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UGANDA AND KENYA SAFARI 2000
22nd September 2000 Gatwick
Left for airport at 6pm. Not much traffic on the M25. Bought some cigarettes and phoned Mum to say ‘Bye. Plane left at 22:15.
23rd September 2000 Entebbe
Landed Nairobi at 8:30 2 hours behind London. Stayed on the plane for the onward trip to Entebbe. Kenya looked very brown no rain for ages flew over one of the Rift Valley lakes then over Lake Victoria. Uganda was green. Met the rest of the crew at the hotel. 16 on the tour. Went to our camp, unpacked, toured the truck and had spaghetti bolognaise for dinner. Shower and bed at 22:00.
24th September 2000 Kampala
Rained last night. Up at 6am and visited some old tombs of the Ugandan kings and then onto a Catholic Church where 22 martyrs are remembered. Kampala seems to be the most run-down capital city I’ve visited. Lots of incomplete buildings and nothing modern. Cooked chapati’s for dinner and went to the camp bar. Too many people. Bed at 22:00.
25th September 2000 Mbarara
Up at 6am. Went into Kampala to change money and buy stamps. Drove to Mbarara stopping at the equator for lunch. Uganda is very green, lots of banana trees and children always wave at the truck. Rained a little in the afternoon. Camped at Mbarara, saw a couple of impala on the way as well as big-horned cattle. Fish for dinner.
26th September 2000 Queen Elizabeth
Up at 6am. Nice cooked breakfast then drove to QE2. Nice scenery of the craters and stopped at a tea plantation. QE2 is quite flat, surrounded by mountains. Saw waterbuck, bushbuck, elephants, Ugandan Kob and lots of warthogs and great forest hogs. Saw hippo from a distance and in the camp munching grass. At dinner, were surrounded by BILLIONS of midges, but no sunset because of rain. Left camp for a few beers at the lodge and met a hippo on the way. Bed at 11:30.
27th September 2000 Queen Elizabeth
Up at 5:30 for morning game drive. Only saw warthog, reedbuck, waterbuck and Kob fighting. Saw one limp hyena. Did washing at lunchtime and then went for boat-trip on Kasinga Channel. Saw hippo, fish-eagles, and lots of Lilly-trotters, buffalo, maribou and yellow-billed storks. Had a beer in the pub, then a terrific thunderstorm during dinner. Had it in the truck. Tent got bust in the storm.
28th September 2000 Somewhere in Uganda
Up at 5am. Quick brekkie then onto Chamburu Gorge to see Chimpanzees. Slid in the mud through QE2 and went to Fig Tree Camp and then went down the gorge. Steep hike in the gorge and started raining. Couldn’t cross the river due to it being so high due to rain. Climbed out then saw the chimps from the truck as well as some Colobus monkeys. The others went back into the gorge and saw the chimps but I was too tired. Drove past Mbarara to camp and had a nice hot shower and spaghetti bolognaise. Bed at 22:30.
29th September 2000 Lake Bunyonyi
Lay-in until 7:30. After brekkie drove to Kabal through great scenery very hilly and with green steppe fields and valleys. Campground has no facilities but great location on Lake Bunyonyi. Took photos of flowers, pied kingfisher and sunbirds. Saw stars and fireflies at night having beers at campfire. Bed at 23:00
30th September 2000 Lake Bunyonyi
Up at 6am to get a boat to Bushara Island. Boat was 30mins late. Saw a couple of crowned cranes flying overhead on the way. On the island saw malachite kingfisher, cormorants nesting, Halibis Ibis, sunbirds and bee-eaters. After returning, went to Kabal for shopping. After lunch did my washing and took photos of kingfishers, sunbird, cormorant, Lilly-trotter and grey heron. Also saw weavers and otters. Found out we were camping at Idi Amins old Country Retreat. Silly songs round the campfire. Bed at 23:15.
