Uganda

After our time in Zanzibar, my mother flew home to Switzerland. My father had decided to join us for the next leg of our journey. We rented a 4x4 Landcruiser and embarked on a self-drive journey through Uganda.

Our main reason for going to Uganda was- you guessed it- seeing Mountain Gorillas in the wild! The big expanse of jungle stretching across the tri-country area of Rwanda, Uganda and the DRC is the only place in the world where you can still find Mountain Gorillas who are an endangered species.

We chose to go see them from the Ugandan side in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest (what a name!) because your chances of finding them there are high and the cost is half of what it would be on the Rwandan side. Unfortunately it is currently not safe to visit the Congo Virunga National Park because of rebel activities.

Bwindi Impenetrable forest lives up to its name- it is dense, mountainous with steep slopes, mossy overgrowth, deep shadows of green and grey and gives you the feeling of having found the most remote corner of the planet.

After a short briefing by a ranger, we got divided into groups of maximum 8 people and assigned a Gorilla family. We were setting out to track the Mubare family, consisting of one leading Silverback, 4 adult females, 2 adolescents and one baby. You never know how long it will take until you find them, there are always trackers out in the forest following their moves who stay in contact with the rangers to try and guide us in the right direction. It required some patience in our case, we were out in the forest, hiking and climbing through the thicket, steep muddy slopes, getting bitten by ants and scratched by stinging nettles for about 4h. But it was so worth it! Because, not only did we find our Gorilla family, but we found 2 families interacting with each other, which according to the ranger, is quite rare to see.

Its hard to describe the feeling of suddenly being in close proximity to the Gorillas. Because they are habituated (a long and slow process of about 3 years of exposing them to human proximity before tourists are allowed near them) it means that they are quite comfortable in our presence. They were playing with each other, swinging on vines, drinking from the river, sleeping, beating their chest and chewing leaves. All within only a few meters distance. I never thought we would be allowed so close to them, but at one point, we were probably only 2m away from a mother with her baby.

The baby gorilla was only 3 months old and about the cutest thing you have ever seen. Much like human babies and their mothers, they interacted so lovingly, the baby seemingly delighting in mimicking the moms facial expressions and exploring its immediate surroundings while always being in the safe embrace of its mothers arms.

The one hour time slot we were allowed to be near the Gorillas was over all too quickly. We walked back to the car not quite believing the magical experience we just had. What a day!

After this epic experience we continued on through Uganda. We visited Queen Elizabeth National Park, Fort Portal and the surrounding Crater Lakes, the big city of Entebbe on the shores of Lake Victoria and last but not least the beautiful Lake Bunyonyi. It is the second deepest lake in Africa and it (in contrast to most other lakes in Uganda) does not have any crocodiles/hippos or Bilharzia, which makes it safe for swimming in! It’s a very tranquil and peaceful setting and we spent my birthday on a little island in the middle of the lake.

Uganda as a country turns out to be quite naturally beautiful. It seems like the epitome of a fertile country, there are banana groves, flowers, butterflies, fruit stalls, misty forests and green hills everywhere you look. Its understandable why Churchill called Uganda the “Pearl of Africa”.

The people of Uganda are very friendly but also quite shy. There are always smiling kids waving as we drive by in our car, the police checkpoints give us no hassle at all and the interactions are all very pleasant. Driving around by ourselves is surprisingly easy but I have never in my life seen soooo many speedhumps as in Uganda. It’s a bit ridiculous really.. and together with the big potholes, it makes for some slow driving.

The other foreigners we met in Uganda were mostly people doing some form of aidwork, doctors, dentists, Rotary Club members etc which made more some very interesting conversations. We also met a few British people, whose families still owned land in Uganda from the time of the British occupancy.

The food isn’t much to write home about. The only streetfood of note is the so-called “Rolex”- ergo “rolled eggs” which are eggs in a chapati roll. Instead of taxis the locals get around on “Boda-Bodas” which are motorbike taxis. When it rains, they have some creative rain protection covers made out of sun umbrellas tied on top of the motorbikes.

We also went to track some Chimpanzees. Unlike our Gorilla experience though, we got a bit unlucky there. Our chimp family turned out to be quite shy and they all stayed high up in the crowns of the trees and we had to squint against the sunlight and use our zoom lenses at full range in order to see them at all.

Our time in Uganda was the last stop on our trip around the world! We have travelled continuously for about 15 months now.. it was an amazing experience, so full of beautiful landscapes, welcoming people, impressive wildlife sightings, strenuous hiking, great food, cultural insights and so much more! But after being on the move for so long, we are now also looking forward to some stability and routine, to catching up with friends and family and to creating a new “home”. It will definitely not be the last of our travelling though because there is still sooo much left to see 😊 until next time!