The one with the primates</strong>

Day 15

Today is a drive day and we’re heading from Kampala to the Kalinzu forest near Queen Elizabeth National Park. We’re up and away at an ungodly hour and, as Sara and I have both felt nauseated all night from the Bilharzia meds, we sleep for a good portion of the early morning’s drive. At around 9.30am, we stop to make breakfast AT THE EQUATOR of all places. We spend around 90mins there, picking up a couple of souvenirs, taking many photos, and jumping from Northern to Southern Hemisphere with merry abandon.

Onwards and late morning, we stop at a supermarket so that the newbies can buy some supplies for the next few days, and outside the store is a marabou stork of the kind we first and most recently saw at Lake Naivasha. This time, the bird is scavenging from a bin just outside the store and we can see how huge (and ugly!) they actually are…

For lunch we stop at a very local restaurant, Ishanyu Food Centre, serving a buffet which gives us our first taste of traditional Ugandan fare. The buffet has various rice dishes, pumpkin, arrowroot, sweet potato, fried chicken, ugali, vegetables, aubergine stew, meat stews, chapati, and more. It was absolutely delicious and Sara and I are strongly in favour of more traditional food stops along the way.

Onwards to our campsite at the edge of the Kalinzu forest, our home for one night. We arrive to find that the site is slightly boggy underfoot due to excessive rains of late and it’s generally very basic, with only one toilet for each male and female, and no other facilities to speak of. The main thing we notice however is the baboon occupants of the camp who are reluctant to yield to the human usurpers of their territory. It takes Nash rushing the Alpha and squawking to get them to leave, and they make their presence known throughout the duration of our stay, variously by climbing the trees around our tent, looking on from the fringes of the forest, and occasionally venturing in towards our tents.

The morning will see us trekking in the forest in the hopes of seeing some of the chimpanzees who inhabit the canopy, and after dinner around the campfire and a couple of local beers (Bell and Pilsner, both warm because they’re from a supermarket en route rather than any nearby fridge) it’s to bed with us early in anticipation of the morning.

Day 16

It’s chimpanzee day! Did we sleep well after our early night and earlier morning, you may wonder? The answer is a resounding no, no we did not. It transpires that our camping ground has a resident cockerel whom I’ve dubbed cock-a-doodle-bastard, who crowed every hour from 3.15am onwards. Those not trekking had been looking forward to a lie-in and were completely denied it by the bird and it’s faulty alarm clock!

Anyway, some of our group (us included, obviously) are up way before dawn (and not because of cock-a-doodle-bastard) for a quick snack before we meet the guides who’ll take us into the forest and try to find us some chimpanzees. Our guide’s name is Rachel and she’s been guiding chimpanzee treks for more than 8 years.

Our group consists of Myriam, Shelly, Ted and Jan, and within a few minutes of setting off into the forest it becomes apparent that we need walking sticks to help us descend and ascend the steep and slippy slopes of the forest as we go. Rachel disappears to find us some sticks and reappears a few minutes later with enough for those who’ve requested them. A little later and much deeper into the forest when another in our group decides he too wants a stick, Rachel simply finds a young straight tree, chops it down, and whoosh there’s a brand new walking stick.

As we walk, Rachel shows us blue monkeys and black & white colobus monkeys in the trees above and tells us how trackers track the chimpanzees, showing us what they eat and tracks they’ve made. The forest itself is lush (you know Rich: lush like lush. It’s like lush), green and beautiful, with an abundance of vegetation including some pretty awesome trees and vines. Sadly we can’t get many photos of the forest due to low lighting and determinedly trying not to fall as we walk over roots and rocks and through streams.

Around an hour and a half after setting off, we’ve found them: a family of chimpanzees high above us in the trees.

A baby chimpanzee in Kalinzu Forest, Uganda

We’re not sure how many chimps there are but we see at least seven, including a couple of young ones, and at one point one relieves itself above us and we have to quickly relocate to avoid being urinated on!

Looking upwards at the chimpanzees in Kalinzu Forest, Uganda

We’re regularly warned to avoid certain areas because of fire ants, and although we follow the instructions, I still manage to be bitten on the stomach by a giant (non-fire) ant. Classic Jen.

