Uganda (/juːˈɡændə/ yew-GAN-də or /juːˈɡɑːndə/ yew-GAHN-də), officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southwest by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. Uganda is the world’s second most populous landlocked country after Ethiopia. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania, situating the country in the African Great Lakes region. Uganda also lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied but generally equatorial climate.
This was my first trip to Africa and I really did not know what to expect, I came to see the animals, as i am sure most people do, but I wasn’t sure if I was expecting to see lots of jungle or vast open plains. I knew the main animal I came to see was the Mountain Gorilla, but that won’t be until we cross into Rwanda on the second half of this trip.
For this trip it was just a good friend, myself and our guide. No better way to explore. 🙂
Entebbe
We did not get much time in Entebbe, we landed late in the afternoon so we met our guide checked into the hotel (as night fell) and then early the next morning we were on the road to Fort Portal.
Fort Portal
What a great place an elevated cabin surrounded by jungle but with full western plumbing! Hot showers had to be scheduled though. This is where we saw a few black-and-white Colobus monkeys and went on a chimpanzee walk which was exhilarating. We even had one of the park rangers take us on a night walk to try and find nocturnal animals. OK, that gets your blood pumping when you realize that you are in thick jungle, far away from home, no idea how to get back to your cabin and you’re just following this guy with a machine gun in pitch black, not knowing what animals are within inches of you and might be hungry! It was so much fun!
Fort Portal to Jacana
This was our day to start seeing the big animals and to cross the equator (always special). Like all silly tourists I remember taking lots of pictures of the first elephant we saw far off in a field. Our guide just laughed and walked away as he knew we would be getting much closer.
Jacana
OK, this was, hands down, my favourite place I have stayed on almost any trip. We had a nice little cabin overlooking the water – we sat one night watching two hippos watch us. We had a wonderful candlelight dinner floating on a small raft in the middle of the lake. All the food was excellent and people so nice. We had two nights there but I would easily have spent another one just to relax and enjoy everything they had there.
Ishasha
Famous for their lions that climb trees. This camp made you feel very close to nature, so close that you did not go out at night and an armed guard escorted you back to your luxury tent after dinner. It was so exciting to think what animals might have walked just a few feet away from you while you slept. However, I have been assured that my snoring would have scared even the bravest creature away. 🙂
Just before leaving Uganda our guide dropped us off at a small local restaurant for lunch as we said we wanted more local food and not tourist food. This little place gave us such a great lunch, it may not look spectacular but it tasted so good. I still talk about the goat stew. A great last meal in the country!
Logistics
This trip was organized by Mountain Travel Sobek and was not officially being offered when we took it. I was looking for a trip to see the Mountain Gorillas and I had contacted them about their scheduled trip but it had been cancelled. I contacted a few other tour operators and they would not guarantee the gorilla viewing permits ($500 each/day) until we got to the park. Mt Sobek eventually made us a great offer. They had an itinerary that they were still building but sounded like what I was looking for and they offered it to the two of us as a group cost, and they would guarantee the gorilla viewing permits before taking any of my money. How could we say no?
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