Our flight into Entebbe, returning from our dalliance in Morocco, arrived at 3:30 AM. It was raining when our taxi driver drove the two hours to the Haven in the dark. We were glad we weren’t driving.

The rain was not unexpected. It was pretty much smack in the middle of the rainy season. When we set out on our trip in October, heading for East Africa, we had known that we’d be sandwiching our time between the short (Nov-Dec) and long rains (mid March-June). Of course the seasons are variable, ever more so in recent years. The plan all along had been to travel in East Africa until it got too soggy for us and then beat feet to the dryer climes of the south. 

Arriving at The Haven in the steady tap of rain we got the feeling we’d be activating our “go south” plans pretty soon. But who knows, we’re often told that it doesn’t rain every day this time of year.

The Cruiser was looking cooped up in the shed, but she was ready for action. Well, almost, our starter battery was not happy and needed a jump. After that she was ready for action. We took an extra day to get organized, do laundry and prime ourselves for the next leg of our adventure. Though we enjoyed the big beds and hot showers of Morocco, it felt great to back in the car and to be in control of our own destiny. 

To pick up where we left off we headed back to Kluge’s guest farm outside Fort Portal. On the way we stopped at the big Carrefour supermarket and provisioned. Except for vegetables and fruit which were so good and cheap at the road side markets. Again we thanked the makers of the Kampala expressway for getting us around the worst of the traffic.

Kluge’s was as we left it. Well, almost. There were other guests here in the chalets, and the birding was not up to the same par it had been before. However we have taken to noting to each other the good parts of traveling in the rainy season. For example, the rains had cleared out that persistent haze I have been griping about and now we could see the lovely Rwenzori mountains from the campsite.

Chimpanzee Tracking in Kibale

A couple nights in the tent and we were getting back in the groove of overlanding Africa. It rained at night, but we woke to beautiful conditions and we were pumped up to go see some chimpanzees. Kibale National Park is fairly close and we more or less repeated the drive we’d made two weeks earlier, only instead of stopping at Nkuruba Community Campsite we continued on to Kibale. 

There is only one road through Kibale and there is no entrance fee to transit the park. The paved road brought us easily to the Kanyanchu Visitor Center, where chimp tracking and other activities can be organized.

We rolled up to the visitor center around noon to inquire what the story was. A female ranger explained that chimp tracking normally leaves at 8 AM and 2 PM, as expected, and costs $200 per person. She went on to say that it was slow and we could have our own ranger and depart anytime we wanted. 

With that news, along with the agreeable weather, we decided to go for it. After a quick lunch in the car we geared up for our hike. A ranger came over and introduced himself as Edison. He gave us a short orientation and off we went into the forest.

The forest was wonderful. A high canopy provided shade and trees were impressive. It was not dissimilar to the Budongo Forest Reserve where we’d been birding before, though the forest floor might be a bit more open. 

Edison took us on various paths through the forest, branching into ever smaller and narrower tracks. Occasionally we would plunge into the untrammeled undergrowth, leaves crunching underfoot and vines whipping across our faces as he looked for chimpanzees. After a while he confessed that the trackers had not seen the chimps for a while, and that this morning they’d only spotted two, and those two had left after just a few minutes. This did not sound promising.

Eventually we finally did find the chimps, five of them feeding high in a fig tree. This happy encounter went well, though the chimps were high in the trees and our necks suffered, craning to look high in the canopy. 

Two of them descended to the forest floor fairly close to us and headed off into the forest.

Edison took this as some sort of challenge, wanting to see where they were headed. The chimps had a good head start on us and he charged off after them, us clumsily in tow. After a while he conceded that the chimps had eluded us.

We were very happy with our sighting though and we began the walk back to the car. Ten or so minutes into our hike we heard the pant-hoot of a chimp close by. Edison perked up and off we went again, pushing branches aside and stepping over big roots and going as fast as we could to keep up.

Edison brought us to a huge fig tree and the chimps were whooping and hollering it up. The sound was incredible. We could barely see them, but hearing them was very special. They were making quite a racket and Edison said they were calling other members of the group, telling them there was food here.

It was time to leave them and we moved on. First chimps, then their hollering from the canopy, I thought this was a great success. But we were not done yet, we lucked out with a third sighting.

Back on the path we hiked for a while, maybe 30 minutes, towards the car. Again we heard the distant pant-hoot of a chimpanzee, and Edison froze. It was a different part of the same group (chimps routinely break into smaller groups from the larger community). Edison couldn’t resist and he charged headlong into the forest again and we again dove after him.

We came upon chimps, grooming each other on the ground. They were so close. It was wonderful to be able to watch their anthropomorphic movements at eye level. They moved off, and one of them reclined on the forest floor, relaxing with arms stretched out and totally uninterested in our presence. 

I lost track of how many chimps there were. Six? Eight? At some point they grouped around each other, grooming each other or what I took to be critiquing their fellow’s grooming technique. Then in the distance two very large chimps came from the trees down to the ground.

“It’s the alpha,” Edison said. We backed off a bit as the alpha and his compatriot marched cockily towards the other chimps. They were marching towards us in a swagger, knuckles pressing into the ground and shoulders pumping forwards and back as they worked their way towards us. Edison had us step back again, but the alpha came right at us. “Don’t move!” Edison whispered urgently, and we froze. The alpha and his henchman marched right past us, I could have reached out and touched him. 

You’re not supposed to get this close, but we had already moved back and were up against some bushes. Edison judged that we were better freezing in place than potentially causing more disruption by trying to move. 

They all moved off after the boss and we relaxed, hearts beating and big smiles on our faces. Edison told us that what we saw was very rare, that he hadn’t seen them on the ground for quite a while and had not seen anything like this for six months at least. We were feeling very fortunate.

There used to be a campsite at Kanyanchu, but sadly this has closed. We were recommended to go to a place called Hornbill Cave, not far to the south of Kibale. This was also near Edison’s home, so we gave him a ride and he gave us directions to the campsite.

His directions were not that good, and there was no sign. But after a bunch of driving around we finally found a small campsite tucked into lush trees. It was owned by a Ugandan guy who used to work for a big lodge next door. He’s now building it up, with plans to add a restaurant soon.

Rain set in soon afterour arrival, so we settled in for a fairly subdued evening. There was a small thatched shelter where we ate dinner as it rained. Later on, the rain let up and the staff built a fire for us and we chatted with the owner. 

I asked about birds and he got excited, he was a birder himself. The property is adjacent to some wetlands and they have a small bird walk. He invited me to join him in the morning for a bird walk. Sadly come morning it was raining again and he said the birds would not be out. 

Queen Elizabeth National Park

Instead we packed up camp and hit the road, heading for Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP). The GPS wanted us to drive all the way north, back to Fort Portal and then turn left and cut back towards the south. There was an obvious shorter route on the map, a gravel road that could theoretically save us some time, depending of course on its condition. The rain made for slick red mud on most tracks around here. But we were both sort of tired of driving through Fort Portal so we thought we’d give it a shot anyway.

This turned out to be a success, except for a couple kilometers in the middle that was very slick. Thankfully no other vehicles came on that stretch; if we’d had to move to the side I think we would have just slid into the ditch. As we traversed this rural route it brought us through many attractive villages and scenic green farms. Another advantage of the rain is it cuts down on the pedestrian and motorcycle traffic a lot.

About a kilometer from where we were going to rejoin the tar we came up against a huge congregation of people. Each held small crucifixes made of wood and were marching down the road. Jenny and I, both being heathens, couldn’t figure out what the heck was going on until it dawned on us that it was Good Friday. 

After quite a bit of waiting around the crowd marched off the road and we were able to proceed, back onto the tar. The rain continued as we turned right, and now with the looming Rwenzori Mountains on our right we made our way south to Queen Elizabeth National Park. 

This is another Ugandan Park that can be a bit confusing, owing to its different sectors. There is a park office at the northern part of the park called Queen’s Pavilion. Since the public road bisects this part of the park there is no gate, you have toturn off the road to stop at the park office. 

Here we had a long conversation with the ranger. For some reason we could only pay our entrance fee here, then we had to go to the Mweya office near the camping to pay our camping fee. Then if we continued to the Ishasha sector, at the south end of the park, we would stop at that office and pay again down there. Why we couldn’t pay all at once was a mystery.

On the way to the Mweya office we toured the Mweya campsites No. 1 and No. 2, which are wilderness camps with no facilities, our kinds of camps. Campsite No. 3 is very near the Mweya HQ and is a huge campsite with some shelters and ablutions. 

Contrary to what the guidebook advised we were only charged the routine 20,000 UGX ($6 USD) to camp at the wilderness campsite No.1, which we judged to have a slightly better view than No. 2. We paid our fees and also booked a lion tracking experience for the next morning. Some travelers we’d met in Murchison Falls had recommended it to us. We are becoming jaded (but happy) safari veterans, and since this lion tracking experience seemed to offer a unique opportunity we felt we should take it, instead of the routine game drive. Particularly since QENP is not known to be quite in the same league as some of the other parks we had recently visited. 

For the afternoon we made a game drive in the Mweya area and saw almost nothing as far as wildlife goes. This part of the park is fairly flat and is universally dense shrubbery punctuated by large candelabra euphorbias. This made seeing any distance difficult. It was also not all that attractive a landscape, particularly compared to pleasant hills and valleys of Murchison Fall’s delta area. 

The exception is we did see a pair of giant forest hogs, which I’ll take as a victory. These are not commonly sighted animals, though we had seen them in Aberdare National Park in Kenya. 

Game viewing didn’t seem that promising so we retired to enjoy our campsite with some daylight to spare. The campsite has a view of the Kazinga channel, that connects Lake George and Lake Edward. The banks of the channel are high and there are no roads at the waters edge, the land is too steep, so we were looking down on the channel from above. 

We picked our spot next to a large candelabra euphorbia. I battled wet wood for a while and eventually stoked a fire. Jenny got dinner organized so we could grill chicken and veggies over the coals. Given the ingredients available in East Africa our dinner menu has settled into a fairly steady rotation of fried rice, pasta, curry, lentils, and grilled chicken with grilled veggies. 

The bush camp was really nice. Right before we went to bed a hyena walked nonchalantly through camp. He wasn’t interested in us or our food, just using the road to get to wherever he needed to be. As we sat by the fire in the dark we heard a square tailed nightjar calling loudly nearby. Their call is wonderful, it sounds like an engine shifting gears.

Lion Tracking

Our alarm went off early. The ranger had strict instructions to report to Mweya fuel station to meet for our lion tracking appointment. How it works is there is an ongoing lion and leopard research project run in cooperation with the UWA (Ugandan Wildlife Authority) and other partners. Tourists like us can pay ($100 USD pp, ouch) to join a researcher for a day. And by “join” I mean they come in your vehicle. I gather this is to save the research project money in the way of fuel and milage on the park vehicles. Then you spend the morning tracking down predators around the Kasenyi sector of the park (the part that lies east of the public road), including allowance to drive fully off-road under the direction of the researcher. 

Basically it’s near guaranteed predator sightings and some off-road fun. And it helps the researchers cut some costs. I suspect it also improves their data volume. We got the impression later that if there are no tourists they simply don’t go out for the day, or at least not every day.

To arrive on time at Mweya we had to leave in darkness. Normally it’s a no-no to drive in darkness in a national park. We asked about this and received a non answer, “Be at the filling station at 0620.” There is a gate to the Mweya area HQ, where they checked our permit again and then waved us on. 

There is a Shell fuel station inside the Mweya area, and sure enough the researcher, James, showed up at 0620 sharp. James had a shoulder bag, tablet with a database of information on various animals and a RDF (radio direction finding) tracking kit, including a hand held antenna. After introductions he got in the back and off we went. 