We spend an hour with the chimpanzees before we head back to camp and we arrive back there around 10.30am. Cock-a-doodle-bastard is still crowing and Nash, absolute gem of a human, has made pancakes and we quickly scoff those down and take down our tents before getting back on the road again.

Today we’re heading to Queen Elizabeth National Park which isn’t dreadfully far from where we start. The drive sees beautiful landscapes full of banana trees and terraced tea plantations (the latter being a new addition to our journeys). We arrive in the park and, although we’re not on a game drive (we’re just heading for the jetty for an afternoon game cruise), en route to our lunch stop in the park we see elephants, a hippo in a puddle (thanks to Jamila’s bush eyes), Ugandan Kob, and various types of antelope.

Lunchtime group photo, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. Photo credit: @meli444violet

After lunch, it’s onto the boat for a game cruise on the Kazingu channel and we’re absolutely overwhelmed with wildlife along the banks of the river. We see lots of elephants, including some bathing in the river, buffalo, pumbas, Ugandan kob, crocodiles, a monitor lizard, pelicans, kingfishers, and way more hippos than I could possibly begin to count. The river and its banks are positively teeming with animal and birdlife, including lots of our favourite Kingfishers. We’re absolutely spoiled for viewings and grateful to Nash for counselling us against paying for a hippo cruise back in Kenya given this one gives us everything we could possibly have wanted from the experience.

A baby hippo and Cape buffalo in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Crocodile rock, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

A bathing hippo in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

A kingfisher in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Back on land, we head to our campsite for the night, a camping ground prophetically called Hippo Camp. We set up our tents and are told by one of the staff that we’re very close to the river and there are no fences, so it’s entirely probable that elephants, hyena, hippo and any other animals might come up to our tents after dark and that we should therefore take care to check none are around before venturing out. It seems that perhaps he’s being overly cautious and we go about our evening without much more thought on the topic. However shortly after dark a shout goes up: HIPPO! THERE’S A HIPPO OVER THERE! Jan thinks he’s seen one off behind one of the fences and everyone is peering to see if he’s right. He may well have been, but the bigger fish to fry is the HUGE hippo Nash shows us 20m away from our dinner area and right next to Sara’s and my tent. He was happily eating some grass but ambles away from the light and back toward the river, and it suddenly becomes clear to us that the warnings earlier are very genuine and we should take the possibility of encountering a hippo (which are the animals responsible for more human deaths in Africa than any other) in the night extremely seriously. It’s funny though. Last week we were strongly advised against going to see the hippos at night by Lake Naivasha, that if we did so we should take security and be behind electric fences, and that we did so at our own risk. This week, there are hippos known to wander freely in our camp at night in the pitch black and we’re allowed to just get on with it with a simple “check you can’t see hippos before leaving your tent”! Mind boggling.

The hippo in our campsite. Photo credit: @ironaut

After dinner, we spend a few minutes admiring the African sky and the constellations we can see before bed. Rich and Sam, meanwhile, have gone to see if they can see and photograph a hippo, and as we head to our tent we can see them by their head torches further down towards the river. Sara and I very sensibly decide not to join them.

Hippo Camp by night, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda. Photo credit: @ironaut

Day 17

This morning we have a game drive in Queen Elizabeth National Park and we set off from our camp with all windows rolled up ready to see what the park has to offer. The park, however, has different ideas, and although it’s incredibly beautiful, with candelabra euphorbia and acacia trees in abundance and stunning landscapes in every direction, we don’t see all that many animals. We see tons of elephants, pumbas and Ugandan kob, and lots of birdlife (constant blue swallows accompanying us at the side of the truck), but other than that the animals elude us. A bit of a shame but given how successful we were in the Maasai Mara we can’t really complain.

Elephants in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Late morning we leave the park to drive to Kabale where we’ll spend the night, and en route we stop for coffee, chapatis and souvenirs at the side of the road just before leaving the park. The journey to Kabale takes us through landscapes populated with more banana trees and tea plantations, and as we progress it becomes increasingly dramatic as we make our way into the Virunga mountains. Along the way, I fall in love with the papyrus plant, which reminds me of giant dandelion clocks and Dr Seuss scenery.

