Uganda Highlights

Uganda is a country filled with surprises and highlights for the nature and adrenaline lover. After rafting some of the biggest and fastest rapids on the headwaters of the Nile, I met up with Jim and Cheryl in the bustling capital Kampala. Eager to get out of the big city and back into nature we headed northwest to Murchison Falls National Park. The park is mostly situated along the banks of a river that flows down from the mighty murchison falls. This is where the mighty Nile is squeezed and forced thru a 6 meter wide canyon creating what may be the most powerful waterfall on the planet. Highlighted by a boat trip up the hippo and croc filled river to the base of the falls MFNP did not fail to impress.

The park was further highlighted by a trip to a southern area of the park set in thick woodlands where Chimpanzees are known to live. We went out early one morning with our guide Abraham and after about 2 kilometers we heard the chimps up in the trees. They were way up, about 120ft, but we could see them peel off the bark of the trees and chewing it for nutrients. Then they would drop the bark crashing down to us on the forest floor below. They started moving around more and more until just as our hour was almost up they started clamboring down to the ground. Seeing the chimps so close walking along on the knuckles made me feel like I was sharing the forest with Bigfoot. The glided silently thru the trees only occasionally making the chimp noises that parents are so fond of making to their children.

The rough driving started as we left MFNP. The road was built up with slick mud, leaving deep water filled trenches on either side. Making it worse still it was only big enough for 1 ½ cars wide. So you ran the risk of sliding off into the trench whenever you passed someone. We slide of once and managed to get back up and we saw it happen to the car in front of us. We made it but the fun wasn’t over yet.

Driving thru more rain and small town the road got progressively worse and worse on our way down to Queen Elizabeth Nat’l Park. Finally we came upon 5 cars stopped on a particularly muddy uphill where a semi had slid into a trench sideways blocking the better part of the road. Another truck had attempted to sneak by him on the left but managed only to slide off into a deep trench on that side thus blocking the road completely. Villagers were furiously trying to unstuck the smaller truck to no avail. But with lots of persistence and with Jim’s help they finally managed to move the truck enough that cars might be able to slip thru. I was driving and I was pretty nervous. We creeped around the semi and I could feel the back tires sliding towards the left trench but once again we managed to slip by safely, this time by centimeters.

Queen Elizabeth National park is filled with beautiful landscapes but eerily void of animals. During Idi Amins’ reign of terror on Uganda most of the animals were shot down for food. It still hasn’t recovered, although the lush landscape shows promise. From huge lake filled craters to tree climbing lions in the south I would say that this park is a can’t miss when in Uganda. While it was hard to see any animals up in the north of the park there was massive amounts of wildlife on the banks of the river. We took another boat cruise and lucked out with just the three of us being there. We glided right up to hippos with babies, bathing water buffalo, malachite kingfishers, yellow billed storks, and herds of elephants. Towards dusk we even saw hippos climbing out of the water onto the grass filled banks to forage. Its hard to believe that they are the number one killer of man in Africa when you see them act so peaceful.

The roads south of QENP surprised us once again. Massive mountains had to be climbed on rocky roads which we could only manage in 1^st gear. We were pushing the car so hard I was afraid it might not make it. But the promise of tarmac was great motivation and we set on for hours. One mountain turned into two, then three, then an entire range. We were up on these logging roads unsure if we were still headed the right direction until a local villager would assure us we were, sometimes with a noncommittal grunt that I just took as assurance.

After what seemed like hours, and was actually hours, we saw the tarmac. And about 200ft after turning on the tarmac the car died. It took a cramped taxi ride to the nearest city, two mechanics, and a huge gathering of kids getting out of school to get the ‘Turtle’ up and running again. We knew we couldn’t make the Rwandan border before dark so we settled for Kisoro. And we were surprised yet again. Read the next post to find out why!