Checking out of the gate we had just been through ten minutes earlier involved checking our permit again, and then some consternation as we didn’t have the duplicate copy for the gate to keep. We pointed out that this was the fourth time we’d been through this gate in less than 24 hours and that they had already taken their copy yesterday, which involved more discussion with the other guards at the gate. In some foreshadowing of the morning to come, James was ranting all the while about what idiots these guys were, “They can read but they do not understand!”.

Finally we passed muster and were off, James urging me to drive a bit faster so we would get to the Kasenyi gate by 0700. On the drive we started talking about lions with James, but he quickly diverted the conversation to politics. He railed at UWA, at President Museveni and at his fellow Ugandans.

Jenny and I were giving each other looks, as this was super interesting, but unexpected. At some point James went off on how the voters were gullible and vehemently declared them, “Either stupid or intimidated”. Put me down for intimidated, this guy is intense!

One interesting observation from James was regarding UWA and park fees. Not so long ago UWA changed policies so that all park payments had to be made either with mobile money or with a credit card. This was ostensibly done to reduce corruption, so that the park fee money couldn’t disappear into the pockets of staff in the parks. Makes sense, right?

James was furious at this, because he said what happens is when paid by credit card the park fees go to Kampala, never to return. In the past he said that some money did get pocketed, and that was wrong. But that also much of the general operating money used in the park for the mundane day to day, the fueling of vehicles or making repairs etc., was paid for directly out of that money. The rest was forwarded to Kampala for HQ operating expenses or whatever. He said they’d just moved the corruption to the capital, and it was much higher in volume now. 

By this time we arrived at the next gate (there are a lot of gates in this park) where James got out to check us in. There were quite a few safari vehicles here, more than we’d seen anywhere for months. 

James came back and said that the office had added a second vehicle to the lion tracking experience (they allow up to five in convoy), so we joined up with another Land Cruiser with a single guest. James moved over to the other vehicle, as it had a pop top roof, easier for him to use is directional antenna from.

Off we went, following James’s direction. A few kilometers into the park we saw a group of vehicles watching a male lion some distance off the road, no radio tracking equipment needed. Happily, since we were with James, we drove over the berm and onto the short grass plains of Kasenyi sector and rolled right up on a lion.

Our two cars were parked close enough to each other so James could talk to everyone. He explained that this Lion was named “Mr. Mike,” and that he was a stupid lion. Jenny and I found this declaration hilarious. 

James went on to explain that Mr. Mike had killed his own cubs because they approached him when he was mating with another female. Lions typically mate for something like 48 hours, having intercourse every 15 to 20 minutes (!!) and during this time no other lions should approach them or they’ll have to fight the male. When Mr. Mike’s cubs approached during a round of mating he didn’t take it very well and killed them. Normally male lions will kill the cubs if they’re from a different male. 

Thus, Mr. Mike is stupid. James was particularly annoyed by this because the Lion population in QENP is under threat and they really wanted at least some of the cubs to make it to maturity. After more smack talk about Mr. Mike James whipped out his RF antenna rig and got a bearing on another lion. 

This part of the park was very forgiving for off-roading, mostly short grass on pretty flat ground with some big shrubs here and there. We spent the rest of the morning alternating between spotting cats and listening to James rant on various topics. It was all very fascinating, sometimes hilarious and sometimes a bit intense. 

A few cat sightings later we got a puncture. I could hear a hiss on each tire revolution. There was a big herd of buffalo nearby so we drove to a clearing a bit more distant. Hiss, hiss, hiss as we rolled along. At least when you stop to change a tire in the bush with the lion tracking guy you have a pretty good idea that you won’t be eaten. 

The guide from the other car jumped right in to change the spare and barely let us help. We were apologizing to his guest for holding up the show but she thought it was fantastic, seeing a tire getting changed and getting out of the car in the park. We couldn’t tell what had caused the flat, but it was a good sized tear right on the corner of the tire so this tire was now junk.

James went on to describe some of the challenges with conservation in QENP. He explained that part of the reason we didn’t see much in the Mweya sector was because all those huge shrubs we saw were invasive species that the animals can’t eat. He said the local word for it  translates something to the effect of “defeats even the elephants” because they won’t eat it, and they eat just about everything. He was greatly distressed about this because the shrub in question was spreading to the Kasenyi side and if they didn’t address things it would displace the grass for the grazers. 

James had a remarkable knack for turning all wildlife related topics back to the incompetence and corruption of government. He said funds had been allocated for removing the invasive plants, but that the vast majority of it was siphoned off into private pockets and the work was barely started, there wasn’t enough money left over.

Another riff was about illegal settlements in the park, of which there are a few. Some are big enough to have proper fuel stations and cell phone towers and now they’re big enough that the government can’t really ask them to move. He went on to explain that two people from one of these illegal villages were recently eaten by leopards, drug out of their huts when they left the doors open at night. This lead to a morbid and rhetorical diatribe about “You eat meat don’t you? But now you’re sad when something wants to eat you? Where is the logic in that, hmm?” I wish I had recorded it because there was a lot more to it, but you get the idea. 

In the end we saw three lions and two leopards with the aid of James and his RDF gear. Seeing the cats was great of course, but really listening to James and getting to drive fully off-road were the real highlights. 

James and the guide also waxed on about the past, how QENP’s glory days had been in the 2000s and that now game numbers just weren’t the same. This is contrary to what the guide book says, that the park is still recovering from the early days of poaching, but these guys had worked here since then. 

Of course all of this is anecdotal, but it is from people with real boots on the ground and with history and it is very hard to replicate that any way other than the long and slow work of accumulating experience. 

Lion tracking had been a success. We spent the afternoon doing the scenic crater drive. This loop is not known for its game viewing, more its very unique landscapes, a dirt track winding the ridge lines between a series of craters. 

At one viewpoint we stopped for lunch and spotted elephants browsing in the bottom of one of the craters, a wonderful sight and our only elephant sightings in the north of Queen Elizabeth. The crater drive was fantastic, a super scenic couple hours spent in an unusual landscape. I was beginning to appreciate the diversity of experiences that QENP offered in lieu of just straight up traditional game viewing, which was not up to par with other parks. 

After another night at the Mweya No. 1 wilderness campsite we drove south to the Ishasha sector of the park. There is not much game viewing to be done on this drive, but some of it is certainly pleasant enough. At one point we did have a nice herd of elephants block the road for five or ten minutes. We waited and they moved off into the bush.

On the same road it had rained recently and huge numbers of butterflies were gathered near all the puddles. Thousands and thousands of them as we went along. They were vivid colors of green, orange and turquoise, some grey or black. As we drove along they would fly up in big clouds of wings alongside the car. 

I am not a fan of most insects and I have a particular distaste for a large species of grayish moth that is common in Botswana and Namibia at a certain time of year. They have red beady eyes that reflect in your headlamp and they always seem to fly in your face or your drink. While I was marveling at the butterflies Jenny was mocking me, about why was it that I got so angry at the moths but I apparently liked these butterflies. I responded it was because the butterflies were polite, never once flying into the cab.

Eventually we arrived at the Ishasha sector gate and checked in (so many gates, so many sectors), booking the Ishasha No. 2 campsite. It was midday, not prime game viewing hours, so we went to check out our campsite before heading out for more wildlife viewing. 

There is a ranger base near the camp, and after going through another gate we drove by a large collection of huts that accomodate the staff as well as a detachment of Ugandan Defense Force.  That is because we are a stones throw from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda and the DRC are not friends. And by stones throw I mean that literally, only a modest river separates the two countries. 

Our camp was wonderful, a clearing in the trees plopped right on the river bank, the DRC staring us in the face about 10 or 20 meters across a muddy brown river. Casqued hornbills were squawking and flying in their weird swooping flight from tree to tree and a contingent of hippos wheezed and honked loudly nearby. It was fantastic, we were really looking forward to camping here. 

First off though was the hunt for lions. Specifically the famed tree climbing lions of Ishasha. The lions in this part of the park have made a habit of reclining in trees, as opposed to on the ground like regular cats. Explanations for this vary, but one plausible one is that there is a biting fly at certain times of year that they are trying to get away from, but who knows? 

Sightings of them are not quite as common as they used to be, compounded by the recent death of six more of the Ishasha lions. They are believed to have been poisoned, a not uncommon retaliation by nearby communities that are not excited about living next door to lions. 

We drove lots of tracks and peered into many a beautiful tree, that to me appeared to have comfortable limbs that any lion would be happy with, but saw no lions. One such road was right up to the boundary to the park and we could just barely see a vehicle on the main road, stopped. This clue lead us to look closer (“binocularize” in our safari parlance) and lo, a lion in a tree. 

I took the Cruiser in an about face and we bumped our way to the park gate and out onto the main road. On the GPS we could see roughly where the lion had been and we drove more or less straight to four handsome lions resting in a handsome fig tree.

Normally lions can be relied upon to do nothing at all for most of the day, but in about 10 minutes these particular cats got up, stretched a bit, and eased themselves down the ground, disappearing in the tall grass. A few minutes later and we would have missed them. We waited around for a while to see if they would reappear, but they didn’t. 

Back at camp we arrived to another safari vehicle parked there and we wondered if we’d have neighbors for the night. These are not private campsites and that would be fine. It was a pretty big group of locals and they were all gathered on the bank watching the hippos. We always like it when we see locals at their own parks. It is a shame that so few get to appreciate their own landscapes and wildlife. 

We walked up to say hello and were appalled to see two guys throwing sticks at the hippos, much to the amusement of the rest of the group. We were horrified. One of the guys walked away to go find more ammunition and Jenny admonished him, that they shouldn’t be doing that. He responded simply to us, “It’s okay, it is not a problem.” This kind of non response made us even more fed up. 

What should we do? There were quite a lot of them and after failing in our first attempt we were uncertain on where to go from here. In a minute it became clear that the guide was the one leading the efforts, which is even more inappropriate. We see a lot of Africans not treating animals with respect. I am generalizing, but it is very common to see people beating, whipping or throwing rocks at domesticated animals for no reason, when the animal is already complying with whatever it’s supposed to do. What we were witnessing appeared to be an extension of that.

So it wouldn’t have been all that shocking to find kids doing this, but to be lead by the guide! Thankfully while Jenny and I were plotting our next move they ran out of steam and they got in their Cruiser to get back to their lodge. 

We took a photo of the vehicle and number plate and the next morning reported the guide to the rangers at the gate. They were also appalled. They said they were familiar with that vehicle and the owner and would be talking to him directly. Who knows what came of it. 

That jarring event thankfully didn’t take long to get over because this campsite was so fantastic. The hippos were making a right ruckus just a few meters away. A couple guys arrived from the ranger station and made us a fire and we watched hippos, sitting by the fire and sipping beers on the banks of the river as the sunset. It was magic.

At night three rangers showed up for our protection. Actually I think it was one ranger, to protect us from animals, and two UDF soldiers, to protect us from the Congo. Normally all this would seem a bit overkill, but a woman was kidnapped from this part of the park in 2019. I made a big tub of popcorn that night and brought some to our protectors, which they seemed to be very happy with. 

This campsite was really one of the best we’d had in a while. What a great spot. The next day we planned to head for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see Uganda’s famous Mountain Gorillas.
This campsite was really one of the best we’d had in a while. What a great spot. The next day we planned to head for Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see Uganda’s famous Mountain Gorillas.

The Nitty Gritty

The Haven & Kampala

The Haven charges $1 dollar/day for vehicle storage. Note we took the back roads through to Kampala (see map), which ostensibly have less traffic. This is probably true, but the longer distance and dense traffic right at the end might offset any gains vs the more direct A104 route. 

