Uganda Travelogue

Uganda: Gorilla trek's in the mist: a new safari destination

While not completely devoid of problems and danger, Uganda is surfacing as a promising and exciting tourist destination. Even neighboring Rwanda is coming out of its problems and we added our first client there in May, PNV Camp, operated by Volcanoe Safaris in Uganda.

In addition we have 9 properties in Uganda several of which I visited during a two week stay in July/August. We were a small group of 4 traveling in a mini bus with a local tour operator and we covered much of the country. Having visited several times a year both east and southern Africa, I can safely say Uganda is the most beautiful country I have visited in Africa with the warmest, friendliest people you'll find anywhere.

We arrived into Entebbe Airport and stayed the first night at the Windsor Lake Hotel just a few minutes from the airport. Another option would be to go to the Sheraton in Kampala about 45 minutes away.

As the focus of the trip was to track gorillas, we left the next day for Mount Gahinga National Park which shares the border with Rwanda in the southern most part of Uganda. The Park is mostly very dense jungle rising up along the slopes of an extinct volcano which is breathtakingly beautiful. We stayed at the Mount Gahinga Rest Camp just outside the gate to the park run also by Volacanoe Safaris. The gorilla trek is quite an experience and while most people only do one, I would suggest at last two as you can never be sure what your experience will be. The main caveat is that it is expensive, ($225 per person in Mount Gahinga and $275 at Bwindi, our next stop) and rather difficult. At Gahinga, there is only one group of Gorillas that can be viewed so only six people a day get permits.

The trek starts in the morning at about 7000 feet and goes up to 8200 feet so the air is thin and you are climbing the whole way up hill through some rather dense jungle. The last two hours were actually spent following our guides who had to hack the way using machete type knives. Admittedly, the others in our group who were in better shape than I was didn't find it as difficult but it is a good work out to say the least. It took us about 4 hours to find the gorillas and then you are allowed one hour with them. There isn't really anything to prepare you for the thrill of coming across a family of 10-12 gorillas; this isn't like riding around in a safari vehicle looking at game. This is the real thing! The males, called Silverbacks because of the fact that their backs are sliver, are huge. But despite one sort of mock charge by the dominate male which got the juices flowing, we had an extraordinary hour with them. They not only didn't care about our presence, they were quite curious. The babies tried to approach but the rangers always ask that we back off as they are concerned we could give them a disease. You are not supposed to get closer than 20 feet but obviously no one told the Silverback that because when he charged us he came within two feet and actually touched the cap of our ranger. Apparently it was all done in fun but the first time you see something that is 8 feet tall charging at you don't forget it. After our hour we stopped for lunch and then back to the base.

The way down at Mghinga is easy as it is all down hill. Not so at Bwindi, our next stop. Here we stayed at the Gorilla Forest Camp, probably the most upscale place in Uganda and part of Sanctuary Lodges, owned by Abercrombie & Kent. Bwindi received some rather unpleasant publicity in 99 when a group of tourists were kidnaped and killed by some rebels from Rwanda but that seems to be a problem of the past as even Rwanda is now open to tourism. In any case you are always accompanied by several armed guards in addition to your guides, trackers and porters. Bwindi is the main park where tourists come to see the gorillas as there are three groups here so they allow two groups of 6 and one group of 4 to go out separately and look for the gorillas.

Our trek took almost 3 hours each direction and in Bwindi, this is somewhat more difficult as the whole trip is an up and down hike through very dense brush. There is a reason why it is called the Impenetrable Forest!! Our gorillas here were much more active so we didn't have as close an experience with them as at Mghinga but still they were swinging from trees, banging their chests and there was even one female who was holding on to her dead baby which was quite sad: the mother just couldn't let go. But again it was an extraordinary experience.

Gorilla Forest Camp is a luxury tented camp that was certainly more upscale than the Volcanoes lodge at Mghinga, (Volcanoe also has a lodge at Bwindi) but there was such a lot of charm at Mghinga that we saw both as wonderful experiences.

From Bwindi we moved on to the Queen Elizabeth National park on Lake Albert and the Mweya Lodge. The lodge enjoys a spectacular setting on a hill overlooking the water. Here we were back in more traditional safari mode. We took an evening cruise that allows you to see large herds of buffalo, hippos, some elephants, crocodiles, various antelopes and many varieties of birds. The next day we did morning and afternoon game drives coming across buffalo, elephants, water buck, the very beautiful Uganda Kob (a sort of large, orangish Impala with swept back horns), a pride of lions with 5 cubs and many birds.

Mweya is a beautiful lodge with an excellent restaurant, we even had hippos come up at night, mongoose in the lobby and wart hogs on the lawn. I should point out that with few exceptions, the service and staff everyone was terrific.

After two days at Mweya, we moved over to Jacana Lodge, also in the Queen Elizabeth National Park but about 40 minutes away and situated on a beautiful lake near the Chambera Gorge, famous for it's Chimpanzees. The lodge is certainly one of the most beautiful I have ever been to and we had a wonderful Black and White Colubus monkey that posed for us right outside our room along with some extraordinary large spiders in their huge web's. During our stay a variety of additional monkeys came around making it really special.

Our chimp walk was not as successful as the gorillas. Apparently the chimps cover more ground and they are never quite sure where they are. Normally the whole walk is 3 hours but after 3 hours we still had not even found a real trace of them and the trek, which I thought would be sort of a walk in the woods, was becoming more dangerous than the gorilla treks. We were going up and down the gorge and eventually had to cross a river full of hippos and maybe croc's, balancing on a log. This was a balancing act I had not practiced for though we manage somehow but when we got to a sheer drop of about 50 yards with no apparent way back up we finally called it quits and when back to the lodge. Part of our group went out again in the afternoon but still didn't find the chimps.

But the next day we were off to Kibali park which is the main place in Uganda to see the chimps and here we had better luck, though not much. After several hours and just before we had to come back as it was getting dark, we found three chimps way up in trees that looked endless from the ground. But at least we had our chimp sighting.

Finally we headed off for two final days at Muchenson Falls National Park which is cut in half by the Nile. Needless to say the Nile starts in Lake Victoria and is a major part of tourism in Uganda. Here we stayed at the sister lodge of Jacana, the Nile Safari Lodge. It was just as beautiful and set right on the banks of the Nile River: sipping Gin & Tonics from our terrace, listening to the hippos and birds and watching the sunset over the Nile is about as romantic as it gets. We actually could take a boat from the lodge to the main park area for the cruise to the falls. The falls themselves are lovely but not extraordinary, but the boat trip is rather special. We saw huge pods of hippos in and out of the water, some very large croc's and a couple of herds of elephants that had come down to drink and had trouble getting back up the banks of the river. They were actually pushing each other up the river bank!! There were buffalo, giraffe and various members of the antelope family also on view as well as dozen's of beautiful birds.

We also were able to take a game drive and visit the sister lodge of Mweya, Paara Lodge which also sits on the Nile across from where we were at Nile Safari Camp. It is a lovely setting with a speculator view: the swimming pools at both places overlook the Nile making for a really special setting.

Then it was back to Entebbe and the Windsor Lake Hotel and our early morning flight out. British Airways is the only European airline flying into Uganda though you can get there from Kenya or South Africa easily enough.

There is no question this was the most difficult of our safari trips but perhaps one of the most rewarding. The country, game and the people make Uganda a really special place and the gorillas just are icing on the top. This is a trip you wont regret.

Bob Hertzka
Managing Director