1st October 2000 Bwindi
Up at 6am and travelled to Bwindi. Sat on the roof seat most of the way. Very hilly with steppe fields, road was a dirt track up and down the hills. Lots of small villages with kids waving. At Bwindi the vegetation is more coniferous and thick forest on the mountains. Very muggy with huge ants, spiders and other creepy-crawlies. Thunderstorm in afternoon. Played scrabble. Bed at 23:30.
2nd October 2000 Bwindi
Lay-in until 7:45 and wished the first group to go Gorilla Trekking Good Luck. Cleaned my cameras and had a shower the first for 3 days. The group returned from the gorillas at 10:30 it was a 10-minute walk to see M Group of Gorillas but it won’t be like that tomorrow when we see H Group! Thunderstorm at 10:30. The rain stopped at 15:00 so went to see the pygmies. Rain started again and they danced in the rain for us but they were not very small. Felt dodgy, went to bed at 21:20.
3rd October 2000 Bwindi
Up at 6am and threw up. One of the others went to see the gorillas instead of me so I could recover from dehydration. Had a snooze and drank loads of water and felt OK. Didn’t do much for the rest of the day. The H group of Gorillas were over the mountain taking the guys 2 hours to find them. This group has 2 silverbacks. Did not rain today. Went to bed at 22:00.
4th October 2000 Bwindi
Up at 6am, to a cloudy sky and watched the sun come up over the mountains. Felt better than yesterday but still a bit dodgy. Had some toast and walked down to the park entrance with the others. We set off to see the M group of Gorillas the first to be habituated here. The A&K ironed-safari-suit brigade go off to track H group over the mountain. We walk down a slope for 2 minutes and stop is this the shortest gorilla trek ever? This is where the gorillas were yesterday and after a short talk by our tracker on do’s and don’ts we are joined by my porter carrying both cameras in my rucsac, a couple of trackers as well as the obligatory armed guards. The trackers start hacking the grass/bamboo with machetes and off we go. We cross a stream (slippery stepping stones) and then through the forest quite steep. After half and hour or so we find the gorilla nests. Each with a pile of pooh. You can tell the size of the gorilla from the size of the pile. The trackers take samples and point out a nest up a tree quite rare we’re told. There are several nests all quite close to each other. After another fifteen minutes the trackers starts grunting and making more noise hacking down the forest. They tell us to get our cameras ready and there deep in the undergrowth between the trees down the slope I see the back of the head of a gorilla. There are several more and then they disappear. We follow but it takes us a while to catch up. There is a large one in a tree eating seems very big then notice his grey back. There’s also a mother with baby on her back and a small one by himself climbing the gap between two close trees. We watch for a while only 5m or so from the silverback, then he climbs down the tree and disappears again. Bwindi translates as muddy, swampy dark place and that’s what it is. We follow again and see the mother with baby on her back walk through the trees and the silverback eating again. And then our hour is up all too quickly. We make our way back across the stream and are at the back of a village. A 10-minute walk from the village to the gorillas. Arrive back about 11:00. It starts to rain just as we enter the village. I gave my porter $15 and he seemed happy. It rained for the rest of the day. I read part of Gorillas in the Mist, by Dian Fossey, but got upset by the descriptions of the slaughters and so stopped. Watched local women dance then bed at 22:00.
5th October 2000 Kampala
Up at 5:30 yes 5:30 to drive to Kampala. First half was very bumpy steep road/track through the mountains and banana plantations. Then we found tarmac. Drove through Mbarara again and then onto Kampala. Buffet at campsite then a few more beers. Bed at 22:30.
6th October 2000 Jinja
Lay-in until 7:30. Drove to Kampala, wrote postcards. Finished Gorillas in the Mist then drove to Jinja. Crossed the HEP dam at Owen Falls still a lot of work going on and then onto our campsite at Bujagali Falls on the bank of the Nile. Took photos of the falls, cormorants, darters and fish eagles. Beers at the bar also saw a patrol of millions of safari ants not nice outside the toilet block. Bed at 21:45.