The Carrefour in eastern Kampala has all, or at least most, of the western goods you might want, but watch the prices. We saw cheese that was $15 USD, whereas locally made cheese was $5. The same for pasta sauce and other goods. There were very expensive imported prices and still not that cheap prices for African produced products. 

There are excellent road side produce stands west of Kampala. The biggest we found was here: N0° 23.525′ E32° 04.764’ though you might not find everything it was very well stocked, much more than the typical roadside stalls that only have cabbage, tomato and onion.

Kibale National Park

When driving to Kibale you can now ignore the sign that says “all payments must be made at park headquarters” or something to that effect. Now you can pay for any activities at the Kanyanchu visitor center by credit card (phone network permitting). The network was down, of course, when we were there and we paid by cash. 

Hornbill Cave Campsite

$10 pppn. It’s a nice spot with space for four or five vehicles? We really liked this place. They did run a small generator for a little bit in the evening and the morning, but not too late. Some friends of the staff came and went by vehicles fairly close to us which was a minor disruption, that might bother some people. I would recommend this spot. 

Queen Elizabeth National Park

Free firewood is available at Campsite No. 3 in Mweya. The camp attendant has a stash of dry firewood, or there is wet stuff sitting outside. The campsite is sprawling and not very atmospheric, but also not bad. If it weren’t for the nearby wilderness sites to the east of here we would have been content here. We took showers here on the second day on one of our firewood runs. 

Given the prices to be in the Ugandan parks we might have condensed our stay to two nights. Arrive in the North and do the crater drive in the afternoon, camp at Mweya No. 1 or No. 2, lion track the following morning, and then drive to Ishasha that afternoon. Camp at Ishasha No. 2 and game drive that night if you have time, as well as the following morning.

I found QENP to be a nice park to visit, but given the mounting costs of our expedition we couldn’t help but do a bit of cost/benefit analysis. If budget (money as well as time) wasn’t a concern two nights at the north and two at the south would be good. 

Booking lion tracking ahead without a tour operator seemed to be impossible, but it was easy to do upon arrival. They will run lion tracking up to three times a day (the last one at night) if there are enough customers, so it doesn’t seem likely that it would be fully booked. 

Our morning at the Ishasha campsite in Queen Elizabeth National park was fantastic. The snorting and honking of hippos woke us in the morning and we enjoyed a lazy start to the day at this wonderful spot on the river. This is one of our favorite campsites.

The plan was to take another shortish game drive on our way out of the park and then make our way to the Buhoma sector of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest to see mountain gorillas the following day.

There was not too much pressure on today’s plan, the drive was reasonably short and the weather was beautiful. Our game drive had beautiful morning light and we saw lots of Ugandan kob, Defassa’s waterbuck, warthogs and a couple buffalos. 

In the small town of Kihihi we refueled and got the car washed. The sand and mud are terrible for the brakes, so even though we would be getting the Cruiser dirty again very soon we try to get at least the undercarriage and outside cleaned fairly often.

The road from QENP to Kihihi is mostly tar, more than indicated on the map. From Kihihi to Buhoma was about two and a half hours, mostly winding through scenic hilly farmland and towards the looming jungles of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. 

Gorilla Trekking

Gorilla trekking is possible from several places around the perimeter of Bwindi but Buhoma is where the first group of gorillas was habituated. They have the most developed trekking program and visitor center and offer the most permits per day for this tightly controlled activity.

The cost is formidable, $700 USD per person. Jenny went gorilla trekking here at Bwindi all the way back in 2006. After much waffling over the budget implications of going, Jenny’s mom couldn’t take our hand wringing any longer and subsidized this particular activity, thank you Peggy! 

I had booked our permits online about a month ago, directly from UWA. The process is somewhat opaque, but we did not need to go to Kampala in person as many people told us, I did it all online. To use a tour operator to book the permits costs an extra $150 on top of this already expensive endeavor. 

During Jenny’s 2006 family trip they also visited the Bwindi regional hospital on a tour. We just rocked up to the same hospital and with no appointment they kindly also offered to give us a walk around. Jenny said that the hospital has grown up a lot in the intervening years. The whole operation was very impressive. I suspect they benefit quite a bit from giving tours to the same people that can afford gorilla trekking and this translates into frequent small donations and occasional large ones, as indicated by various plaques on some of the buildings at the hospital. 

Where to camp in Buhoma was a bit of question mark. There are a few places that offer camping, but as far as we could tell it’s an afterthought and offerings were unremarkable. We settled on the Buhoma Community Rest Camp, which offers camping in their parking area. At least it’s community-run and our car park camping would go towards their continuing efforts. 

This campsite is also conveniently next to where we would depart for gorilla trekking the next day. We chatted with the rangers at the gate to make sure our permits were in order and we were prepared. They gave us all the info we needed and were very friendly. 

Jenny’s mother was very keen to hear all the details about our trip and we even asked about their guide and porters from all those years ago. We showed the guys at the gate a photo of the team that went on that trip in 2006 and they said, “Oh yeah, we know them.” They went through the photos and remarked that Jackson, one of the porters, was still around. 

The coconut wireless (or perhaps just regular wireless, cell coverage is very good here) did its work and a couple hours later Jackson appeared in our campsite to say hello. He was very happy to be remembered and we had a nice chat, and he finished by saying that he would be with us on our hike tomorrow. 

You might be wondering what the deal with porters is. The situation with gorilla trekking is that the park only has trails, no roads save a few minor service roads. All gorilla trekking enters from the forest edges on various trails. In the early morning trackers head out to find known groups of habituated gorillas. In the meantime the tourists gather at the visitor center at 0730, get a briefing and are broken up into groups, no more than eight tourists per group.

The gorillas are sometimes far away and they warn you that you can be out for up to ten hours, hiking up over 2000m of elevation. This means you need to bring lots of water and food. Porters are on offer to carry your bag, for $15 per porter, you can have none or as many as you like. 

The rangers stressed that they can get anyone to the gorillas, that people shouldn’t be intimidated by the strenuous hiking. If someone gets stuck partway up the mountain, or is even worried they won’t make it from the beginning, for $300 USD extra they will provide what he called the “African helicopter,” where a team of porters will carry you up or down the mountain in a litter. 

As much for nostalgia as anything we hired Jackson as our porter, as well as a second porter, Solomon, who was recommended for his birding knowledge. We would hang back at the back of the group and Solomon could point out birds as we hiked through the jungle. I will confess that it is nice to have someone carry your stuff while you’re trying to take in everything else that  is going on.

Jackson said that he used to get work as a porter two or three times a month, but now during covid it is more like once or twice every three months, so he was very enthusiastic about going and happy to have the work.

Usually the rangers at the gate will try to put people that can’t/don’t want to hike so far in the same group, to visit the closer groups of gorillas, and the people that want to do a big hike together to visit further gorillas. This doesn’t always work out, depending on where the gorillas are and what mix of ambitious or cautious people there are, but reports are that it usually works out well.

The evening before we went gorilla trekking became a soggy one. This is a rain forest after all, and it started raining. But we had nice hot showers and there was a pretty nice little thatched shelter we could use. The downside to camping in the parking area was that it didn’t have very good drainage and it was very muddy around the car. It wasn’t making us all that enthusiastic about staying a second night here after seeing the gorillas.

The morning of trekking we showed up to the visitor center and were checked in. Everyone was masked up for covid, hands were washed and our permits were inspected. There was a somewhat nonsensical safety video, big on prodution and flashy editing and light on content.

Then we were given an interminable series of dances and songs by a local women’s group. I know some people love this stuff. The music wasn’t bad, but I do not like attending this sort of thing involuntarily. I would have happily donated to their cause to show up 30 minutes later. *grumble grumble* 

Finally we did get a proper briefing on the the day, rules for how close we could approach gorillas, reminders that masks were required around the animals for covid-19 risk, and that sort of thing. Then they made up the groups, handed out hiking sticks and made sure everyone had enough water. After that we were off.

There is a trail right from the visitor center and our ranger lead us across a slippery wet bridge and we started to march single file in beautiful forest. Two armed rangers joined us, one ahead and one bringing up the rear, and we climbed. The climbing starts right off. The higher we rose the narrower the trail becomes, soggy switchbacks brought us up the side of the mountains. The pace was firm but pleasant and we made good time. 

Some way along at one of the rest stops Jenny related to the group what has become a famous family safari tale of her previous visit in 2006.

It was her sister, mother, aunt and Jenny. This terrain is very steep and the hiking strenuous and Jenny’s Mom and aunt were having a hard time of it, gratefully being helped along by many porters. They took a lot of breaks in which their guide Kent, a family friend, and her sister would smoke cigarettes and roll their eyes at the slow pokes in the back struggling valiantly onwards and upwards.

During one of these breaks while the sweat drenched guests were catching their breaths, Kent was rattling off some inane fact or other about the difference between the mountain gorillas (that they were now hiking towards) and the lowland gorillas. At this point Mom interrupted furiously, “What the fuck Kent!? There are lowland gorillas? You might have mentioned that before I hauled my ass 2000m up this mountain!”.

Note that there are multiple species of gorillas, and if I understand correctly the mountain gorillas are the most endangered, with some 1,000+ individulas remaining in the wild. Western, or lowland gorilla population estimates vary widely, but at the least in the tens of thousands, or up to 300,000. Note that in Spillover (David Quammen’s book I keep referenceing) he discusses the evidence that ebola and HIV have hit lowland gorilla populations very hard in recent years.

In the end Jenny’s Mom and aunt suffered quite a bit from the efforts of the hike, but when they saw the gorillas all the strain, struggle and subsequent soreness were forgotten. Well, maybe not forgotten, but at least considered worth the cost.

Our own hike was reaching higher into the mountains and the forest was changing. Huge trees with great column like trunks formed a canopy above us. Thick foliage lined the path, the impenetrable forest indeed. 

After an hour and forty minutes of hiking we had reached over 2000m of elevation, and the ranger announced that we were nearing the gorillas. He lead us on to ever smaller paths. Dense greenery tugged at our sleeves. While we disentangled ourselves from prickly vines the ranger started calling out into the forest to the trackers that had been up here long before us.

Here we stopped for a moment. The porters stayed behind and we left our back packs and hiking sticks and the rangers made sure everyone was masked up.

We doubled back and the rangers started bushwhacking into the brush, swiping at dense vines with sickle and panga. The group lurched into this impenetrable greenery and shortly thereafter we all froze for a moment, there was our first gorilla. A few heartbeats later and out came the cameras. Shutters were snicking away and we all jostled to get a good view.

The rules allow an hour with the gorillas, assuming the group tolerates you and doesn’t head off where they can’t be followed. We spent our hour snapping away at photos and marveling at these huge apes. It turned out that our group was one of the first (the first?) to be habituated and thus they were particularly uninterested in our presence. Again we lucked out on sightings, which ended up including two silverbacks, some very young gorillas, mating and general aping around. I found their hands to be particularly fascinating, so similar to ours. 

Our hour with them crescendoed when the alpha male decided to come right towards us and split our group of tourists in half. The rangers had us all back up as far as we could, but being in the impenetrable forest only gives one so much room for maneuver. We all backed up, froze, and let the big silverback move through us and into the foliage. 

The rangers lead the group in retreat, away from the gorillas to leave them in peace. At a nearby rest point we all excitedly discussed our encounter. It does the gorillas a disservice to say that this was merely a “spectacular wildlife sighting.” Something about undertaking the hike and being there, on foot, next to one of our genetic relatives is very special. 

