Beautiful Uganda

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Uganda has been a pleasant change from India. Uganda lies on the equator but is much cooler, a pleasant change from the heat and humidity of Bombay. It has beautiful green foliage wherever you look, somewhat like Hawaii, very different from the arid savannah that we experienced in Zimbabwe on our first safaris in Africa. After flying into Entebbe we were met by James and Geoffrey of Travelust African Safaris who had arranged our gorilla safaris in Uganda and Rwanda. Geoffrey drove us to Jinja where we visited the source of the Nile and interestingly enough saw a statue of Gandhi and learned that his ashes had been spread into the Nile as he had requested. We were greeted by numerous children yelling 'hello, how are you?', contrasting sharply with the constant begging we witnessed in India. Our room at the Kingfisher Safari Resort had a lovely view of Lake Victoria. When we visited the impressive rapids where the Nile begins its long journey, we were disappointed that we hadn't thought of white-water rafting beforehand. They were fully booked out the day we were there. After an early wake up call we drove six hours to Kibale National Park. We were the only guests at the Mantana Luxury Tented Camp. It had two single beds, porch, shower and toilet--definitely a deluxe tent. What a wonderful experience falling asleep to the sounds of the forest. The food was excellent and it was nice to have someone welcoming you back after your day's activities. While at Kibale we went on a night walk to see nocturnal primates, including bush-baby and galago. We were eaten alive by the safari ants that night. . .vicious little buggers. The following morning we tracked chimpanzees. We saw a few up in a tree, two left quickly but a mother and her baby remained. With binoculars we were able to watch their facial expressions and interaction with each other. It was quite touching the way the mother treated her baby, almost human. I left telling Jason that I wanted one. I don't know whether he was thinking a baby chimpanzee or a human baby. In the afternoon we went on a guided walk through the Bigodi swamp and saw numerous birds as well as many different varities of monkeys.

The following day we drove over a very rough and muddy road to arrive at Bwindi National Park and stayed at the Gorilla Forest Camp. I cannot say enough good things about this place. It is an amazing place, formerly known by the name of its owners, Abercrombie & Kent. The name was changed when it reopened last November, having closed since the March 1, 1999 Bwindi massacre which took place here. It was a huge 'tent' on a hardwood platform with a large porch and two double beds. It had a large bathroom with sink, shower, toilet and in a separate room a large bathtub partially open to the mountain and a candle obera. It came with two hot water bottles to heat the bed in the evening as it cooled down into the 40's. We had the place to ourselves for the first night, but the Chinese ambassador came the following day and crashed our party, filling the other seven tents. The service was impecable and the 6 course meals were unforgettable. I was in heaven (they also had washclothes, turndown bed service and hot water bottles-definitely first class). The following day they made us leave, under protest, of course. After a very scary muddy drive that prompted Jason and I to put on our seatbelts and required 4 wheel drive (which our driver didn't use often enough) we arrived at Mgahinga Safari Lodge on the shores of Lake Mutanda. Once again we had the place to ourselves. The setting was beautiful but our views were obstructed by the continuous downpour. We had two security guards armed with AK-47s guarding our tent while we slept. Makes you kind of wonder what kind of problems they've had here in the past. We rose early, fortunately the rain had stopped. We were lucky to have clear skies and the sunrise revealed the silhoettes of the Virunga Volcano chain bordering Lake Mutanda.

SB