In June 2022 I visited Uganda with my friends Jennifer and Susie, friends for more than 60 years. The trip was organized by my wonderful friend Wyclef Rushaju who we hired in 2019 for the Uganda visit Mike and added to the end of our Kenya trip. His business is called Gorillas and Beyond.
We flew from Portland over Greenland and through Amsterdam and Kigali, Rwanda to Entebbe, Uganda. Everything went well but it felt like way to much sitting.
We stayed 2 nights at the Airport Link Guest House in Entebbe; this is my friend Susie in our room.
Heading out to the Entebbe Botanical Garden: friends Jennifer and Susie and our guide Wyclef.
Vervet monkey
Blue headed gamma lizard
Next adventure was boating to the Mabamba Swamp where we got on a narrower boat to search for a shoebill stork. So lucky to find one! None of the other tours for days had seen one.
When we left Entebbe Friday morning we stopped at the Uganda Museum in Kampala.
We got to meet Wyclef’s brother Bruce (left)
And their sister-in-law Ammabel who started a women’s empowerment project called GLOW - Greater Life Options and Opportunities for Women. The organization runs a girls school and we’ll get to visit the school and meet our sponsored student, Savior, later in the trip.
Meal on the way - steamed goat and ground nuts (peanuts)
The king was visiting the next day because of a big soccer tournament - lots of dancing and drumming in addition to the new towers.
A quieter way to buy fruit
We spent the night in the Guest House at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary. Those are rhinos under the huge cactus tree and warthogs near the bottom edge of the photo, babies on the left.
A rhino-shaped impression where one slept in the night, horn near Wyclef’s feet. That’s our guest house in the background.
There was a quirky, tame grey crowned crane.
In addition to a few rhinos hanging out near the guesthouse, we went on a drive and hike to visit more.
The next morning our first stop was a hike around the top of Murchison Falls where the Nile River rages through a 24’ wide slot.
We stayed at Pakuba Lodge for 3 nights.
First up, a night game drive. We saw some giraffes, lots of antelope, some African hares, a jackal, a Nile crocodile, 2 types of mongoose, a leopard, and this mama lion with 2 cubs.
We went on 2 boat trips on the Nile - one to the base of Murchison Falls and the other in the other direction to the Delta. Here are some highlights:
Black and white colobus monkey
Village weaver bird in the act of weaving
Goliath Heron
We also went on a morning game drive and an evening game drive and saw a mind-blowing variety of wildlife. Here are some of my favorite photos:
Male Ground Hornbill
Patas monkey
Ugandan Kobs fighting
Old timer African Cape Buffalo
Leopard!
Giraffes are especially photogenic, I think.
Whacking each other with their necks
More Ugandan Kobs
Nearly all of the lions we saw in Murchison Falls National Park were females and mostly in trees, something not associated in my reading with this area. I’d read that one place in Tanzania and the Ishasha Sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park to the south in Uganda were the hot spots for this.
This radio collared female probably had cubs the day after I took this photo - her milk is already in. She and the next one and one additional lion are sisters who were orphaned very young and, incredibly, survived on their own. They’re still close which is lucky for the new cubs - 2 capable aunties to hunt so mom can protect them.
This was not zoomed in - the tree was right by the road.
After Murchison Falls we headed south to Kibale National Park where we finally had wifi. Here are a few sights along the way.
Olive baboons
We stayed 3 nights at Kibale Guest Cottages where Mike and I stayed in 2019. When we’re not all in the same room we trade off who gets the single. I’m on the right, Susie and Jennifer on the left.
The first full day we went chimpanzee tracking. This was a special challenge for Jennifer who has had 8 knee surgeries in the last 4 or 5 years. With the help of some porters she made it to the first group of chimps.
She headed back with her helpers and Susie and I had another hour of tracking down chimps with our ranger guide, Edison. They’re habituated to humans and are not shy - we could get within feet of them and saw 2 mating.
This one was swinging her feet and talking to herself
There was a lot to see in the forest in addition to chimps.
We did a Bigodi Community Experience that had 3 stops. This woman demonstrated her process to make coffee from picking through removing the husks, roasting, grinding, sifting, and brewing.
This young man makes juice, wine, beer, and gin out of bananas. He demonstrated part of the processes and we tasted them (except for Jennifer who won’t have anything to do with bananas).
Next up was a group of weavers who demonstrated their skills, allowed us to try it, and did some singing and dancing for us.
Another activity we enjoyed in the Kibale/Bigodi area was a wide range of traditional Ugandan foods on a giant lazy Susan; we were able to taste each and then top up our plates with our favorites which included this millet bread.
Susie and I did a hike in the Bigodi Swamp. Some highlights:
3 vervet monkeys
Next we headed south toward Queen Elizabeth National Park. En route we stopped in the village of Kidupu where we visited a school and some land Wyclef owns above town. There’s a solar-run water tank system on his property that provides the town with fresh water.