Their human like movements and expressions are obvious, it doesn’t seem so far fetch that you might strike up a conversation about the weather. Speaking of weather, grey clouds loomed in the east and rained seemed certain; nobody was interested in long breaks. We headed back down the the mountain.

In total our hike was five hours. About two hours hiking up, an hour with gorillas, 30 minutes of breaks all told, and an hour and a half back down the mountain. The hike ended with us tromping into the visitor’s center just as the rain started coming down. 

Our ranger admitted after the hike that they are rarely out past two o’clock, so ~six hours total. In general it seems the all day hikes are outliers.

It was only one in the afternoon, raining, and we pondered what to do with ourselves. Originally we were going to go for a bird walk with Solomon, but he admitted that with the rain it would be fruitless. After some food and chatting with our gorilla trekking compatriots we decided to head out from Buhoma. Our muddy campsite from last night was not enticing and it looked like the rain was here for the duration.

Lake Bunyonyi & Mutanda

We set our sights ambitiously on Lake Bunyonyi. Theoretically this was a four hour drive of only 106km, but the road there was intimidatingly squiggly on the map, which always makes for slow going. There were a few closer campsites, if we got too delayed we could bail out and stop early.

Just as we were about to drive away Jackson, our porter for this trek and the family trek in 2006, came running up. He had a manilla envelope addressed to Jenny’s mother, a gift for remembering him from those years ago. The envelope has since been delivered to Peggy, who was very touched, a photograph of the gorilla family from the 2006 hike. 

Off we went. Tracks4Africa did not want us to take the short route, but it looked like it would very scenic, so against the protest of the GPS we turned off onto a narrow and winding dirt track. It wound around the flanks of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, clinging to the steep hill sides and brining us alternating through beautifully terraced farmland and stunning rainforest. The sections through the rainforest were the best. Thick green and towering trees with branches extending a protective canopy over all. 

We twisted and turned around tight corners, downshifted to go up and then down and then up again. The summit of the road was quite high, into the clouds at one point, and hardly a single hairpin turn did not have a spectacular vista out across the terrifically verdant countryside. Hill after endless hill covered in the patchwork of farms. Fields of maize, chilis, and tea, of bananas and beans, cassava and coffee. 

It kept raining, but it suited the rainforest and hills. In the final kilometers into Bunyonyi there is a road that leads through a steeply walled valley that is mostly hand hewn gravel quarries. We found it unsettling to see how young the people were working here, breaking off rocks to be hauled away. 

The younger were given the task of breaking big rocks into smaller ones, and neat piles of gravel, all matching in size, lined the road. These piles of rocks and gravel were all made by hand, smashed by hammer and then sized and graded, made ready for pickup. 

We arrived at the Bunyonyi Overland Resort and found a sprawling property with chalets, safari tents, a restaurant and a small campsite. It seemed very quiet here, but we checked in and set up camp. 

The campsite is quite far from the restaurant, but we were right on the lake, with hot showers and the place to ourselves. While we were taking showers the threatening clouds turning into actual rain and a heavy downpour began. As a sign of the seriousness and frequency of the rain recently we had dug out our rain pants a few days ago, but in the minute it takes to get from the showers to our campsite we were drenched.

In new clothes and now clad in our full rain kit we slogged over to the restaurant, having conceded that making our own dinner wouldn’t be all that fun. The restaurant was pleasant, but with only one other group there its cavernous capacity made it feel very empty. I ordered a pizza, which was not good, and Jenny more wisely ordered a curry that turned out to be great.

On the way to the restaurant is a sign warning of the dangers of drowning, swim at your own risk. The sign also says “Lake Bunyonyi is 6500 feet deep.” (1981m). This would make it the deepest lake in the world, which it isn’t. I found this fact so stunning I looked it up. The deepest Lake Bunyoni is ever cited in any mention is 2952 feet (900m). This would still remarkably deep, still among the deepest lakes in the world. I did more digging and it seems the deepest verified depth is…131 feet (40m). 

I found the 6500’ claim so outlandish that I couldn’t stop laughing about it. I hope nobody tells Vladimir Putin, he might take offense and put Uganda next on his todo list. Russia’s Lake Bikal is the actual deepest lake in the world at 5315 feet/1620 meters. Jenny wanted to bring the survey boat she operates back home here to Uganda, to do a proper survey of the lake.

The next day we put down as a logistics day, cleaning and tidying and trying to dry stuff out a bit. There are some shelters that we think are for the overland truck groups, but we moved the Cruiser up alongside one and had our own big shelter to sprawl our stuff out under. It had been a struggle to keep things dry in the daily rains, particularly the tent. It doesn’t leak, but the damp is pervasive and difficult to get out. It is not fun to sleep in a damp tent. 

We also finally committed to our next course of action. Until quite recently the land border to Rwanda was closed, but it had just opened. There were no particular activities we felt we had to do in Rwanda, but it’s right on our doorstep from here and it will make for a smoother route south, as well as of course being a whole new and interesting country to visit. 

It rained again that afternoon, though less furiously, and we agreed after two nights here it was time to get moving. The following morning we packed up and got going, stoping at the Arcadia Lodge for breakfast.

The Arcadia lodge is perched on top of a hill with a stunning view of the lake. We treated ourselves to a full english breakfast as we gazed out on the panorama of dozens of islands dotting Lake Bunyonyi. The terraced hillsides, finger-like contours of the lake edge, and many of little islands make for a uniquely attractive scene. It’s not hard to see why there are so many places to stay here.

First we stopped in the town of Kabale (not to be confused with the national park) and got PCR tested for the Rwandan border. From there we headed out for Lake Mutanda, another relatively close scenic lake. The drive to Mutanda isn’t far by kilometers, the roads are like long wet noodles thrown upon the hillsides, twists and turns all the way which made for slow progress. The whole way was scenic, the terraced farmland on steep hillsides never gets old.

Jenny had been working on where to stay.  She WhatsApp’d the Lake Mutanda Resort, which had camping on our GPS, but not on their website. They responded that they don’t have camping but could to recommend a place, or alternatively we could have one of their luxury cottages for a very steep discount. 

Sold. The countryside was beautiful here, but a break from the rain camping would be welcome. The road here is dirt, and the last stretch is muddy and on a very steep hillside. The mud was slippery in places and I was glad to have 4×4. It wasn’t hard to imagine sliding off the edge here.

The Lake Mutanda Resort was great. The driveway to get there was incredibly steep and I actually went into low range to engine brake down the hill. The LandCruiser’s brakes are undersized and not all that confidence inspiring. The lodge is a small place on a peninsula poking out into the lake with a dozen or so chalets and a restaurant, all tucked into a grove of tall old eucalyptus trees.

The resort, and our cottage, enjoys a stunning view of the volcanos. These are volcanos as a child would draw them, steep hillsides with a circular cone. There are eight in total, and in clear weather, five are visible from here. As the rain clouds ebbed and flowed the imposing peak of Muhavura came out of the clouds, its brothers in line behind it.

This string of volcanos straddles the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the DRC. Two of them are active, and the rest are dormant. In 2019 Nyiragongo, which looms above the Congolese city of Goma, erupted and killed 30 people and forcing tens of thousands to flee the city.

In calmer times you can hike to the crater rim of one of these active volcanos and peerdown upon the lava lake. This is done from the DRC and right now they are not offering this tour. They didn’t tell us whether it is due to security or because of damage done in the recent eruption, but  there is fresh security crisis in the area of Goma.

Our luxury cottage was amazing and for two nights we spoiled ourselves at the Lake Mutanda Resort. We got laundry done, sipped coffee while hiding from the rain, went stand up paddle boarding on the lake and ate dinners in the restaurant. 

Stand up paddle boarding was particularly fun. We were quite the entertainment for people along the shoreline. Our welcome was so enthusiastic, “Hello! Hello! Hello!” or “Howareyou!? Howareyou!? Howareyou!?” Being shouted down from the hillsides. We figured the stand up paddle boards must not get used much. 

Jenny and I have been joking what a blow to the ego it’s going to be when we go home and nobody is relentlessly inquiring about our well being. “Howareyou?!” With enthusiastic waving and big smiles.

As we packed up from the cottage, the manager informed us that Rwanda had just dropped the requirement for PCR testing. This meant our two $60 tests were probably wasted, but at least we knew we didn’t have covid, and you never know if these rule changes are true until you are actually at the border. We would know soon enough.

On our way out of Uganda we stopped at a fuel station to fill up and spend the last of our Ugandan Shillings. Here there were two serious looking soldiers in fatigues, one armed with a rifle and the other with a grenade launcher. We see armed soldiers and police all the time, but the grenade launcher made me wonder if trouble was brewing. On the way into this town, Kisoro, we had seen a big refugee camp, refugees from the DRC. Maybe something else was going on?

I asked the attendant pumping our fuel and he laughed, he said, “No, they are just waiting for the oil change to be done on their vehicle.” I guess you don’t leave your grenade launcher in the car when it’s getting worked on.

With that we fueled up and drove the last few kilometers to the Cyanika border post. Rwanda here we come. 

The Nitty Gritty

Gorilla Trekking

As of May 2022 individuals can now no longer purchase permits on their own, they must use a tour operator. With the curious exception that foreign nationals that have Ugandan work permits can buy up to five trekking permits. When Ugandans can’t buy permits but foreign nationals on work permits can something doesn’t smell right to me. Maybe there will be a system for selling last minute permits to independent travelers at the gate, if they are available.

You can go gorilla trekking in Rwanda for $1500 dollars per person (!), or at times you can go in the DRC nearby. The DRC option is significantly cheaper, but the costs for visas and transport often negate the savings. One option is to go in the off season, where permits drop to $200 per person. The park can organize a visa, which is available without going to the embassy if you are going to the DRC just for this activity. They can also advise on the security situation and will not offer trips if the situation is too dire, lest you end up seeing guerrillas instead of gorillas (special thanks to Captain Ron). 

Seeing the mountain gorillas is extraordinarily expensive. If you have the means then I would certainly advise going, we had a great experience. That said, one of our fellow trekkers had  gone gorilla trekking in Buhoma once before and was assigned the smallest group that was only recently habituated, making for a much less intimate experience. He was much more enthusiastic about this second visit. I guess you never know how it is going to go. 

If you’re on a budget don’t beat yourself up too bad about passing on gorillas. Maybe consider seeing chimpanzees, which is much less expensive and offers the next closest thing, very different than seeing monkeys.

Gorilla photography. I took photos as close as 400mm and as wide as 105mm. I think a 70-200 or 70-300mm zoom would be ideal. Photography conditions were difficult. My telephoto lens fogged up shortly after being deployed. Ideally I think you’d pull out your lens earlier to let the temperature equalize. Use the highest ISO you can tolerate and be comfortable switching between manual and autofocus. 

Lake Bunyonyi 

The road around the east side of Bwindi was really scenic, highly recommended. It’s a good road, just slow because of all the twists and turns. 

Bunyonyi Overland Resort – It is a huge property and could accommodate a huge number of people. Because it’s right on the lakeshore it doesn’t have the same view as some of the lodges higher on the hill, but is otherwise a good spot. There is only space for a few cars to camp and if an overland truck was there I’m not sure where they would put you. If the weather was better we would have stayed longer. 

The Lake Mutanda Resort was a nice spot if you want to take a break and get a chalet. We lucked into a discount since it was low season and they had some modest construction going on. 

We hear a lot of stories and online reviews of overland travelers almost always asking for a discount at places and I find this totally annoying. Why exactly do you deserve a discount? Maybe for an extended stay I suppose. If you think a place is overpriced, then just don’t stay there and move on. It has to be the most commonly written sentence on iOverlander, “A bit expensive for what you get,” or the nonsensical, “They wouldn’t give us a discount even though no one was staying there.”.