Group photo in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Photo credit: Rich Mathews @richmathews310

We arrive at Cephas Inn which is a hotel with a lawn for camping. I say lawn rather than field because this is the loveliest, neatest, best kept lawn we’ve seen since arriving in Africa and it makes a lovely change from the sometimes lumpy, sometimes marshy, sometimes sloping camping grounds we’ve become accustomed to. There are also Christmas decorations for the first time at a campsite and it reminds us that it’s only a few days until the big day. It all feels so unreal and remote that Santa will be coming soon (hopefully he’ll find us in Rwanda).

We set up our tent and have a beer with Steve and Nash, listening to their stories of life in Africa and discussing how we each celebrate Christmas in non-truck circumstances, before dinner and then bed.

Day 18

We’re up and off to Kisoro this morning, our home for two nights. Happily it’s a short drive and we’re at Rafiki’s Guest House by 9am, early enough for people to do any activities they fancy such as coffee tours or kayaking on the nearby crater lake. Sara and I decide to have a gentle day of not much as tomorrow is gorilla trekking, and also opt to upgrade into a private room which is an excellent decision as it comes with an en suite.

Sara and I head to Coffee Pot Cafe in town for a cup of proper Ugandan coffee and are in the midst of enjoying it and some homemade cookies when the first truly horrifying thing happens on our trip. Emily arrives at the cafe (where a few others are also enjoying a cuppa) and we learn Melissa has been hit by a car, has badly injured her foot, and has been bundled into a second car with the police to go to hospital. The driver of the car that hit her was apparently pulled from his car by the locals and bashed for hitting a muzungu, which I guess is bad for the local tourism industry. Both are distressing to hear. We learn Nash is on his way to hospital to make sure Melissa is ok and has support for discussions and decisions.

We spend the day worried about Melissa and not doing a huge amount other than to wander to the local market in the afternoon. The market doesn’t have much going for it except that virtually every vendor is selling crickets, presumably for food, and they try to entice us to buy them. We’d both be happy to eat crickets but since we’ve no idea how to prepare or cook them we politely decline!

Back at camp, Melissa returns from hospital with her foot stitched and bandaged, and we’re relieved to hear she won’t have to cut her time on the truck short because of the accident.

At dinner, we’re introduced to five new people who’re joining us: Mandy and Abebe (USA) - with us to Zanzibar; Trina (AUS) and Carlo (Mexico) - with us to Victoria Falls; and Ross (UK but living in Tanzania) - with us to Kigali. We sit around in the yard outside the guesthouse for a dinner of the best pumpkin soup the world has ever known followed by a beef stew with potatoes, all prepared for us by the staff at the guesthouse. No cooking or washing up chores tonight and we could definitely get used to this!

We’re also given our briefing for tomorrow’s activity, and there’s a very enjoyable point where our local guide refers to suncream as “muzungu magic”! I fully intend to use this to the exclusion of all other terms going forward.

Day 19

It’s the day we’ve all been looking forward to most: gorilla trekking day! Breakfast is a “self serve” day of cereal, breads and condiments, and fruit due to the early hour of departure, and the vehicles arrive at 6am to take us into the mountains for the trekking.

Almost everyone from our group is doing gorilla trekking, and we’re all delighted to have made it to the big day without illness (any sign of illness and you can’t go because gorillas catch diseases easily from humans and don’t have the immune systems to deal with even the common cold). Melissa has also reached agreement with the driver who hit her that he’ll pay for porters to carry her as she’s not able to walk, and again we’re relieved she won’t have to miss arguably the biggest draw of the whole trip.

The drive begins in pitch blackness and the scenery unfolds around us as the sun rises. As is now the norm, it’s a beautiful drive and we stop partway through to take photographs of the mist-covered mountains.

The view of the Virunga Mountains on our way to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

We arrive at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest at around 7.30am for a briefing about the gorillas and what to expect from the day. There’s no guarantee of seeing gorillas, and although most groups do see them, only one group of the twelve the day before us were successful in finding them. We’re then split into groups based on the vehicles we travelled with, and allocated to different families of gorillas to target. Some of the treks are known to be challenging while others are expected to be shorter with a greater chance of seeing the animals. Our group is the four of us from our 4x4 (me, Sara, Dave and Air) plus the other 4x4, Melissa, Andrew and Jan. In view of Melissa’s injury and the fact she’ll be carried over extremely challenging terrain by a team of porters (I estimate around 20 people form this team), we’re told that the gorillas we’ll be tracking may be the shortest trek, but only if they can make a shortcut to them. If the shortcut isn’t possible, we may instead be one of the longest.

