Uganda Gorilla Safari, Chimpanzees and Game - Jan 2009

Uganda Gorilla Safari, Rwanda Gorilla Safari and Chimpanzees and Game - Jan 2009



Monday 12 Jan 2009

I had a manic morning in the office to make sure everything was sorted before I left on my Gorilla Safari to Africa. I was really excited as it had been 6 years since I was last in Uganda and Rwanda so it was going to be interesting to see how things had changed. I flew with Kenyan Airways via Nairobi which was a comfortable flight with good in flight entertainment.

Tuesday 13 Jan 2009

I arrived into Nairobi where I had to wait for my connecting flight to Entebbe. Nairobi airport was very hectic and nobody seemed to know what was happening – I eventually boarded the correct flight to Entebbe.

I arrived into Entebbe airport, sailed through immigration and customs before meeting Moses who was to be our driver on the tour. I changed up some money so that I had some local Shillings in my pocket as we would be going to some far off places with no money changing facilities.

After I visited a couple of the hotels in the area I was taken to our first campsite which is a private site on the edge of Lake Victoria – My African Safari had begun. I met the other people who had booked onto the trip and then had a lovely lunch whilst watching the pied kingfishers fishing for theirs.

After lunch we had a visit to Ngamba Island planned and so we all set off to the jetty. Ngamba Island is an island sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees that have been rescued from the illegal pet trade and have now been brought to this forested island where they have free roam. I was here 6 years ago and so it was good to see some “old” friends again.

Wednesday 14 Jan 2009

After our first of many early breakfasts we set off for Fort Portal and Kibale Forest National Park. This would be a 6 hour drive past farms, villages, forests and tea plantations which was a good introduction to local Ugandan life. Fort Portal is a lovely old town set close to the Ruwenzori Mountains, and was a good place for us to stop and have a cool drink before heading to our campsite. The campsites used on this trip are often locally owned, which means all proceeds go directly back into the village (this is essential to World Primate Safaris ethics), thus putting a value on the local wildlife and forests. That evening we all sat around the campfire thinking about the adventures to come.

Thursday 15 Jan 2009

Our chimpanzee tracking permits had been booked for the afternoon so we had the morning free to explore the local village.

After lunch we headed to the park headquarters for our chimpanzee briefing before heading into the forest to track them. As we headed out we could hear them off in the distance which then gave us a beacon to aim at. As we got closer they got more excited and the screams got even louder, we were really close. Not long after this we got our first glimpse of the chimpanzees as they moved through the forest; they were only a few meters away from us, but still were quite difficult to see in the thick trees. We watched as a mother and baby moved along the path closely followed by a large male and then a number of other youngsters.

They are adapted to live in this thick forest and so we soon lost them as they moved on with ease. We continued in their direction and eventually caught up as they had stopped to play in the trees. A young male, his mother and baby brother had come across a wire snare set to catch forest pigs. The youngster was very fortunate not to get his hand caught in the wire noose.

They soon moved off, but took the wire with them and dropped it further down the path. We all thought our time with the chimps was up until we saw a single female walking slowly in front of us along the path which eventually led us to the rest of the group. Tracking chimpanzees is quite difficult as they always seem to be on the move so we were happy with our glimpses of our close relatives. Our tracking ended with the group high in a fig tree enjoying the plentiful fruits – we left them in peace.

We still had a long drive to get to the Mweya section of the Queen Elizabeth National Park so as soon as we had finished with the chimps we got on our way. As we neared the park we started to see herds of Ugandan Kob, DeFassa waterbuck and buffalo. As we turned onto the dirt road we saw a nice herd of elephants fairly close to the road – this was a great sight for the first time safari goers. Further along the road we saw a car that had stopped and the people looking hard into the grass. As we stopped we were told that there was a leopard hiding in the grass, but in my experience of leopard sightings I didn’t hold much hope on seeing her as the grass was about a meter tall – but I was wrong. We had a brief sighting of her tail, then she pounced giving us a better view. It was starting to get dark and after 10 minutes of nothing we decided to move off. Just as we started to move I spotted her peering out from behind a bush which brought us to a sudden stop.

She was only a young leopard and so was curious about the car, which brought her closer to investigate who we were – really close. We were all sitting on the roof of the vehicle to get a better view, but as she moved to sniff the front of our car we all ducked back into the cab for our own safety. She continued to walk along the road for about 15 minutes, pausing every now and then to make sure we were still following. When it was too dark for us to see her we left her to get on with her night.