I find this totally infuriating. If people are so outraged by having to pay $10 per person (or whatever) for a campsite then feel free to not stay there. Why so many travelers feel like all campsites should be perfectly clean, scenic, friendly, have hot showers 24/7 with blazing fast wifi for $5 night I don’t know. They should open their own dang campsite. /rantover

On the steel gates of Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary there was a stern sign warning “NO GPS ALLOWED.” This is part an effort to curb information, and therefore poaching, about the more than 30 rhinos that call this sanctuary home. Ziwa is run by a non profit in cooperation with the Uganda Wildlife Authority, and they are doing the long and slow work of breeding rhinos for eventual reintroduction into Ugandan wildlife parks. After our time at Murchison we thought it would be cool to go check it out.

The reserve is small, but it was still a few kilometers into the camp. We rolled into headquarters and checked in, booking a rhino tracking walk for that evening. Rhino tracking here is all done on foot, not by game drive, and we were pretty excited about the opportunity.

Camp is only a hundred meters or so from the scattered buildings of headquarters, and here we were admitted through a big gate to our heavily fenced campsite. The fencing was of big steel bars, to protect us from rhinos, though at Ziwa there are only the relatively docile white rhino as opposed to the black rhinos, who’re generally thought to be more cantankerous. The robust fencing that surrounded us made me feel like we were camping inside a horse corral.

It would be a few hours until our rhino tracking. While we were waiting another camper showed up. He was Ugandan, working for a pangolin conservation project with a sponsor in the United States. We had a nice conversation with him, including solving a mystery of the bush that I’ve often wondered about.

Pangolins are incredibly rare animals, a sort of scaly ant eater. They are also under intense poaching pressure, the scales being one of the things in high demand in the far east for various perceived medicinal benefits. In truth their scales are just the same as our finger nails. What a tragedy that an animal might be poached to extinction for something as mundane as the keratin.

Long has it been a safari goal of mine to someday see a pangolin, but every guide we’ve ever asked has always given us a polite version of “It ain’t gonna happen”. So then, if I am destined to probably never see a pangolin, how the heck does a pangolin poacher make a living, what with them being so difficult to find?

Our researcher friend explained that the poachers look for the tracks, and then follow them to their burrows and dig them up. Presto, pangolin scales for China. Mystery solved.

He is doing the work of putting tracking collars on pangolins. This also involves following their tracks to their burrows and then waiting until they come out. Then they tag them and release them. He said this can take days, where he camps outside the burrow in a tent, and even then they’ve had times were the pangolin has eluded them, slipping by while someone is sleeping or going about the work of living in the bush for days. 

Our researcher friend also said that when he first came here to look for pangolins the locals told him, “Pangolins? No problem, how many would you like us to dig up?” He quickly told them that isn’t how they work and refused the offer, instead dong it the more laborious way, by waiting.

During this interesting discussion rain came and gently tapped down for a while, but we were comfortable in the camp provided shelter. Some warthogs wandered by with several energetic piglets who were charging all about. It was adorable. 

It was now time for our rhino walk and conveniently the rain stopped. The ranger gave us a safety briefing and explained a bit about rhinos. Of the 30+ rhinos hereis watched 24 hrs a day by a team of two scouts. Frequently the rhinos hang out in groups, making this task a little easier. This means there are quite a few scouts roaming the woods, each keeping a watch from a distance on their perspective group of rhinos. This labor intensive procedure has kept the rhinos at Ziwa safe for the roughly 20 years since they started breeding rhinos here. 

This also means that rhino “tracking” is a bit of a misnomer, as the scouts know where the rhinos are at all times. Nonetheless, walking on foot unto a group of sleeping rhinos is exhilarating. Our first rhino group was just a few hundred meters into the bush from camp. We obeyed our instructions and were able to approach to about 10 meters of several rhinos taking a nap. They started to wake up and we backed off a bit, but it was incredible to see how they took a look at us and were in no way perturbed.

This is because the rhinos here are incredibly habituated to humans, and are thus fairly safe to approach on foot. Normally this would be very dangerous, but these rhinos have never known anything else. It serves them well here, but I did wonder if that might prove problematic if they do ever get reintroduced to the wild; poachers would be able to approach with ease.

After some minutes with our first group we left them and went to find another set of rhinos. Today they were a little further away, so we got in our vehicle and drove a few kilometers (with GPS off) as directed by our guide. He was talking on a cell phone, which they use to communicate between the teams. He explained this was because cell phones are harder to hack than radios, and they don’t put GPS trackers on the rhinos for the same reason, lest poachers hack the tracking system and are lead right to their prey. 

No trackers and poor cell signal meant we spent some time wandering around the bush until we came upon a female rhino and her roughly one year old calf. Again it was incredible how tolerant they were of us. 

Our ranger told us about the history of rhinos in Uganda, and at Ziwa. All of the wild rhinos were hunted to local extinction in the 80s. This meant that Ziwa had to start from scratch, and they received a few donated rhinos to start with. One was from America (I think from a Disney zoo?) and another from Kenya. These two bred and when their baby rhino was born it was named “Obama,” as his parents were from America and Kenya. 

All the wandering around finding the second group had taken more time than usual, according to the ranger. We got along well with him, and he was very interested in our trip, asking a lot of questions. In the end our second rhino group was quite close his living quarters, and we stopped by to say hello to his wife and child. 

The rhino evening was a big success, we dropped off our guide more or less at sunset and retired to our reinforced corral. Evening in camp was relaxed. There was an enormous fire one of the staff must have lit, far too big to cook on, but we cooked on the stove and laid plans for the next day. 

In the morning I woke before dawn. There was a curious noise outside the tent. I got up, and found to my surprise three rhinos sleeping right up against the fence, about 10 meters from our vehicle. Amazing! I watched them in the darkness for a bit, listening to their breathing, and every once in a while there would be a burst of air. I realized they were farting in their sleep. 

This whole thing was totally awesome, an enormous and prehistoric animal dozing next to camp, emitting various noises, it was all great. I made coffee and as the light improved I whispered up to Jenny. She woke up and I told her about our neighbors, to her delight. An hour or so passed where we watched rhinos right next to us, me sipping my coffee and Jenny watching from the tent. They woke up around dawn and stretched, farted some more, and milled about for a bit. Not in any big hurry they eventually moseyedoff into the grass. 

What a magical morning. The guide had told us that often as many as 15 rhinos will sleep near the camp. It is one of their favorite spots, so apparently our experience was not all that unique. 

Birding at the Royal Mile (Budongo Forest Reserve)

I had pushed a bit for an early start today, so that we could go birding at The Royal Mile, which purportedly has some of the best, if not the best birding in Uganda. It is a bit of a drive away, and since birding is best done early we needed to get going.

I still maintain that we are not bird crazy, but I also believe that if you are in a place that is unique or good at a particular thing, why not check it out? And the birds up here do seem to be spectacular, with wonderful coloring and character that are unfamiliar to us.

Heading to the Royal Mile meant backtracking towards Murchison Falls, but then turning off towards the west. The Royal Mile is contained within the Budongo Forest Reserve, one of the mish-mash of conservation areas abutting Murchison Falls National Park that we found confusing. But it was marked on the GPS and we blindly forged ahead. 

We turned off the tar onto some freshly graded gravel roads that lead through large organized sugar cane fields. The Honey Badger was happy with the crunch of gravel under her shoes and we rolled along these farm roads happily, a cloud of red dust in the mirror. 

From the village of Nyabyeya, close to the reserve, things got confusing. We made our way to the entrance of the reserve, where an old man stood watch over the gate. He spoke little english, but we established that a guide and permit was a requirement, even to walk the road. My previous research had indicated that you could walk the road without these, but the trails required the guide and permit. 

“Where do we get the permit?” After some gesturing and awkward communication with the old man we figured out that we were supposed to back track a few kilometers to a Forestry College. I was getting the sinking feeling that this was going to be a fruitless wild goose chase, but Jenny maintained a positive attitude and we pressed on.

At the Forestry College we were eventually directed to an office, where a man called another man on the phone, and finally the person in charge showed up. A permit is not cheap, a half day running 90,000 UGX pp (~$25 USD), a full day 120,000 UGX. 

A guide is required on top of this. When we asked about how much the guide is they said, “You negotiate that when you meet him at the gate.” I wasn’t too happy about this, not wanting to commit to permits without having at least some idea of what the guide would cost. The authority seems not to care or comprehend our concerns about the price, but he agreed to call the guide and said we could negotiate on the phone. On the phone we settled on 50,000 UGX for guiding. 

After all this was agreed upon we still went about the laborious process of writing out receipts for our permits and then we were finally on our way. Receipt Man also had to sign us in at the gate, so he hopped on his bicycle and rode on ahead of us.

At the gate we geared up for our walk with our binoculars, camera and all that. Here I regretted not having one of those dorky binocular harness things that birders always have. Our guide showed up on a boda taxi, and amusingly Receipt Man was giving him a hard time, that it was time he buy his own boda. 

Our guide introduced himself as Raymond and we thanked him for showing up on such short notice. From here we set off on The Royal Mile, so named as it was used for the escape of a Ugandan King during some dispute or another that I forgot the details of. 

The Royal Mile is a straight run of dirt road that runs through the Budongo Forest Reserve. It is [kind of forest] with a high canopy and impressive mahogany trees supported by mighty buttresses, as well as many other hardwoods. Huge figs tower above, and vines wrap around and between, with thicker foliage underneath. The whole collection of flora is impressive. Raymond said that on top of being excellent for birding there are also lots of primates here and very occasionally on bird walks they even see chimpanzees.

This was our first proper guided bird walk. Raymond conducted us at a very leisurely amble while deploying his incredible mimicry skills at bird calls. The diversity of calls and sounds he could make was unbelievable, and with great success he called in many birds. Usually he would first listen for their calls, to know they were in the vicinity, and then we would repeat their calls back to them and the birds would come to investigate. 

Sometimes of course the birds were just there on their own, and then Raymond’s incredible eyesight would pick them us before us. He also displayed an excellent knack for telling us where to look. “You see this tree? Follow its trunk to the twisted branch, then to the right there is a big leaf, under that leaf is an Ashy Flycatcher.” (or whatever species).  

We were sighting new species nearly as fast as he could point them out and I couldn’t keep up noting them on my phone. I managed to note 13 new species, though there were more than that, but between juggling my camera with telephoto lens and the binoculars I didn’t always manage to write them down.

I have a fondness for kingfishers and we happily saw the Pygmy Kingfisher, Blue-breasted Kingfisher, Dwarf Kingfisher and Chocolate Backed Kingfisher. 

Eventually we had to go back as we still had some kilometers to drive in the afternoon. Raymond was great company, and he seemed very happy to be walking in the woods and birding, not only for the work but just because he liked to do it. 

To Lake Albert, sort of

Back at the car we scarfed down some lunch and started making our way towards Lake Albert. After backtracking on those perfect gravel roads we hit the tar and turned west. Driving in this part of the country was relatively relaxed. The road was in good shape, the traffic mild and importantly the roads mostly had shoulders for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. 

After passing the sizable town of Hoima we turned towards the lake road. Surprisingly the road was a large new tarmac road. There seem to be a lot of new roads in Uganda. We sailed along this thoroughfare with ease, hardly any traffic and a tolerable amount of speed bumps. 

