We arrived in Uganda, jubilant after having made it in plenty of time to pick up our gorilla tracking permits in Kampala, the capital. We’d even had time to stop at the ‘Source of the Nile’ (now disputed by about 3 other places but I guess these guys have already made their signs) for a lunch of fish and chips. Chris, after a hard few days drive through Kenya, managed to navigate his third capital city in the space of a week. And Kampala was a corker – carts, buses, people and bikes everywhere, with no traffic control systems apart from a scattering of frightened looking traffic police imposing ad hoc diversions to try and ease the nose-to-tail mayhem. Luckily Chris reverted to London driver mode and bullied them all (oh, and had a wonderful navigator to get him out of trouble too of course).

Once in Kampala we spent Friday sorting out our permits then decided to stay and rest up for the weekend before setting off to the south of the country and our appointment with the men in furry suits. Unfortunately this co-incided with the whole city’s water supply being cut off; apparently there’s not enough electricity for the country and so the water company can’t run their pumps sometimes. (We later read a series of reports about the shit in the water supply that was causing all sorts of diseases in the ‘burbs so maybe it was a blessing in disguise). Anyway, our ‘restful’ next few days was spent on a campsite full of posh English school kids looking like Paris Hilton, getting drunk (like Paris Hilton) and moaning about the brown lumps in the well water and the state of the bathrooms. They had a point, but when it’s all said in a spoilt-brat drawl it grates somewhat.

Getting into the countryside was something else though. The whole country is amazingly green and farmed on every inch – from the riverbeds to the tops of the hills. When we’d picked up our gorilla tracking permits we’d found we were allocated to the remotest group with the hardest walk and so we decided to drive right to the trailhead and camp in the local village the day before. This ended up being a great decision for all sorts of reasons. The campsite was as basic as we’d been warned - just a field with a pit latrine and a hut for washing in – but it was in a beautiful place, community run and the whole village was more welcoming than any other we had been in. We got hot water for washing (luxury), a campfire made for us every night and good company.

The day of the tracking was hard but rewarding. We started early, with a serious briefing from the head guide, Augustine, and then headed down to the river through subsistence farms and pine plantations. The river marked the start of the marvellously named National Park – Bwindi Impenetrable Forest – and we all started to sweat as we went uphill through the humidity of primary rainforest. After a couple of hours we met the trackers and stopped to dump bags and get cameras ready before the last push through to where the gorillas were taking their 11 o’clock nap. Both Chris and I agreed afterwards that the first glimpse was underwhelming - not the magical rush we’d been promised – but as the furry lumps started to sit up and take notice of us it got more interesting. As the hour unfolded so did the personalities of the gorillas: the show-off juvenile male in the front who kept rolling around and posing for photos; the protective mother breast-feeding her 3 week old baby; the bored kids jumping into bushes and getting closer and closer to us until snatched back by an adult. And all the time the others interacted with us the Silverback sat in the background, enjoying being groomed by his harem of women. We’ve seen hordes of primates since the gorillas, including chimps which are the closest to us genetically, but none have been so easy to ascribe individual personalities to as the gorillas.

In the evening, exhausted, we got back to cook on the fire and settle down to watch the local orphanage group treat us to some traditional dancing, original songs and a special ‘gorilla dance’ where they donned masks and tried to frighten us. Great. I think I enjoyed this as much as the tracking.

Uganda continued much like this. Unexpectedly, it’s been the country where we’ve seen the most wildlife and camped the wildest. First off was a community campsite in the beautiful crater lake area which was teeming with monkeys (and kids as it was also home to the local primary school!). Then we spent 8 days in an enormous National Park moving from campsite to campsite, watching lions mate, chimps eat and hippos walk though the campsite. The culmination of this was in the south of the park, in a little touristed sector famous for its tree-climbing lions. We were the only ones camping in a great site right next to a river full of guffawing hippos with the Democratic Republic of Congo – one of the most unstable countries in the world – starting on the other river-bank. At night the office sent up two armed guards to sit beside us and we never quite worked out if it was for the wildlife or the Congolese soldiers.

I think Uganda has been the country where I have felt most at home. Maybe because you get a real mixture of grumpy and friendly people, maybe because of the grey clouds and rain, or maybe because of the English-speaking. Whatever, we spent a month and would definitely come back for more.

Photos
Gorilla Family
Grumpy gorilla
Gorilla People
Gorilla dancers.JPG
The Expert
Lions!
Black Collubus
Maraboustork Nightmares
Camp on the DRC border