writing is textbook-dry, but the photos make up for this lack of color. Towering stalks of papyrus, a hideous, fierce vulture and aerial photos of the marshy valley bring the Nile to splendid life. Beautiful and informative, this book should satisfy anyone looking for a visual overview of this exotic locale."
A must-read for anyone interested in African oral verse and poetry and written in the context of Western ideas and their influence on traditional values. The author is Ugandan and, again, this was an appropriate read as we traveled throughout Uganda and interacted with its wonderful people.
The following is an excerpt from a review of the poem in The New Times, "The poem itself echoes the author’s generation, that had absorbed early native culture during the colonial period, but then had received a British education. P’Bitek’s own choice was to take a stand against Western infiltration and defend Acholi traditions and customs."
Suggestions to offer about any information in this post? Please comment and click here to contact us directly and/or receive future posts.