7th October 2000 Jinja
Lay-in until 7:30 then went rafting down the Nile. Mike was our guide, the owner of the camp. Typical rafting nutter. Went swimming at the second big rapid then stopped for lunch on an island. After lunch, long pools between rapids getting sunburnt. After rafting had a few beers in the bus back to camp, then beers in the bar. Pissed. Bed at 22:00.
8th October 2000 Kisuma
Up at 6:30. Drove into Kenya. Border crossing took an hour. Very hot, then powerful thunderstorm cleared the air. Camp on the banks of Lake Victoria at Kisuma. Bed at 23:30.
9th October 2000 Lake Naivasha
Up at 6:30. Took a few photos of waterbirds on the bank of Lake Victoria then went to Kisuma for shopping. Drove through the Rift Valley and over the equator through Nakuru and onto Naivasha. We arrived at 5:30 and there’s now an electric fence to keep the hippo out and they’ve destroyed the waterfront so there’s no waterbirds just loads of superb starlings. Beers at the bar and bed at 1am.
10th October 2000 Maasai Mara
Up at 6:30. Drove to the Maasai capital of Narok still as grotty as ever. Bought some beers. Drove to the Mara after lunch very parched with dirt devils. Game drive in the Mara on the way to camp. Saw a large herd of elephants, zebra, Thompson Gazelle, wildebeest and a couple of Eland. Found 5 lions sitting around. Drove to camp and beers around the campfire. Almost full moon. Bed at 22:45.
11th October 2000 Maasai Mara
Up at 5:30, after breakfast went on a game drive. Saw impala, gazelle, zebra, and wildebeest. Then came across a young male lion over a zebra kill with lots of vultures and a jackal. After a bit saw a pride of lions a way off. Lion, 3 cubs and 3 lionesses in the bushes but couldn’t get close. Went to lodge and saw Glossy, Hildebrandt’s and Superb starlings. As well as lots of baboons. Went to the Mara River and saw lots of hippo, vervet monkeys with young babies and a couple of crocodiles. Went to the Tanzanian border then continued on and saw a lone bull elephant then a group of 3 elephants one youngster and a baby playing in the mud. Saw a few ostriches and a hyena. Came across a black rhino in the bushes and another lone elephant. Beers round the campfire then bed at 22:30
12th October 2000 Maasai Mara
Up at 05:30 for morning game drive. Saw a couple of giraffe as well as the usual antelopes. Saw 3 hyena eating a wildebeest then stopped for a quick break. Took photos of starlings and storks. After break saw 4 cheetah walking across the savannah, then they rested in the bushes. Then saw a herd of elephants before returning to camp for washing and a shower but no water! Afternoon game drive saw tawny eagle, lilac-breasted roller and a couple of saddle-billed storks. Also a lone lion in the distance. Bed at 22:45.
13th October 2000 Nairobi
Up at 6am and drove out of the Mara. Saw a leopard cross the road and run into the bushes at least we saw the big 5! Stopped in Narok and then lunch in the Rift Valley. Stopped for photos at the escarpment before driving to Nairobi. Sorted out my stuff before shower and then dinner at The Carnivore. Had zebra, impala, beef, spare ribs, sausages, chicken and crocodile. Afterwards we went to the club. Bed at 01:30.
14th October 2000 Home
Lay-in until 11:30. Lazed by the pool and bought a couple of souvenirs. Quick beer with the others before taking a taxi to the airport. Not a pleasant flight, in a J seat so a bit claustrophobic. And showed the same film as outbound flight (U571). Taxi was waiting for journey back home. Arrived 7am.
Animals seen on Safari
Lions13 Hyeana7 Jackals5 Gorillas7 Black Rhino1 Cheetah4 Leopard1
Highlights
§Gorillas §Black Rhino §Sunrise and sunsets §Kasinga Channel §Sunbirds and Starlings §Banana Plantations
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