Uganda

TONY: There are a few different Africa’s in my imagination, and one is the Heart-of-Darkness Africa of the Congo jungle, where Pigmy tribes hide in the jungle from cannibals in wooden masks, and heavily armed rebels run blood diamonds up the Congo River. I wanted to see this Africa as much as the big game Savanna Africa we had seen already, and because it’s madness to travel into the so-called Democratic Republic , we flew instead to Uganda, to get as close as safely possible.

From the capital Kampala we went to see the gorillas and the Virungas.

On the long drive from Kampala, we passed lush green forests and terraced hills of Banana trees and root vegetables. We saw the hard working Ugandans building their livelihoods from first principles, carving and firing red bricks straight out of the ground, cutting planks of wood from huge trees, and harvesting green bananas with machetes. We knew we were getting closer to the Congo when we started passing convoys of UN Armoured Vehicles and huge tented UNHCR Refugee camps. Uganda, with the memory of Idi Amin’s massacres still so fresh, seems to be a pillar of stability supporting the fragile governments of the countries that border it.

It took a 14 kilometer uphill slog (driven hard by our guard at the front, and our guide at the back) to reach the three summits of the Virunga volcano chain that mark the border between Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. We were promised amazing views of the gut-wrenching drop along a ridge - one side Rwanda, the other Uganda, and then a view of all 3 countries.   The crude ladders, built from rotting logs on the steepest parts, made for an interesting Russian Roulette situation, where we randomly chose which rungs to put our weight on and hoped it wouldn’t snap. We were rewarded with views of more of the jungle and mist that covered our ascent, as the cloud didn’t clear at all that day, or most days of the year for that matter. 

Approaching the Virungas

Summit Ridge - views of  DRC,Uganda and Rwanda to be imagined.

The next day we were out to track Gorillas. I’ve been told this can be anything from a half an hour stroll into the forest, to an all-day bush bash through the Jungle. You can track Gorillas in Rwanda, Uganda or the DRC, but I wanted to track them in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. I think it’s the name the sounds appealing, like a challenge. Impenetrable eh? We’ll see about that….

Even though it became very apparent where the name Impenetrable came from, after the Virunga Volcanoes, the trek to the Gorillas felt easy. We took a porter to carry our day pack, rather than send one of the many hopeful local porters home without pay. About thirty of them show up at the start of the trail every day looking for a day's work, and most go home empty handed because the tourists consider themselves intrepid adventurers too proud to have someone carry their lunch and water bottle. Not us! 

After a few hours following our Machete wielding guide through the jungle, we spent an hour with a family or eight or nine mountain gorillas, including a huge silverback male and two young’uns. 

Huge Silverback Gorilla. Julie is also in the photo, but hidden behind the guy in the grey shirt. We got within about 2 meters of the Gorillas

Tony with Nicholas, our porter.  Check out the armed guard.

Lead to a random spot, and turn around to see this guy.

Baby gorilla

200 kilos of cuteness.

The Silverback devoured this bush.

Not yet ready to leave Uganda, we took a twelve hour drive to Jinja, the source of the Nile river, for some white water rafting. Our raft of five clueless tourists and two experts got through the day of Grade V rapids, capsizing twice. I arrogantly thought it might be a lame day of slightly bumpy water for the easily impressed/scared tourists, but I had to swallow my scorn, as it was absolutely one of the highlights of the trip. Unlike the bumpy, life threatening 17 hour bus to Nairobi, our next destination. 

Approaching some rapids on the Nile. Julies in the pink helmet

(JULIE: I was expecting a day of being freezing but the combination of warm sun and warm water meant the day was actually really comfortable.   The first time the boat flipped I was underneath it, but could breathe in the air-pocket there and got back in pretty quickly.  The second time though, we flipped right at the start of a big set of rapids: I lost my oar immediately, and Tony grabbed it as he rolled around in the rapids in front of me. I was just trying hard to breathe air that wasn't water, which is not actually that easy as it turns out. I swallowed quite a lot.  We were told to trust the kayaks and guides that they'd rescue us if we were under too long, and I figured the rapids couldn't last too long...  so at one point I just figured if I did start to drown they'd probably be able to save me.  Fortunately not required!  Definitely a memorable end to our stay in Uganda.)