This was all going fine until the road diverged from the map on the GPS. It was sorta in the right direction, but there was definitely no road where the GPS said there was, only a large new highway to somewhere. It lead us down a steep escarpment in big graceful bends across the blank space on the GPS. I tried maps.me, OSM and Googlemaps and all agreed that the very real road we were on does not exist. (To my annoyance I later found Gaia GPS maps does have this road, but from what data source I don’t know. I don’t like Gaia because it requires you use an app on a phone or tablet for offline use.)

But hey, it was going in what seemed the right direction and it was perfectly smooth, so we weren’t complaining. There was a small booth at the side of the road, marking the entrance to the Kabwoya Wildlife Reserve. One is supposed to pay $10 dollars to enter, but the man on duty said that the person who takes the money was not there, we could pay on the way out. Fair enough.

After the gate the road still did not match the map very well, but it did eventually bring us to the turnoff for our destination, the Lake Albert Lodge. This lodge is known for having a fantastic view of the lake and having camping. 

Jenny had contacted their booking office and they responded with a confusing email, but did confirm they had camping. Our arrival was greeted with more confusion. A very shy member of the staff, not wanting to give us bad news, whispered that they were fully booked and they couldn’t accommodate us.

When we clarified that we didn’t want to stay in the lodge, just to camp, we were told there was no camping. No camping? The boss was summoned and a white South African in a huff came over and explained that they hadn’t had camping in a couple years (irregardless of what their booking office and website say). He was pretty unhelpful on where to go, but when we asked to at least see the view he was welcoming. 

On our way through the lodge to see the lake we saw his clients, and then it became clear why this was all a bit strange. The whole lodge had been booked by a hunting group, UWA apparently allows hunting in the reserve. We walked through a small throng of guests, all strapping men with sun burn, bush attire, gaiters and spats. Around the lodge were rifle cases, and later when we departed we saw the vehicle that hauls the slain animals back to camp. 

The view was great, but the hour was late and we needed a place to stay. Jenny is great at this sort of thing, so I took the wheel while she started looking at maps, iOverlander and Tracks4Africa. There was a plausible guesthouse nearby, but it seemed more just a place to sleep, we thought we’d try for more. 

We settled on Kikonko Lodge, back up the escarpment. They are building a campsite, but in the mean time allow informal camping. As usual we were the only guests, but the staff were very nice and happy to have someone around. 

Fort Portal

Our plan was to head down to Fort Portal, which is sort of a hub in western Uganda for various activities. On the drive the scenery changed, finally to the Uganda of my imagination. Banana plants and rolling hills cultivated in every corner. It was very lush, green and had lots of great topography full of lumpy hills of forest and farms. It rained on us during the drive, but otherwise it was smooth going.

Fort Portal is a busy medium sized town, but has no sights for tourists, it is more of a hub. Andrew Brother’s is a small grocery and we stocked up there on a few odds and ends before heading to our campsite, the well regarded Kluges Guest Farm & Campsite. 

Kluges is a well known stop for overlanders. The road there is a bit rough, and after the rain it was a little slippery, but the 4×4 handled it with no drama. Arriving we rolled through the gate to a beautifully lined drive. It is so lush here it must be a challenge to keep the weeds down, I imagine everything grows fantastically well. 

After checking in we settled into the campsite, a green lawn on a terraced hillside. It was early afternoon and we spent some time birdwatching. There were juvenile casqued hornbills, cinnamon breasted bee eaters, sunbirds, green pigeons and more. 

An hour or so into camp time we heard a squawk. Looking under a nearby tree there was a puff of feathers floating to the ground and all the birdsong had ceased. It was quiet. Then in another tree we spotted a raptor holding one of the green pigeons in its talons, tearing into his dinner. 

That night we ate at the restaurant, having goat curry and matoke. Matoke is a banana that is not sweet, cooked by boiling. We had matoke fingers, where the banana is boiled whole and peeled afterwards, sort of like a plantain. They’re also served as mash, but the staff told us they like the fingers better. Bananas are a staple in Uganda and there are different kinds of bananas for different purposes, for matoke and sweet bananas and bananas for fermenting waragi banana moonshine. 

Bananas are interesting plants, as I understand it they must be cultivated by humans, they will not survive in the wild. A huge problem is the there is a banana blight, which is actually happening world wide, but this is a particularly acute issue in Uganda and Rwanda, where bananas form 30%-60% of the daily calorie intake for the rural population. Efforts are underway to remedy this, with genetically modified banana plants and by substituting more resistant species of banana. 

Matoke went well with goat curry. I would rate it higher than other ubiquitous staple, maize meal (ugali, nshima, posho), but I don’t think it’s going to be my new go-to food. 

Kluges was a nice stop and we decided to spend a second night here, doing a little hand laundry and just enjoying the surrounds. Jenny went for a run and I worked on the blog, but come afternoon the rain set in. It rained a lot, but we managed well, sitting in the shelter by the campsite and using the protection of our awning when we cooked dinner. 

One of our big Uganda goals was to go see chimpanzees. There are several places you can see chimps in East Africa (Mahale, Gombe, Kibale, Queen Elizabeth, and more). But Kibale National park is nearby, and has one of the first chimpanzee groups ever habituated. Also Kibale National Forest has forest elephants, though they are rarely seen. Who knows, maybe we’d get lucky? 

This was a relatively lazy day, moving to a campsite near Kibale. There are numerous choices, but we settled on the Nkuruba Community Campsite. This part of Africa is densely populated, so the drive is transiting through farmland punctuated by village after village along a decent tar road. Our speed rarely went over 60 as we watched the farms pass by our windows, rain pattering on the windshield and wipers pumping away. 

The original plan was to try for the chimps this afternoon, but rain threatened again and we postponed. Instead we passed the afternoon in camp bird and primate watching.There were four kinds of monkeys in this camp. Each troop passed through and we enjoyed the antics of the little ones and watching the different characteristics of each monkey. 

The Vervets are nearly silent as they pass from tree to tree, light of finger and foot. Black and white colobus have the gnome like faces of old men and crash from tree to tree in big messy leaps of confidence. The red colobus (there are many sub species of red colobus, I forget which these were) had baby monkeys brimming with confidence who would happily head into a new tree on their own. Red tailed monkeys went from tree to tree and almost defecated on the cruiser from above. 

Birds here were excellent and one of the staff was excited when we asked about birds. Sadly the rain kept the best sightings away, though we were still impressed with turacos, barbets and bee eaters. I have been trying to see a black bee eater, endemic in this area, but he told us that they don’t see them when it’s raining. 

Since we decided to postpone the chimp trekking this actually meant that it was time for us to get ready to head back to Jinja. Back to Jinja? Yes. It was time for a rendezvous with Jenny’s sister. We’d have another go at chimpanzee tracking when we returned.

To Morocco 

This was a plan hatched pre-covid, to take a trip with Jenny’s mother and sister to Morocco, a bucket list destination for Jenny’s mom in particular. The original plan was to fly to Morocco on March 15th, 2020, which you might recall as the very day that many international borders and flights were cancelled in response to the pandemic. 

The tour company generously allowed a one year deferral. Then a second year, to 2022, but no further allowance was possible. The plan was to park the Cruiser, fly to Morocco for a two week guided tour and family rendezvous, and then come back to Uganda and continue our trip. Unfortunately Jenny’s mom couldn’t make it, this time, and a friend is coming instead. 

It was strange, hopping in the Cruiser to drive back to Jinja. We’d been on the road for over five months, spending only three nights outside the tent. People sometimes think we are roughing it here, camping so many nights in a row, but really the Cruiser makes camping comfortable. We were mostly looking forward to seeing Jenny’s sister, and also letting someone else do all the figuring out of when and where to go. And of course to see Morocco, such a different part of Africa than where we’ve been so far. 

There was more rain on this drive, but we put on an audio book and ate the best rolexes we’ve had yet as the kilometers passed by. A great thanks to the Kampala expressway. This ring road makes getting through Kampala practical. What used to be a formidable undertaking is now pretty easy. It still drops you onto the Jinja road with a ways to go, this last two hours is tedious and full of hair raising traffic. 

Arriving back at The Haven was a small homecoming though. There was the tail end of another rain storm when we arrived, but staff members Pricilla and Ali greeted us with big smiles and the wet was forgotten. 

Fortunately the next day we were spared the rain and this allowed us to get the Cruiser organized, bedding aired out and clothes packed up for our flight. The Haven has vehicle storage and on the day of our flight we put the Honey Badger to bed under a covered shed, locked the doors and jumped in the taxi. It was strange sensation to be leaving the Cruiser but not be going home.

The Nitty Gritty

Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary

Entry, camping and tracking are charged separately. We thought this stop was really worthwhile. If you were visiting on a budget then just camp here, it is very likely rhinos will come by the campsite. That said the tracking experience was great, and comes with all the information you learn from the experienced guide.

Ablutions here were new, with solar hot water. The mens side had no shower curtains, but I think they weren’t even done putting in the final fixtures. Separately there is a cooking enclosure and covered shelter with a few picnic tables. We were warned that monkeys are a nuisance here, but they never bothered us.

Entry is $20 pp (per visit? per 24 hrs? We were only charged this once). Camping is $20 pppn, and the rhino trekking is $30 pp and can be arranged at any time of day, though they recommended early morning or late afternoon. If you’re on a budget just come and camp and you’re likely to see rhinos from the campsite.

The Royal Mile

There is a community campsite near Budongo, but we could not establish if it was open or not. If birding is your thing I think staying closer is the way to go, and prearranging your guide and permits. I tried to do this and after several phone calls and emails didn’t make any progress, so we just showed up. This worked, but was slow, and thus we went birding later in the day than is ideal. 

Raymond the bird guide can be contacted at +256 (0)777 319 865. He can also arrange for the people from the Forestry Department, that issue permits, to meet you at the gate. This would speed up the whole process quite a bit. 

Kikonko Lodge charged us $15 pp for informal camping in their not very flat car park. This is sort of expensive for camping in the parking lot, but in every other respect this place was great. They had a pool, a nice view, welcoming and friendly staff and the chalet they gave us the keys to for a toilet and shower was beautiful.

Kluges Guest Farm is an old standby for overlanders. The restaurant has an ala carte menu, and someone had told us it was the best food they ate on their whole trip. For us the food was plenty fine, but not outstanding. We later learned that their old cook had quit, so that likely explains it. Ablutions were spacious and clean, hot water by solar heater. There is a shelter with picnic table and a covered dishwashing area. 

Nkuruba Community Campsite was really nice. The campsite is on a lawn fairly high above a small lake. The one downside is the staff quarters are on one side and the restaurant and office on the other, with the campsite in the middle. This makes you feel sort of in the middle of a lot of back and forth, but it wasn’t too bad and the staff were nice. There is also a short hike to the lake and you can swim, though we did not.

Showers here are rustic but fine, with a donkey boiler for hot water. They made a fire for us here when we asked. There are also bandas here. 

Ziwa > Royal Mile: 92km, 1h 49m

Royal Mile > Lake Albert Lodge > Kikonko: 209km, 4h 18m

A spectacular sunrise kicked off our day in Kidepo Valley National Park. The panoramic view from our campsite made it all the better, what a great welcome back to the bush. After watching the sunrise we made our first explorations. The roads were rough and I spent most of my time keeping us out of the ditch, putting the game spotting onus on the copilot. We had no particularly outstanding sightings the first day, but what impressed in Kidepo was the wide open vistas. We were able see a huge part of the valley from almost every road. Also the sheer volume of plains wildlife was remarkable. 

Antelopes were numerous in both quantity and species. Jackson’s hartebeest, oribi, waterbuck and a tremendous amount of Ugandan kob, a new species to us. I thought they looked like a more handsome version of a puku. We also saw a couple of the darker white eared kob, who are assumed to be strays from their brethren in South Sudan. Someday I’d love to see the kob migration in South Sudan but I think we’ll wait for the security situation to improve there first.