Optimistic, we’re back in our 4x4s to be driven to our entry point into the forest. About 10mins from the gate, we’re out of the cars and ready to start. Our guides take us to a random stretch of forest with no trail and start hacking at thick foliage with machetes, and up, and then down, an incredibly steep incline we hike, Melissa perched perilously on a chair carried by six porters at a time.

Melissa and her porters in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

It’s tough straight away and I’ve no idea how the porters are able to carry someone. We both struggled with two hands and a stick to lean on! But on the guides hacked and on we went, although not for long. Within 20 minutes of starting out, our guides stop and tell us the short cut has been successful, we’re about to encounter gorillas, and we’ll have an hour with them once we find them. It’s so much quicker than we’d expected - we’d assumed it would be a bare minimum of 60-90 minutes hike before we’d find them so it takes us by complete surprise.

We walk downhill for a few minutes more and then all of a sudden there one is: a mountain gorilla amongst the bushes and trees eating its way through some (presumably) tasty green leaves before moving off again. And it’s not just any old gorilla - the first one we encounter is the silverback and our guides estimate that he weighs in at around 200kg. The silverback’s name is apparently Tinfayo which means “he doesn’t mind”, and he really doesn’t as he finds a comfortable spot quickly after we arrive where he proceeds to sit and eat, entirely unconcerned by our presence as we move slowly to within 3m of him.

Tinfayo the silverback gorilla, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

Us with Tinfayo, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

Up in the branches of the trees we spot two baby gorillas, one of which does an accidental pole dance for our entertainment!

We can also hear, but not really see, a female gorilla. She’s not as relaxed as Tinfayo and charges at our group a number of times, but not to the point of being visible or actually attacking anyone. We’re under clear instructions not to make eye contact with the gorillas, and not to cede ground or run away if we’re charged. Instead we need to be submissive so that the gorillas don’t think we’re a threat or challenge to them. It’s half terrifying, half exhilarating, being in such close proximity to the animals, and the sheer size of them, their enormous human-like hands reaching for branches containing the next mouthful of leaves, is astonishing.

Baby gorilla, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

All too soon our time is up, and we’re grateful they’ve actually allowed us around 15 minutes more than the one allotted hour. We move away from the gorillas and navigate our way out of the forest and back to the road. Walking back to the 4x4s, I notice that some of the trees are shaking and look down to see the faces of Tinfayo and the nameless female amongst the foliage together with one of their young. One final picture (which doesn’t really show the little one well) of them is the perfect end to the experience.

One final shot of Tinfayo and the female gorilla, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda

Back at the car, a local craftsman called Demas has laid out some of his creations for us to peruse, and a small statue of a silverback catches our eye. It’s hand carved from makamia wood and we decide to buy it and name it Tinfayo after our favourite gorilla.

We’re back at the guesthouse by lunchtime and have a very gentle afternoon. What of the other groups? One got back at around 3.30pm and the other around 6.30pm, and both had hiked for considerably longer than us. One had hiked for 2.5hrs to find the gorillas, and the other for 6hrs! Both groups then had to continue walking and tracking for their allotted hour as their gorillas continuously kept moving through the forest, and then had to hike for a good distance back to their vehicles too.

We’re extremely happy with our gorilla viewing experience and how close we were able to get to them, but at the same time a little disappointed not to have had more of a hike, not to have had to “earn” the gorillas, and that we didn’t really get to see much of the incredible forest they live in. I guess we’ll just have to come back in future and do it again!

Dinner that evening is followed by some local Batwa people performing songs and dances for us by a bonfire to celebrate our having successfully trekked to the gorillas, which is a lovely end to a very memorable and special day.

Day 20

In view of the fact we didn’t get the exercise yesterday that we were expecting, we’re up early to hike up to a viewpoint from which you can see 7 volcanoes spanning Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, which is only a few kilometres away.

