Impressions of Africa

One moment sticks out showing the contrast between Africa and home. When we went for a walk through the Ugandan village in Bwindi, a small boy of about 10 came up to us and struck up a conversation. He was simply curious to learn about us.

Had the situation been reversed, no child would approach adult strangers in the UK. And they'd either have been worried about being taken for paedophiles or else wondering what scam was about to be pulled.

Indeed we can only imagine what reception would be given to affluent, lone, black strangers wandering into a poor white area in the UK. Hostility and suspicion - maybe even outright violence. Instead we met only a warm welcome , friendliness, smiles and waves.

In Uganda particularly (we didn't really get to meet many local people in Kenya - the Masai came to talk to us at the Lodge about their culture and performed traditional dances - but it was all very stage-managed entertainment) we got the impression from the large numbers of people standing or sitting outside their houses that people had time for themselves and each other. While this lack of industry may hold them back economically, who is to say that we Europeans, with our stress and lack of leisure time, have got it right? We may pity them for their poverty and the lack of what we consider basic amenities but they may pity us for our hectic lifestyle and the lack of work-life balance that we suffer to pay for it.

Uganda 9 December 2006

Morning drive to the equator. Stop. Watch water spiral out clockwise and anti-clockwise a few metres apart on either side of the equator then flow straight down on the equator itself.

Petrol stop in Masakah. Mateo asks us if we want lunch. It's a bit early but there is, he says, nowhere to eat for the next three hours. Okay then. It turns out that just round the corner is the same place he stopped at for lunch on the way out. Definitely on commission.

Again no buffet. Chips with everything. Except everything bar the fish is off. So those who ordered chicken and chips just got chips!

Enter Kampala. Some roadworks or an accident are blocking the main road in. We go round the houses and see, amongst other places of interest, the Catholic Cathedral and President's Palace.

Entebbe Airport. Check in very orderly and it turns out the onward connecting flight from Kenyatta is no longer cancelled. Some are put out: "But we wanted a night in Nairobi." Others are not dressed for UK arrival but for overnight in African temperatures. Cue hasty unpacking of longer, heavier, warmer clothes.

Change Ugandan shilligs for Kenyan and go through passport control. Spend the last Ugandan coins on coffee and cakes in the airport cafe.

Uneventful flight back to Nairobi - crossing the Equator for the 5th time in as many days. Southbound again - see how the other half lives.

Again Kenyan Airways informaton is good. Check at the service desk that we have veggie food ordered. They confirm the instructions (that are carried out).

Wait in departure lounge. Tedious, junk TV. The flight leaves less than an hour late. Re-cross the Equator. Northbound. Homeward.

Uganda 8 December 2006 cont.

It's over. Scramble back uphill to retrieve our packs and exit the forest. Emerge high on the hill. Stop for lunch. Take in scenery - green hills and dramatic mountains in the distance.


Awesome is an over-used word but I can't think of any other to use. It is the only way to describe the sense of wonder at being so close to some of the last 750 mountain gorillas in the world. They have babies. The population was down to 650 a decade ago. But for how long? When will some human upheaval eradicate them or their environment? A pessimistic view of their prospects for survival.



Another scramble back down the hill to the bus. Back to the village. One last haggle secures a candlestick at less than half the original asking price. Then grab the luggage and into the bus for the long drive back.

Mateo breaks the news that our overnight flight back from Kenyatta has been cancelled so we will have to overnight in Nairobi. General dismay at disarranged plans. Also going back same route we drove out from Kampala instead of going via Queen Elizabeth National Reserve due to bad roads. Disappointing but we're less concerned than others as we are going to Kenya shortlyso hope to see the game there.

Overnight at Lakeview Hotel. Colonial feel. Buffet meal including local dishes (at last!) Say goodbye to Joseph of the prodigious driving feats.

Uganda 8 December 2006

First sight - a youngish male in a tree overhead. Then a baby. Where's the mother? Nearby.

Silverback. Huge. Impressive. 25 stones? In the trees 20 metres downhill from us. We are practically level with him. Completely impervious to us he grasps brnches and chews on selected leaves.

The whole family is in the trees around and above us. Lazing. Eating. A female climbs overhead, pees then defecates, scattering us. Deliberate? Who knows? A message to her nearest relatives?

A mother and baby clinging on. Peering down at us, shyly. Curious.

After nearly an hour the silverback descends. The mother and baby come down within feet of Nadia. She is petrifies and delighted at the same time. Eye contact. No fear on the part of the gorilla.

We move down the hill. The silverback settles on the ground maybe 20 ft from us. Others are closer. Two juveniles barely ten feet away through the bushes.

Our hour is up but the guide says we have a few minutes more as they've just come down.

The silverback swngs away downhill. Snaps a young tree on his way - sheer exuberance.

A mother and baby swing down right in front of us. She agile, the baby clinging on. Mooch off.

The juvenile males pass behind us less than four feet away. A casual glance at us. No threat. I feel completely safe.

Uganda 7/8 December 2006

Back to camp mid-afternoon. Watch dark rain clouds chase up the valley. Scamper up the hill to our tent as the rain starts to fall. Watch the valley disappear behind a veil of water.

Next morning, back to Bwindi Reserve. Alocated to groups to track the gorillas. Our group is a forty minute bus ride away. Rangers have already located them and are tracking them - keeping our guide advised. Ride through lush farmland. Cops growing abundantly. Distinctive, huge-horned cattle.