Our campsite was beautiful, set on a ridge overlooking the Kazinga Channel. As we settled into our tents someone spotted some elephants off on the other side of the campsite. This made everyone very excited and nervous. Later that night we had the elephants come and investigate our camp, coming to within 5 meters of our tents, but after they had sniffed around a bit they soon moved off.

Friday and Saturday 16 and 17 Jan 2009

Over the next 2 days we would drive over 11 hours a day in search of lions. We heard them every night, saw signs of their kills and even had people a couple of minutes ahead of us see them, but for us that was it. We saw Ugandan Kob, DeFassa waterbuck, good herds of buffalo and elephant as well as numerous bird species, which kept us all enthralled. On Friday afternoon we had a boat trip on the Kazinga Channel which was a real highlight for all of us. For the entire 2 hours we had non stop game viewing, with elephants trumpeting and fighting, hippos charging the boat and buffalo unaware of our presence, just lazing in the shallows. The bird life was incredible with a number of water species spotted including the impressive saddle billed stork and African fish eagle.

Sunday 18 Jan 2009

After another early morning on our African Safari, we set off to a different area of the Queen Elizabeth National Park – Kyambura Gorge. This is an impressive deep gorge in the usually flat savannah, and is home to a troop of about 20 chimpanzees as well as elephant, leopard and hippos. As we descended into the gorge it felt like we were entering a little Eden. My scepticism of elephant and hippos living down in the steep sided gorge was soon banished as we saw fresh footprints in the mud and then not long afterwards we saw a pod of hippos lying in a shallow pool in the river.

It was about an hour of hot humid hiking through the muddy paths until we heard the chimpanzees in the trees. As we got closer they moved off to the higher reaches of the gorge where the fruiting trees were. Again we thought our chimpanzee viewing had come to an end until someone in our group spotted a mother, her baby and another youngster moving down a tree on the other side of the river. It took us awhile to get across, as the bridge was further down stream, and by the time we had located where we had seen them, they had moved off.

Ishasha is another part of Queen Elizabeth National Park, but is very rarely visited. It is famous for its tree climbing lions, but only receives a handful of visitors, and this made it even more appealing to us. It is a beautiful part of the park with large open savannah, riverine valleys and large fig trees. Our campsite was set on a small ridge overlooking a large plain where we could see buffalo and kob grazing.

Monday 19 Jan 2009

Again we put in over 11 hours worth of game drives in search of the elusive tree climbing lions, but our luck was out for this one. We searched every fig tree, which is their preferred resting place, but there was nothing except vervet monkeys taking advantage of the lack of lions.

For me Ishasha was a real highlight, as there were very few tourists (in the 3 days we were there, we saw 1 group leaving as we arrived, 1 group whilst out on a game drive and 1 group coming in as we were leaving) and the game viewing was superb. We saw some lovely herds of elephants (we even got mock charged by a female that we had surprised), good herds of Ugandan kob, healthy herds of buffalo and large herds of topi. Unfortunately the area had been burnt which meant there was very little grass for the animals to eat and so many of them had moved off to a different area and this had caused a knock on effect with the lions as they had no food to eat either and so had followed the antelope.

We were on our way back to camp after our last game drive, everyone was tired and had moved to the comfort of the cab, when Joel, our guide, shouted leopard – I have never seen people move so fast. Everyone was back up on the roof looking at a female leopard as she surveyed her territory, crossing the road in front of us, which caused a family of warthogs to flee from their underground burrows (which was under the road we were on, giving all of us the fright of our lives). As she walked, the kob were coming closer to her whistling to let her know that she had been seen, but this didn’t affect her as she walked sniffing the area, making sure there were no intruders. As it got dark we left her to go about her nightly wanderings.

Tuesday 20 Jan 2009

We had 1 last game drive enroute to Buhoma, but again, no luck with the lions; we would need to return to see the tree climbing lions of Ishasha. We arrived into Buhoma late in the afternoon and so we relaxed in camp and enjoyed a “Club” beer whilst looking onto the hills of Bwindi Impenetrable Forest – home to some of the last mountain gorillas left in the world.

Wednesday 21 Jan 2009

The day we had all been waiting for – gorilla tracking day. We were split into different groups as the permits had been bought at different times. I would be tracking the Mubare group, which is the same group I tracked 6 years ago – I wonder if they would recognise me? We started our trek by hiking straight up the side of the hill (over 300 meters straight up) before traversing the ridge. It was then that we heard our trackers had located the group. This made it easier for us and so now we could go straight to them. It was another several hours of walking through the thick forest before we came to where they were.

