COS Trip: Arriving in Jinja

Early morning. The campsite was at the bottom of the stairs and it was a struggle to carry my tent all the way up, but I made it! We hit the road at 5:30. We stopped for breakfast on the side of the road and kept on going. We stopped on the equator for lunch and attempted to do the water thingy. Water on the one side of the equator drains clockwise, the other side of the border counterclockwise, and on the equator straight down. It didn’t work, but we determined it was the jug and the too-small-hole in the jug that failed. We hopped back on the truck and kept going. Once we hit Kampala, we stopped for groceries and money and then kept on going. We arrived in Jinja around 5 to set up camp and cook some dinner. The Nile River…AMAZING. We spent the evening in the bar overlooking the Nile and having a good time. The highlight of the setup is an upside down kayak on the ceiling. If you can manage to get into the kayak, you get a free shot from the bar (while still upside down). It was quite entertaining watching people try. In all honesty, I think it looks harder than it actually is. The owner of the bar egged me on and I managed to do it on the first try. It got to be a late night after an early morning, but it was fun.

COS Trip: Lake Bunyonyi

Today was spent on the lake. There was an awesome sundeck with diving boards and a +/-5meter tree jump. We lazed by the water listening to music, swimming, playing cards, and reading. It was a wonderful relaxing day. Some people ordered food from the bar, but it took a good hour+ for anything, even a plate of fries. A bunch of us split a bottle of gin and had some gin and tonics which was nice. We spent some time with the people from the other overland trucks as well which was fun. There was a guy on the other truck that was going from Cape Town to Cairo who kept ordering gin and generously sharing with anyone in sight. He was an interesting guy from Australia who had crazy stories and a great sense of humor. I also met a guy from Hawaii who was fun to talk to about the US and all the reasons he wants to never go back. My group was going to go out on the lake in canoes as well, but ended up not. We tried to put 4 people in 2 of the boats and the boat guys wouldn’t let us. It was too expensive and we wanted to share the work of paddling rather than all having to work in our lazy state. So we ended up walking away. It would have been nice to go out on the canoes, but oh well. Sometimes you just can’t win here. I was on cooking detail so when dinner time came around, it was my turn to work. We had limited shopping the day before, so our dinner was simple and not great, but I made some great garlic butter to go with our tuna pasta. Everyone decided they wanted to go hang out at the bar, but we’re leaving at 5:30 am tomorrow so I’m heading to bed.

COS Trip: Driving to Lake Bunyonyi

We had a lazy morning after the last 3 of our group left for their gorilla trek. The rest of us had a leisurely breakfast, packed up, and headed into town for a little bit. Then we got into the truck and headed out. I wasn’t doing so hot after the long day of hiking in the sun and mountains so I had been appointed to sit up front and was glad for it. I sat in the cab with the driver. The seat…way more comfortable. The window was nice to be able to control the air flow, and the view out the front window was AMAZING! We arrived at our new campsite to set up our tents and I wasted no time before diving into the magnificent Lake Bunyonyi. It is the deepest lake in Uganda and was a beautiful freshwater lake. We hung out by the water until a late dinner, bonfire, and bed. This campsite is definitely a great place to stay.

COS Trip: Gorilla Tracking

This is the day I’ve been waiting for. You must have a permit to track the endangered mountain gorillas. I believe there are 4 families and each family can be seen 1 time a day for 1 hour. The gorillas move freely between Uganda, DRC, and Rwanda. The maximum group size is 8 people and their trackers, guide, and any porters they hire. The trackers keep an eye on the gorillas throughout the day and the guide is told where to go to see the families as well as carried a machine gun to protect us. The porters are local men that can be hired to carry bags and/or push/pull people through the mountains.

Due to permit availability, I would be joining a different group for the trek. A driver came and picked me up to take me to Mahinga Gorilla National Park where I would be tracking. The rest of my group got lost on the way and showed up quite late. I almost went tracking by myself which would have been quite the unique experience. They finally showed up just before we left. My group consisted of 3 Canadians who were doing a short study in Uganda for their MBAs, 3 Ugandans from the same university, and myself. One of the men was rather heavy, out of shape, and old. I was surprised they let him trek. He hired 2 porters to carry all their bags and that also ended up helping “carry” him a lot of the way. It took 4 hours for us to get to the gorillas. The path was much clearer than I was expecting. I was a little disappointed about that at first, but we did eventually hit the point where our guide had to clear a path with machete and then I was glad most of our hike was clear and easy. It was a nice hike through the mountains and I enjoyed it more than I’ve enjoyed any other hike I’ve done recently.

Our gorilla family was 9. There were 3 silverbacks (the oldest ones), 2 infants (under 3 years), and 4 blackbacks (adults). We didn’t see all of them, and our family didn’t have any juveniles in it. The gorillas were amazing to watch and we followed them around a bit during our hour as they ate and played around in the bamboo trees. The giants moved so gracefully and powerfully around their feeding area. It was interesting to watch the silverback guarding his family. One of the blackbacks didn’t move much as he just lazily sat eating bamboo shoots. The infants were much more active. They tumbled around with the blackbacks, nibbled on a little food bits, climbed up in the trees to slide back down like a pole, and looked like they were having so much fun. The hour went fast and it was well worth the 4 hour trek to get there. On the way back, we went much more steeply down the mountain. It only took about 2.5 hours to get back down. We wound our way through a village at the end where my driver picked me up to take me back to the campsite and the other group’s driver came to get them as well. I got back to the campsite just in time for a shower and dinner. What an amazing experience!