The next two nights we spent at the other campsite, Nakosopiri. It transpired that Kakine didn’t have any water, due to a temporary plumbing leak, and we found Nakosopiri to be marginally more atmospheric, though with not quite the same view. Both campsites are excellent. 

We were the only self driver guests in the park. We saw one other vehicle on the first day from a lodge, and some researchers were staying at the fancy Apoka lodge (at a heavily discounted rate they told us). That was all the visitors to the park so we had the place more or less to ourselves.

Interestingly no ranger showed up to ensure our security at Nakosopiri. This was just fine with us, I suppose our “we don’t require a ranger” message trickled down to someone who accepted us at our word. It is an open and wild campsite and the rangers told us that lions like to sun themselves on the rocks adjacent to camp so we stayed on alert throughout the evenings.

There were new bird species, notably the Abyssinian ground hornbill and brilliantly colored Abyssinian roller,as well as the grey backed fiscal, piapiac and the black headed gonolek, with its magnificent bright red breast.

On our second day I made a near disastrous mistake, leaving the cap of our 60 liter water tank open while we went on a game drive. The tank was fairly full, with maybe 40 or so liters in it, and we spent a long game drive in the morning bouncing all over the rough tracks of the park. By the time we noticed almost all of our water had been well distributed over all the gear and food in the back of the canopy. 

There we were, out of water in hot and arid northern Uganda, our gear and food soaked. Jenny was generously understanding of my mistake, for we have both nearly made this mistake many times before. And thank goodness it is warm and dry here. We spent a couple hours in camp unpacking the back of the vehicle and laying it all out in the sun. Miraculously nothing too bad was lost. Most of the food was either easily dried or the packaging had resisted the water.

Drying stuff out from the water tank disaster. We open the cap in camp to vent the tank. And usually we remember to close it. Oops.

On our Tracks4Africa map there was a borehole marked “staff borehole.” Driving down a dusty and little used track we found a disused manual pump borehole. We worked the pump for a minute or two and out came water. Thus disaster was averted, we topped up our tank with borehole water and all was right.

For our last day in Kidepo National Park we wanted to actually go to Kidepo Valley, as opposed to the Narus Valley where we’d been so far. Since the Kidepo Valley lies right up against the South Sudan border, security is a concern. UWA requires that you take an armed ranger to go there. We got up at dawn and made for Apoka to pick up a ranger. The Kidepo valley isn’t known for having great game viewing, especially in the dry season, but we figured we should check it out since we were here. Why they don’t call this the Narus Valley National Park, since that is where most of the wildlife action is, I don’t know.

Just south of Apoka is a set of kopjes that seemed promising for lions, so before getting our ranger we thought we’d do a quick loop around them, just in case we got lucky. 

Lucky we were. Jenny spotted the head of a leopard watching us from between the crevices of two big boulders. He didn’t seem to like us very much, but we got to watch him coming out of his hide to move further up into the rocks. 

We’d had a dearth of leopards on this trip, with no real sightings since Zambia. Yes, we saw a spec of one on the far side of a valley in Aberdare. In Zambia our best leopards had been sighted on a guided night game drive, which is not nearly as satisfying as spotting them on your own. The last proper sighting we’d had was when our friend Pete spotted a beautiful adolescent outside Lower Zambezi, but that was months ago. 

This sleek cat moved furtively up and around the corner, out of view. I backed the Cruiser around the rocks to regain our view and we saw a second leopard, sunning itself on the rocks above. Two leopards! Leopard number one moved up and disappeared into the rocks.

Our feeling is that leopard sightings are rare enough that you should never leave a leopard sighting, better to let them leave you. We stuck with the second leopard and were blessed with over two hours with him. He moved around and resettled in a new spot a few times and watching them move so gracefully, stealthily disappearing into bushes at times and then reappearing a moment later was captivating. It’s no wonder we don’t see many leopards, their camouflage is very effective. Even when we saw where he’d gone we’d lose track of him until he deigned to reappear. 

You might have noticed I said “he” for both, and you might also know that leopards are solitary animals and males certainly do not associate with one another. We have no explanation for this, only that both cats showed us pretty definitive proof.

In his last location the resident rock dassies had noted their new neighbor’s appearance with concern. They congregated on a rock above the leopard, watching down on him and you could almost see the worry on their faces.

Eventually he vanished into the rocks and we let him be. With this fantastic start to the day, we didn’t really care what else happened but we still proceeded to headquarters to pick up a guide for Kidepo Valley.

To Kidepo along the South Sudan Border

It was 0930 by the time we arrived and the rangers asked why we were so late. We explained our leopard sighting and they were pretty excited, saying we were very lucky and it was a great reason to be late.

Our ranger for the day was named Dennis, who was very courteous and happy to hear that we were interested in birds. He rattled off birds as we drove out the track to the Kidepo Valley. As promised the game viewing wasn’t great, one impressive elephant and a few baboons, but we still enjoyed the scenery. 

The only real “sight” in Kidepo Valley is a hot spring just a few hundred meters from the South Sudan border. Even that is a bit underwhelming, but that was expected and in any case it was more about making the journey; the drive out and back was interesting. Dennis explained a lot about the park, about the training to become a ranger, all sorts of stuff. 

Also we went to South Sudan! Sort of. On our map the road actually crosses the border, only just, and then crosses back. Whether this is true, or whether the map has the border in the wrong spot I don’t know, but in any case there is no visible difference, but we had fun dipping our toe across this invisible border.

We asked Dennis about the lions, which we had not seen in the park. The guidebook (2019) said that there were multiple large prides and an estimated population of 100 lions. Mind you the guidebook also said there are Besia oryx here, which there haven’t been for many decades. 

Dennis admitted that the lion numbers were not what they used to be. He reluctantly said there might be as many as 70 lions in the park, but frankly he didn’t even seem to believe himself. He went on to say that there was a problem with the lion population’s health and that UWA was looking into it. More on this later.

After our great success of leopards in the morning, and a brief trip to South Sudan, we were a bit tuckered out. After dropping Dennis off we retired to camp for a bit, taking refreshing cold showers and just chilling out in camp. 

Instead of the traditional evening game drive we made a brief jaunt down some game viewing tracks and found ourselves at the Apoka Lodge, where we decamped for refreshments. The only other people there were some researchers from the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. We chatted with them for a bit and enjoyed a wonderful sunset from the Apoka Lodge’s deck. 

The last morning we woke to a much hazier day, almost foggy. This made for some atmospheric scenes, particularly with the silhouette of the borassus palms. After a solid half day game drive we made our way out of the park.

Some friends had stayed at the Ngamoru Tented Camp, which apparently also allows camping. It lies just outside the park boundary, still in the bush. We bounced along a very rough cutline track towards the camp, realizing later that we had accidentally taken the back road to get there. On the way there we saw a wonderful flock of white headed turaco, but I failed to get a photo.

At Ngamoru we were the only guests. This mid-range lodge is owned by a Zimbabwean family and managed by one of the family, Brenda, another of the Zimbabweans that scattered across the continent in the early 2000s. 

She set us up with the keys to one of her bungalows for a toilet and shower. Jenny mentioned that we were looking forward to a cold beer and she responded, “You have cold beer?!” Apparently her last guests, from USAID, had cleaned her out. We offered her one and she joined us with alacrity, her wonderful daughter in tow.

She was a fascinating woman. Her family had been up in Northern Uganda for some 15 years or so, long before the Karamojong disarmament. Now it is just her and her daughter of about 10, living up here in the bush. As we chatted a herd of elephant walked by down the hill and we enjoyed a view of Kidepo National Park in the distance.

Brenda also asked us if we’d seen lions. We hadn’t, and she went on to explain that there is some disaster befalling the lions in Kidepo. She said that the old pride leader, Tim, of the largest pride, had died a few years back and the pride had fractured in two. From then the lions had not been doing well and were suspected to be suffering disease or other misfortune. She went on to explain that UWA was aware of the situation and had come to study the problem, but had been tight lipped since the completion of that study. She suspected feline immunodeficiency virus, or even tuberculosis. I did not know that cats contracted TB.

There was more, about how UWA had also commissioned a population survey of the large buffalo herds that Kidepo is famed for, but they had hired someone who also runs hunting concession adjacent to the park. She suspected that the numbers were inflated, so as to not reduce the hunting quotas that were allowed. I find all these details, the politics and dramas of conservation, fascinating.

It was a pleasant evening chatting with Brenda. She headed off and we made dinner, getting ready for a big drive towards Murchison Falls the next day.

Brenda had advised on the correct road out and our route to Murchison. The haze was even thicker today. Since we couldn’t see that well this made the drive not all that interesting. The roads were gravel at the start and in pretty good shape. 

After Kitgum the road changed to tar and we zipped along pretty fast. On this stretch of tarmac the Ugandan authorities are particularly fond of speed bumps, so even with the good road conditions progress is hardly faster than on dirt. 

In Gulu we stopped at a supermarket for provisions and had lunch at a proper cafe, the Lookout, recommended by our friends Omar and Miriam we’d run into at the Haven. 

A note on provisions, and eggs specifically. In Kenya we had good luck finding decent “yellow yolk eggs” at the supermarkets. This is a change from our last trip to east Africa, where eggs were universally from malnourished chickens eating who knows what. Typically eggs come with the weakest of barely yellow yolks, that always break upon cracking into a pan, or even break in the shell and pre-scramble themselves on the rough roads. That is if you didn’t crack them before on accident, because they’re often sold in a plastic sac, and I can confirm that a sac of eggs is not a robust way to transport them! These weak and pale eggs taste awful. A bit in Tanzania and much more in Kenya now locals are getting a taste for better eggs and you can find them in stores, even in egg cartons proudly pronouncing “yellow yolk eggs.” This trend has not extended to Uganda and we have more or less given up on eggs for the time being. 

The last stretch of road towards the park, after Olwiyo, was heavily potholed. This was at the end of quite a few hours on the road and it tired us right out. Not wanting to enter the park ragged from the long drive we decided to stay outside the park, settling on the Heritage Safari Lodge, which also has camping. It’s just a couple kilometers outside the Tangi entrance gate to Murchison. 

It was hot and humid here, a big change from Kidepo’s arid climes, and this slowed us down a bit. Again we found ourselves the only guests, but the staff were friendly and we arrived early enough to have a bit of leisure in the late afternoon. The staff were also eager that we have dinner at the restaurant. They told us they were bored and happy to have something to do, so we had a nice dinner of nile perch and chatted with the staff. 

Murchison Falls National Park

In the morning we didn’t rush out, as usual timing our entry into the park for the 24hr park permits. This gave us time to tidy up the Cruiser a bit and get organized for three nights in Murchison Falls National Park.

It is just a few minutes drive to the Tangi gate, and here we again found ourselves being charged for daily vehicle entry fees, contrary to the posted “per entry” on their fee schedule. After much discussion over this we relented, but at least we were again classified as a pick-up and not as a 4×4, making it $50 per day instead of $150. If it was $150/day we were going to reconsider our plans. 

To our surprise the road through the park was a brand new enormously wide tarmac road, which was a little odd in this wilderness park. There has been a lot of talk about this recently. Forbetter or for worse (I’m gonna’ go out on a limb and guess the latter) oil was discovered in western Uganda, and specifically within Murchison Falls National Park. I imagine the road development is part of some deal with oil companies. More on that sensitive topic here and here.

The plan was to stay at the public campsite just a few hundred meters from the falls themselves, and then spend two nights in one of the delta bush camps, a private wild campsite akin to the Serengeti special campsites. 