They were all feeding on the side of the hill, and as soon as we came round the corner we were charged by a mother and her baby, she was just warning us to keep our distance. After she moved off we sat and watched a young male gorilla as he sat and fed on grasses that he had found, but soon he moved off as well. Our guide motioned to us to move forward as the silverback gorilla was sitting just out of view. As we moved we could see his huge head behind some bushes and it was only then that we realised we were in the middle of the family. We had the silverback to one side, a young male in a tree in front of us, a mother and her baby sliding down a tree to our right and another youngster to our left – WOW.

We sat and enjoyed their company and watched as they allowed us to witness their lives for an hour. This is truly one of the best experiences of my life. When they look at you, you can see them thinking and there is a small connection; something you have to experience.

In situations like that 1 hour goes so quickly, but we have to leave them and let them get on with their daily lives, we have intruded enough already.

As it turns out we were only an hour’s walk from our campsite, and so as we made our way down the hill I could see the rest of my group. I joined them on a village walk which was very informative as we learnt about the local medicine man, the tea plantations, how to make banana wine and much, much more.

WOW our gorilla safari had paid off. It took me 7 hours of hard trekking to see the gorillas, but it was well worth it.

Thursday 22 Jan 2009

We had another 6 hour drive ahead of us, but everyone was still excited about the previous day’s gorilla tracking. We were on our way to Lake Bunyonyi which is a scenic area of Uganda with rolling hills and a large fresh water lake.

That afternoon we all hired pirogues or dugout canoes and attempted to paddle around the lake. We all battled with the steering of the canoes and ended up going round in circles, so we opted to paddle to a nearby island and have a cold beer instead. What a way to end this amazing African Safari.

Friday 23 Jan 2009

Today our group split up with 3 of us heading to Rwanda and the rest heading back to Entebbe, it was a sad day for all. We had all got on really well and had experienced so much together in the short time we were on the trip, but we all had more exciting things planned for the next few days.

The three of us who went to Rwanda had a tour around the Genocide Memorial in Kigali, which was a real shock. How could people do that to each other? It is a great lesson to all of us, to see how Rwanda has rebuilt itself and has moved on from the atrocities that happened not too long ago. It was good to see that they are using it as an educational tool to make sure nothing like that happens again.


That afternoon we had the 2 ½ hour drive to Ruhengeri where we would spend the night. This was a lovely drive through rolling hills, streams, waterfalls and villages and as you get closer the Virunga Volcanoes start to come into view.

Saturday 24 Jan 2009

A very excited wake up call, we were off to track the gorillas again – this time in the Volcanoes National Park. I had heard that gorilla safaris in Rwanda were better than they were in Uganda, so now time would tell. After meeting the rest of our group we had our briefing and then set off to the start of our day’s trekking. This is a beautiful place to be walking with the volcanoes clearly in view and the villagers out tending their fields. Today’s trek was a lot easier as the terrain was flatter and the vegetation was more open, which made for a good days walk. We came across the group only a couple of hours in, but they were in a thick grove of bamboo which made me disappointed as we had to go in single file to start with. As we walked in, the gorillas were still in their nests from the night before and there was a female that was peering over at us – this was such an amazing experience to look into the eyes of one of our closest relatives.

We were told to stand back so that the trackers could clear a space for us so that we could see the silverback, who weighed about 220kg. There he was sitting on his nest feeding away. We were all watching him, when all of a sudden he stood up, banged his chest and dived over the edge of his nest away from us; this got all our hearts beating. We moved around the bushes to watch a young black-back gorilla as he was sleeping on the ground and allowed us all to get a good view of him. We were all seated watching him quietly when we heard the branches behind us crashing – as we turned the silverback came running out, not more than 1 meter from us, bringing us all to our feet. He stopped 2 meters away and just stood there. Our guide and tracker grunted to calm him down which seemed to do the trick. He soon calmed down and sat down and started to eat again. The poor black-back had been rudely woken and now just sat there not quite knowing what had happened.

As the silverback mountain gorilla moved off, so did we, to go and see some of the other family members. We saw a mother and her young baby climb down the tree and walk past us, we saw a young male sitting on his own feeding before he to, decided he wanted to move, which meant walking within a meter of us to get past. The way the family had interacted with us as we were part of the group was really amazing.

After our exciting day we had to head back to Kigali for our last night.

Sunday 25 Jan 2009

We had a long day ahead of us so we were up at 4am so that we could leave at 4.45am to get back to Entebbe by 5.00pm. The road was very bumpy so we couldn’t even sleep and so were sat rigid watching the potholes come and go!!!!!

We arrived back into Entebbe in good time; I even had time for something to eat and a game of football before heading to the airport for my return flight.

This had been one of my best African Safari Holidays for a long time and it was very difficult to get back on the plane to head back to the UK, knowing how cold, grey and wet it was.