The local chairman (left) with Wyclef on the property.
A few more sights on the road:
Goats and chickens on a motorbike
A water draining demonstration on the equator, part truth and part grooved pans to increase the function. Ha!
We stayed in the Queen Elizabeth Bush Lodge on the Kazinga Channel, same room where Mike and I stayed complete with outdoor shower and a fantastic elephant show from the porch.
Dinner served by lantern light
Some highlights from Queen Elizabeth National Park:
Hammerkops and their nest - they make enormous nests, sometimes taken over by larger birds like eagles
Here are highlights from our Kazinga Channel boat trip:
We headed south in Queen Elizabeth National Park for one night in Enjojo Lodge. Some highlights along the way:
Long crested eagle
Wooden bike - we see these frequently along the road
School kids performing for us
After dropping Jennifer at the little air strip to start her journey home, we headed to Wyclef’s beautiful Bweza Lodge near the Rushaga Gate of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. Here are some area views, from the car and while hiking.
The view from our deck of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest
Sunbird, also from our deck
3 horned chameleons - male and female
Local women, complete with adorable babies, performed for us (with babes on their backs)
Grey crowned crane from the deck off the dining room
We did a hike from the lodge to Rushaga
Bee-eaters
Saying goodbye to Aida who took such great care of us
Gorilla trekking! Wyclef recommended trekking to see the only habituated (used to human visitors) gorilla family in Mgahinga National Park because this time of year they’re up in the bamboo with more light and better views. We drove about an hour to get to the starting point, went through orientation, and hiked about 2 hours before getting to their hang out of the day. Trackers had gone up ahead of us to find them and radioed the location to our ranger guide, Laurian. We had an hour with the gorillas before heading back down, hiking about 6 miles total. A few highlights:
On the way up
The Nyakagezi family has 9 members including 3 massive silver backs which is very unusual - most families just have one. The alpha silver back, Mark, is about 45 years old and the largest in Uganda. The others were born in the early 90s. There are also 2 adult females, a black back male, 2 juveniles (male and female, 3-4 years old) and an infant male (pushing a year and a half) who stole the show by climbing up and down the vines, swinging around, dropping leaves onto one of the silverbacks, and thumping his chest.
Mark
Infant Ndiza putting on a show for us
Ndungutze (#2 silver back) taking a nap
Here’s the whole group, trackers at the top, guards nearest the camera. There are forest elephants and African cape buffalo in the forest that they say they’ll protect us from by shooting in the air. Also of note is we could hear artillery booms from across the valley in the Congo.
Group portrait; next to me is my trusty porter, Moses, who carried my backpack and water helped me up and down the steep parts.
An absolute highlight was visiting the GLOW women’s empowerment project Girls’ Skill Center and meeting our sponsored student, Savior. The girls had prepared songs and dances for us and we got to visit the classrooms and see some of Savior’s projects. We shopped ahead for fabric and yarn to donate and ended with a nice lunch in the home of Wyclef and his lovely wife Lydia.
Tailoring project
Next we moved into this little cabin on gorgeous Lake Bunyonyi at the Lake Bunyonyi Eco Resort.
First zebra of the trip but it didn’t count - a relatively tame one that lives on the island where the lodge is.
We ate crayfish masala, thermador, soup, and pizza - here are the traps.
We took a boat trip that included passing this tiny ‘punishment island’ where until the 40s unwed pregnant women were left to die. Occasionally a man who couldn’t afford a bride price would save one; there’s still a woman living in the area who was such a bride. Ironically, when we returned to the lodge we learned that Roe v Wade had been overturned.
We had a wonderful meal out with Wyclef, his wife Lydia, and their boys Elijah and Ethan - so happy to meet these wonderful, bright-eyed boys in person!
Wyclef invited us to a wedding and Lydia dressed us up. Such a wonderful cultural experience and the food was amazing.
Here are a few more roadside scenes.
We stayed our last 2 nights at Rwakobo Rock in this little cabin. We were warned to keep our door locked or baboons would enter and steal things.
Another soaring thatched roof
Bush buck by our room and olive baboons by the dining area
We went on a game drive and a walking safari in nearby Mburo Lake National Park - our first zebras in a park - lots of babies.
Our walking safari guide at one of the kill sites - this was a young zebra, probably taken by a leopard.
We also saw our first elans - the biggest sort of antelope.
African white-backed vultures
It’s cattle country - these ones lined up for me.
And then we were heading back to Entebbe to start our long journey home!
Every drive was a game drive - this is a lilac-breasted roller and we saw another shoebill, too.
We stopped so I could buy fabric.
It was hard to say goodbye to Wyclef who was not only our driver and guide but our teacher and friend. This was a really wonderful, memorable trip and I feel both blessed to have experienced it and grateful to be heading home.
If you'd like to see the full collections of photos from this trip, they're on my Flickr site HERE.
HAPPY TRAILS!