A few from our group, plus Nash, are coming with us, and we’re collected in two vehicles and driven to Lake Mutanda, the nearby crater lake, for a boat crossing to the set-off point for the hike. The boat ride takes around 45 minutes and is calm and placid - it’s only just past dawn and we see some locals in canoes going about their business, but not many. For the most part, it’s just us, the lake, some birds and the odd island we pass.

The volcano view hiking crew on Lake Mutanda. Uganda. Photo credit: @barefootbanditi

On landing, we set up off the hill and it’s fairly steep all the way, although nothing compared with the mountains of the day before. Along the way, we see barefoot little ones carrying items on their heads up and down the hill, as well as adults transporting larger items, including a full table at one point, on bicycles.

Some local children find us around 80% of the way up and decide to accompany us, holding our hands as we walk. We’ve become accustomed to local children throughout Uganda demanding “Muzungu, give me money”, but Sara enjoyably experienced a new and very specific take on the theme when one of the small girls holding her hand told Sara “give me a dress”, as if Sara would naturally be carrying one in the right size for a girl her age for just such an occasion.

With hearts racing, we reach the top to be greeted by a beautiful view over the lake, its islands, and on to the volcanoes in the distance which are artfully obscured by the early morning haze.

Our guide shows us which volcanoes are in which countries, and shows us one which has the border point between all three countries such that you could stand in them all at the same time.

It’s been a good hike and nice to finally have some proper exercise, and after we’ve enjoyed the view for a while it’s back down to the boats, back across the lake, and back to the guesthouse.

We’ve a little time before we’re moving on so head back to the Coffee Pot Cafe for a coffee and lunch before it’s back on the truck and a short drive to the border crossing into Rwanda, country number 3!

After the crossing, we drive to Musanze in the north of the country and to Red Rocks where we’re staying for the night. Red Rocks is an awesomely artsy campsite, bar, and community based historical and cultural centre.

Sara would like it to be known here that she crushed various of our fellow passengers at ping pong shortly after arriving.

Some of us spend the afternoon learning how to make banana beer and weave traditional baskets and being shown (and then participating in) some local dances. We’re all put into sari-like dresses, the men too, which are both pretty and practical as they protect our clothes when we’re pounding the bananas against the grasses to extract the juices.

Throughout much of the activities, we’re accompanied by a group of women playing African drums and singing traditional songs and the whole experience is one of Sara’s favourite things since joining the truck. There’s also a shop where we’re able to buy hand weaved baskets and hand painted art, all crafted by local women where 100% of the proceeds go to those women to support them and their children. We’re more than happy to help by buying a couple of baskets and a piece of art which we’ll send home from Cape Town.

That evening, we enjoy the best meal of the trip so far, made for us by the staff at Red Rocks. Then outside, right by our tents, the campsite decides to hold a club night by a campfire. We dance and enjoy the campfire for a while but then call it a night; alas, the music continues loudly until midnight, and we may as well have stayed up for all the sleep we get while it continues!

Day 21

This morning we pack up and head to Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. On the way we stop off for a coffee and see that the town square is being decorated in all manner of festive paraphernalia, which reminds us that it’s Christmas Eve.

In Kigali our first port of call is the Rwandan Genocide Memorial and museum, which sets out the background and results of the genocide, the most efficient killing of human beings ever with an estimated 1 million people killed in 100 days in 1994.

It’s horrifying, obviously, learning not just about the killings but also the emotional and physical torture of the victims in the lead up to their murder, and it’s an emotionally draining few hours in the museum and memorial.

Following our time at the memorial, Ryan, Taylor, Emily, Toby, Ross, Abebe, Sara and I visit two of the churches where larger scale massacres took place, Ntarama and Nyamata, both of which are now official memorials. I’m not going to talk in any detail about the churches and what happened there - there’s plenty on the specifics online - but it felt important to go to pay our respects to the genocide victims and get a better understanding of what happened. One of the hardest things for both me and Sara is entering the mass graves at both sites and being surrounded by rows and rows of stacked coffins, each containing the remains of dozens of people. It’s truly horrifying, and the experience helps us understand a little more clearly the scale of the genocide.

The journey to our campsite at La Palisse is somber as we reflect on the day, and we arrive back to dinner made for us by the hotel. Sara and I upgrade into a bungalow as it’s Christmas, and join some of our group for drinks in the bar before bed.