Uganda: Kampala – Kibale NP – Queen Elizabeth NP – Kabale

We left our campsite in Eldoret (Kenya) early, heading for the border crossing to Uganda. When we got to within 4km of the border the queue to cross the border for the trucks started. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait in that queue, which our guide informed us can take 3-4 days to clear! Progress across the border was uneventful, although one of our group got in trouble for taking photos of the customs building.

The rest of the day was spent in the bus/truck driving through Uganda to our campsite in the outskirts of the capital of Uganda, Kampala. Compared to Kenya, the roads are much, much better in Uganda, the land is generally greener, with many banana and tea plantations amongst the green fields of trees and bushlands. Progress isn't as slow as Kenya but we rarely get to country's speed limit of 100km/h. It rained most of the afternoon but fortunately our camp for the night, called “Red Chilli” gave us the option to upgrade to dorm style accommodation, rather than putting up the tent, for a whopping $3 upgrade fee, which basically everyone opted for. The camp also had a bar with free wifi, which worked intermittently and got worse when many people were using. I should mention that beers are around $2 AUD for long neck, full strength beer. The Kenyan beer of choice is Tusker (4.2%), while the Ugandan beer, Nile Special, packs a little more punch (5.6%).

The next day was another day in the bus, as we headed for the Kibale National Park, west of Kampala toward Rwanda. Fortunately it wasn't raining for most of today, although it was a little overcast and rained a bit later on. More rolling hillsides covered in tea plantations, towns with shanty buildings and far too many speed bumps and mercifully flat roads were the order of the day. Another couple of Ugandan beers were sampled at the bar that night, which overlooked the lush green rolling hills of Uganda, just outside Fort Portal, mostly covered in tea plantations. On offer were Eagle Extra (6.5%) and Bell (4.0%). The camp showers were also open air, which you could stand in and see out over the hillside, which were nice (especially as they had hot water).

The following day the group was divided into two, with one lot people going off to trek for chimpanzees in the Kibale National Forest, while the other got to have a bit of a sleep in before heading for a 2 hour walking tour around some tea plantations, some local houses and the crater lake that were all located nearby our camp. In the afternoon, the groups swapped. We were in the afternoon group to trek the chimps and after hearing good stories from the morning group, were excited and expecting so see the chimps that afternoon. We set off on foot around 1:30pm to a very quiet, very humid forest walk in the direction that the last group had left the chimps. However, luck was not on our side – we walked til after 5pm, trekking up and down hills, over bushes, through mud, across rivers and under branches but did not find any chimps. We left the forest most despondent, completely covered in sweat and exhausted. It was an early night that night.

Fortunately, our guide was able to organise for our group to go back early to the chimps the next day and try again – even the rangers were disappointed that they couldn't find them for us. So we got up early (5:30am) and headed back to the forest. Fortunately, this time it didn't take us long to find the chimps – just shy of 30mins trekking. It took a while to get the right setting on the camera because of the low lighting but eventually got some good photos as we followed the chimps through the forest. At one stage, our guide spotted an elephant, which Amanda and I were able to look at through the binoculars, before the elephant turned and headed for our group, at which point we were told to run the opposite direction, and our guide cocked his assault rifle and let two rounds off into the air to scare the elephant away. It was all very exciting, especially considering the disappointment of the previous day. We continued to track the chimps for about 2.5hours in total before heading back to camp, getting the others and heading for Queen Elizabeth National Park, which was to be our home for a night.

Upon arrival at QENP, we had a two hour boat ride around one of the lakes – Lake Edward, along with our tour groups. QENP is known for its elephant and hippo populations and during our cruise, we observed plentiful numbers of both, along with a variety of birds, water buffalo, baboons, crocs and deer. At this point, I've already taken over 700 photos. After the boat ride, we drove to our campsite for the night, where most people upgraded to walk in rooms with hot showers and real beds, but Amanda and I stuck to our tent, instead indulging by taking several of the Intrepid supplied camp mattresses to make our tent more comfortable.

The next day, we awoke and departed camp for Kabale. Most of the day was spent in the truck on pretty poor roads, which made the going very slow – especially as a lot of the roads weren't even bitumen. At one point, our truck failed to make it up one of the steeper muddy road hills, with the whole truck finishing on a 40 degree angle to the road as a result of some back end wheel spin crab crawling. We were stuck for about an hour until the driver decided he wanted another shot at it, threw some dry material under the wheels and gave it a solid dose of the loud pedal. Successfully getting us up the hill. We were supposed to stay down by a lake tonight but due to the rains, the roads were inaccessible for not only our truck but also smaller 4wd vehicles. Instead, we camped in town at Cepha's Inn, which had nice grass to pitch our tents, a bar and free wifi.

We were up early the day for our trip to the Rwandan border, from tomorrow, our group will be broken up into smaller groups to begin our tracking of the mountain gorillas in Rwanda. So that's it for Uganda (for now), next update from/about Rwanda.