We made a game drive into the park, not seeing much in the north, but working our way towards the north bank of the delta that is supposedly the prime game viewing area. Huge rollinghills filled our view, green with grass and the charismatic spiky borassus palms. A few elephants were here and there and lots of antelope. It was a nice scene.

Our initial foray into the delta was short, as we intended to head to the falls and our campsite. We’d be back in the delta part of the park for the next two days. 

After this pleasant but not groundbreaking game drive in the delta we sped on to see the famous Murchison Falls themselves. Speeding onto the falls was made easy on the huge new tar road that runs through the park. Now there is also bridge across the river, no more waiting for the ferry like there used to be. Too bad, I always like to get the the Cruiser on a ferry.

Arriving at the falls parking area we again met with what felt like UWA trying to make things overly complicated. To visit the falls is, for the time being, free, but this will change in June (or July?) to $10 USD pp, on top of all the other fees already paid. This seemed annoying, and on top of that, to take the short hike upto a viewpoint to see Murchison Falls and the neighboring waterfall from a higher vista it was another $15 pp, in effect now. 

Thankfully we dodged this particular bullet, the fee increase being a few months away, and we made the short walk down to the falls, skipping the longer walk and associated fee.

Wonderful! Here the Victoria Nile, the same river that we had camped in front of in Jinja, pours through a seven meter wide gap with furious noise and energy. It is a tremendously large river pushed through a narrow pass in the rock, dropping away something like 20 meters. It was loud and the air was filled with spray, coating my camera. The viewpoint is very close to the falls themselves, it’s really impressive. 

A note about all the various Niles. The start of the Nile is somewhat in dispute, as if I recall correctly Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi all lay claim to this. Rwanda and Burundi have tagged some very modest streams as the impetus of this great river, but certainly in Uganda, exiting Lake Victoria, is the first river that is large enough to equate with the grand stature of the Nile that is in my mind. 

This first river draining out of Lake Victoria is the “Victoria Nile”. It pours through the gap at Murchison, dumping into the northern end of Lake Albert. Here it drains north and becomes the “White Nile.” Running all the way up to Sudan it joins the “Blue Nile” that comes from Ethiopia. Here at this famous confluence in Khartoum, when the White and Blue Niles join, is where it  becomes the mighty Nile that makes its way all the way to the Mediterranean. The internet tells me it takes three months for the water from Jinja to make it to the Mediterranean.

It was getting on in the day and after our impressive falls visit we made for camp, just a couple minute drive from the falls parking lot. However we found camp a bit underwhelming. This could have been a lovely camp perched on a hill with a view of the river, a few hundred meters upstream of the falls. 

Instead we found this camp had some flaws, to say the least (see Nitty Gritty), so in spite of having already paid our $6 USD pp to camp here we retreated to the Red Chili Rest Camp, a privately run campsite and lodge within the park. Our fall back plan was made practical by the new road, as it’s some distance away and if it were the old gravel road then no doubt we would have been out after the 1900 curfew. Instead we rolled into Red Chili at 1901, just a minute late. 

Red Chili is mostly fixed safari tents and has a congenial bar and restaurant. There is camping for self drivers in one corner. Here we had the happy surprise that Omar and Miriam, our overlander friends from The Haven and Zambia, rolled in to be our neighbors. They were accompanied by their friends that had joined them for ten days or so. This resulted in us staying up way too late, swapping stories and laughing over travel tales and woes. 

The following day we made an early morning game drive. The delta region of the park was bursting with life, full of antelopes, warthog, buffalos and giraffes. It seemed to be calving season among the antelope and we saw many a tiny kob, hartebeest and oribi. All were very relaxed around the vehicle and it made for nice game viewing.

Elephant were not about, though we saw their spoor. Also interesting was that many of the giraffe we saw appeared to have some sort of skin disease. The giraffe conservation team at Kidepo had said they were headed to Murchison next, and we hoped to run into them to gain an explanation, but we never saw them and the skin affliction remains a mystery.

Around one corner we spotted a male lion was making his way towards us, but a game drive vehicle from the other direction was approaching very fast and spooked him and he dashed off into the bushes. This was our only lion sighting in Murchison.

In the afternoon we took a boat cruise, which sort of seems like a ‘must-do’ if you visit Murchison Falls National Park. There are three operators and we went with one of the private companies because we thought we were told it’d return a little earlier than the UWA boat, which would be good for getting to camp. 

The cruise was pleasant enough, with good bird sightings but not a whole lot in the wildlife department. We did see elephants, hippos, waterbuck and crocodile. They take the boat as far up river and as close to the falls as they can, but this is still a fair distance away, maybe 500m. We agreed that the view from the land was more impressive.  

In the end the boat cruise got back a little late and we had to make haste down to our delta bush camp. When we booked it we asked if we could decline the ranger protection and we were told, “It is your right to do so,” so no ranger was waiting for us. 

Where exactly the delta campsite is was not entirely clear. There are supposedly two, but as far as we could tell one of them is now underwater. The water level in Lake Albert has risen as other lakes in the region, though perhaps not quite as much. 

An old fire ring under tree, not far from the lake shore, indicated a bush camp in approximately the right location and we were happy with this spot. Hippos were behind some reeds at the lakeshore, wheezing and honking away, and some kob wandered by not too far away. Other wildlife left us alone and we had an excellent evening in this wild bush camp.

The night was still but incongruously we could hear the deep bass thump of club music from somewhere across the lake. It was quite a contrast to our bush surroundings. Here in populated East Africa it is really difficult to get a true wilderness campsite where you can’t see or hear any other people. This just goes to show you how special some of the wonderful camps in Botswana are. Not that we were suffering here, but the club music did go on for many hours into the night.

After a dawn start we made an early morning game drive of middling, if pleasant, success. Kob and other antelope and buffalo were thriving in large numbers but predators remained elusive. There is a picnic area with ablutions along the lakeshore and we retired there for a brunch break. Arriving we found to our surprise a helicopter had landed there, from the high end tour company Tropic Air. 

While we pondered who gets to go on safari by helicopter tour a guy wandered over to us. He was a middle aged fellow, with a grizzled grey beard, shorts and a bit of a belly, smoking a cigarette and wearing a tattered “Tropic Air” hat. This had to be the pilot, for nobody else could get away with dressing like this at a high end tour outfit. He asked if this was ours, indicating the Land Cruiser. We said it was and in the ultimate case of the grass is always greener, he told us about how someday he plans to get a 4×4 and drive through Africa, he was tired of only looking down on it from the air.

Not long after the helicopter collected its guests, who I was pleased to see still had to use the UWA toilets like the rest of us heathens, and it flew away in a flurry of dust and noise. We retreated to camp, taking a midday break and bush showers. The evening game drive was similar to the mornings, but the wide vistas of the rolling hills of Murchison Falls National Park were again spoiled a bit from very hazy conditions. 

A few baboons were hanging out in a dead tree holding something we couldn’t identify. The binoculars and camera revealed that they were gnawing on an oribi carcass. This is very unusual to see. Though primates do eat meat it doesn’t comprise much of their diet. Later I showed a photo of it to an astonished guide who told us he would have said baboons are vegetarians, but that now he knew that not to be the case. 

The second night at our bush camp was again pleasant. Buffalo wandered near, but fortunately they turned away before we had to retreat to the safety of the Cruiser. Happily the thumping club music did not last this evening and we slept well in our wilderness location. 

In the morning there was a hippo grazing very close the the car. I thumped on the side of our canopy with my hand a couple times and he looked around in bewilderment, then trotted away from the unknown noise. Brush teeth. Boil water. Make coffee and tea. Game drive. Thick haze. The haze was sapping ourenthusiasm a bit and after a lackluster game drive we started our way out of the park, driving south on perfect tar.

Outside the park we passed through Masindi and made our way to the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Next up: Ziwa and farting rhinos, Lake Albert, Fort Portal and Jinja once more.  

The Nitty Gritty

Kidepo NP – Our guide, Dennis, said that there are plans for a third campsite, somewhere south of the crocodile pools. On top of this he said the UWA bandas at Apoka are going to be run by a concessionaire, and then UWA planned to “upgrade” one of the existing campsites with more facilities and a dormitory, to be able to accomodate student groups. We asked which campsite was going to get “upgraded” and he said probably Nakosopiri, but all plans had been put on hold because of covid and nothing was finalized.

He also said that bush camping at an undesignated campsite is possible for $80 USD. Whether this is per person or total I don’t know, and you would for sure get a ranger for security. This is an unpublished option, so if you try this make sure you get a receipt.

To visit Kidepo Valley you do need a guide, we confirmed this is a requirement. Interestingly there are no signs or gates saying this, but when I asked they were adamant. The price is $20 USD, which we paid by credit card at the tourist office. 

Game drive circuits here are good, but the roads are rough and we felt three nights was about right for timing, longer and we felt we’d run out of things to explore. We really loved Kidepo, it is a beautiful park.

Gulu

We stopped at the Cynibel Supermarket for provisions. They were well stocked, including beer. For lunch we went to the Lookout Cafe, a little east of town (on iOverlander) which offers a bakery, cafe and lunch. The menu was pretty good, but do not order the nachos. They have wifi and also allow informal camping on a huge lawn. Some friends stayed there and loved it. 

Ngamoru (Just outside Kidepo) to Heritage (just outside Tangi Gate of MFNP) 350km, 9h 5m including stops for provisions and lunch.

Murchison Falls

We found Murchison Falls (and some of the other Ugandan Parks) sort of tough nuts to crack, logistically a little convoluted. There is something about the way the parks are organized, and the way information is published on the parks, that make them a bit harder to visit with good flow. They feel a bit “chopped up,” with different areas of the park and different charges for different activities. I think Murchison Falls probably has marginally better flow visited south to north, seeing the falls on the way in and then proceeding to the delta campsites.

If the delta camps are too expensive ($40 pppn) then Red Chili is cheap, I think $10 pppn, or there is a public campsite on the north bank of the river, just west of the bridge. At this time it was noisy with the traffic of large trucks working on the road, but presumably this will subside when they are done with the last kilometers of road work.

For the waterfalls, you can view the falls from either bank, but the south bank is the best viewpoint. 

Murchison Falls Public Campsite at the Falls – 

There were three flaws with this camp. First, they have installed new ablutions, which is a fine idea, but as we have found to be common the ablution block has been situated to have itself a wonderful view of the river, blocking any view for campers. Why the ablutions are not sited at the back of the campsite in the trees I don’t know. There is supposed to be water at this camp, but again, as we found so common at campsites near rivers, they were ironically out of water. Because of the lack of water the sanitation here had suffered severely. The second flaw was that the construction teams that had been building the brand new tar road here had dumped construction debris and piles of gravel all over, so there was not much for places to park the vehicle. Lastly, during our brief survey of the campsite we were practically murdered by tsetse flies, crescendoing in me running for the car in fury, arms windmilling fruitlessly about. 

Boat Cruises

The boat cruise in MFNP are either $28, $30, or $32 dollars depending on the operator. The UWA boat looked nice enough, but we went with the more expensive option just because the cruise departed and arrived at a more convenient time. I’m sure any operator would provide a similar cruise. I’m not sure I’d classify the boat cruise as a “must do,” though if you have the budget it is certainly nice.

Pro tip (from the Bradt guide): If you take a boat cruise get a seat on the port (left) side of the vessel. The captains take the boat up river slowly and hug the left bank, getting you a closer view. On the way downriver they have to go faster due to the current, so you don’t get quite as good a close up view if you sit on the starboard side.

All UWA parks now accept credit card or mobile money payments, no cash is allowed.