Park bus and hike up through banana plantation. Climg following the route of a stream, slipping and losing footing in the mud. Pass a solitary man in a makeshift hut, watching the crops at the forest boundary, newly marked by concrete posts (or at least the foundations for them). Find a route into the Impenetrable Forest (well not really, scrambling through undergrowth rather like the woods between Abbeydale and Beauchief golf courses as a kid).

Trackers not far off. 40 minutes hike uphill and through the forest to reach them. Four armed guards. Smiles and friendly greetings. "Are they to shoot the gorillas if they attack?" "Think gorillas are more important than you are." Don't let on the real reason.

The gorillas are just down hill from us. Dump our bags and scramble down.

Uganda 7 December 2006 cont.

Go out on our own - check out the tourist trap shops selling identical figures of a crouching gorila in all sizes.

Wander down the road. Pass tea plantations and banana plantations. So green. Such bright light - the valley opening up into the distance. and te forest - how does it grow on such steep slopes?

Uganda 6 December 2006 - routemap

This is the route we drove from Entebbe to Bwindi via Kampala and Masaka. Bwindi is beyond Rukungiri.

Uganda 7 December 2006

Slept well after 10 hour drive from Entebbe yesterday. Novelty to wake under mosquito net. Breakfast on diluted orange juice, cereal and eggs to order - omelette.

Head up trail to Bwindi National Reserve. Mateo buys our permits and we meet our guide and two armed guards. A reminder that Rwanda and DR Congo are just over the hills. A party of tourists was kidnapped and murdered by guerllas. No repetitions. Bad for the tourist trade.

Follow wide flat trail then turn off uphill into the forest. Cross and re-cross the small stream that's carved the valley on wooden bridges, some more delapidated than others.

Stop to take pictues at a pool below a waterfall. Link up with a lone American (overweight and sweating natch). Warm but not hot in waterproof layer from ski-jacket (for long sleeves).

Reach the highest waterfall. Ford the stream using stepping stones, a bit of luck and a last splashing foot in to reach the other side. Photo-opportunity. I have everyone's cameras and take group shots.

Easy hike down. Back in time for lunch.

Uganda 5/6 December 2006 cont.

Out of the airport. Old airport on left where Idi Amin and Isreali Special Forces made news in the 70s. Modern drive into Kampala. Stop for fuel, snacks and water. Next to the filling station is a market. Hundreds of black faces. T-shirts. Jeans. Hand-painted signs for Pepsi. We gawp at them. They gawp at us - the only white faces. Smiles. Greetings. Haggle for fresh fruit.

Drive out of Kampala - the road pitted. Hundreds of mopeds for sale at the roadside. Interspersed with lorries in various states of repair and disrepair. Audiences for each mechanic. So many people watching. With time to watch.

Good road south to Masakah. Stop for lunch. Is Mateo on kick-backs? Buffet of local food has insufficient for us. Sit in the shade at a round table for 10. Jenny is given the menu and reads it out. Chicken, fish, omelette and chips. It turns out most is "off". Settle for fish. It comes with a hint of curry in the batter. Not very local - a theme that would develop over the next few days.

Across the equator again. Third time today. Southbound. Reach the end of tarmaced road at 6pm. 90km of dirt track to go. Spectaculer, vertiginous-sided valley as sun sets.

Pass small towns/villages. Single storey, block built houses and shops. Incongruous hairdressers, banks, private schools. And always smiling children waving.

Lorry tipped over dramatically in one town. Surrounded by people milling round and doing nothing practical to right it.

9pm - campfire in road ahead. Another lorry bogged down in ruts. Jseph explores way round to left. Nothing doing. Reverse. It's 5 miles back to the last junction. Locals gathering, laughing at our predicament. Five point turn in a drt track. Not far to go. How far? Is it walking distance? 30kms.

Go back and round longer way. 10.15pm arrive Bwindi. Signs for accommodation - all goilla themed. Our camp on steep hillside. Climb steps past the restaurant. Our tent - double bed with mosquito net, verandah with table and chairs, toilet out the back ("Proudly made in Britain") and a bath with shower in a covered area. Luxury.

Uganda 5/6 December 2006

Alien acacia trees silhouetted against the horizon in Nairobi National Reserve as we land at dawn in Kenyatta International.

The announcement said Gate 5 for the connecting flight to Entebbe. Enter the terminal - a concrete horseshoe. 1960s architecture. Claustaphobic, low-ceilinged like a ferry with duty free outlets selling tat, souvenirs in wood, leather and metal.

Gate 5 and back out into the cool African morning. Short flight northwest back over the equator.

Entebbe - half military airfield. RAF Hercules on next stand but one. Walk into the terminal and join the queue for passort control while the alsation sniffer dog enthusiastically searches bodies and bags - handler in tow.

Our bags appear on the carousel. Reief they've connected from Kenyatta. Out into the melee of meeters and greeters. EXPLORE! sign and Mateo introduces himself. The party assembles: Jenny and me; Vicki - 50s from London, divorced; Dave - scouse wit and a damaged ar from a motorcycle accident; Andrea - commercial conveyancing solicitor; Nicolette - far hair, burns in the sun; Nadia - doctor from Cheltenham; Amanda - sex offender rehabilitator, "they should be strung up, they all re-offend"; Janet - from Lancashire with camera equipment. Not that we say a lot at this stage. That comes later.

Cursory introductions then back into the terminal, after loading bags onto the minibus, to change money. hand over US$720 to Mateo for gorilla permits etc.