Home away from home

After a month-long jaunt around East Africa with Libs, Livy & Ollie, I'm back in Jinja for a few more weeks before I get "expelled" from Lords Meade and have to jet back home to the UK... so what have I been up to? A fair amount, probably too much if I'm honest, but it's all been fantastic & I'd like to tell you about a few highlights. I'll try and follow with some photos next time, but until now, you'll just have to rely on my colourful & vivid imagery...

We set off on the 25th April and headed straight for the Kenyan border at Malaba (eastern uganda)... after a minor hiccup in which we discovered ourselves trying to re-enter Uganda (without having actually left yet) we found the exit point, emigrated, immigrated, and there we were, being assaulted from all angles by a barrage of pushy "walking forexes", boda-bodas, piki-pikis and vendors of other various fruity produce. We had arrived in Kenya.

The highlight for me in Kenya was mountain biking in the Hell's Gate National Park - a vast expanse of government-protected land that serves as a home to countless zebra, buffalo, impala and giraffes... we were lucky enough to have the ENTIRE park to ourselves, and wasted no time in making a (rather rash) decision to cycle the "buffalo circuit", a 14km loop taking us through some of the most spectacular regions of the park. I cannot even express the feeling of ultimate awe as we rounded the first corner and were confronted by gigantic majestic cliffs, totally clear blue sky and herds of zebra grazing freely among the rolling plains. It was incredible. We did manage to get ourselves hopelessly lost, however, but this didn't come to our knowledge until we found a sign directing us towards the buffalo circuit and telling us that it was another 12km back to the main gate... The following day, we all felt like we had been beaten mercilessly by our bicycles, except for Ollie, who felt remarkably sprightly... that may have had something to do with him being the only one to back a bike with working suspension. But as always, pain fades from the memory leaving only the good parts, and those good parts were bloody amazing!

I've got to dash now, but I'll try and continue this tomorrow with our journey from Nairobi to Mombasa in an original colonial-era sleeper train...

Love to the masses

Miles

A Photo Reel…

G’day my trusty followers…. as they always say, a photo says a thousand words, so I’m going to give a bit of a montage so that you can all get the experience of the amazing safari my mom and I took out to southwestern Uganda to see the mountain gorillas…

View from our hotel in Kampala

Namirembe Cathedral

Sandy, our legend driver who barely went without these 3D glasses we gave him throughout the entire safari

Driving through the rolling hills of southwestern Uganda we met dozens of kids who loved to say hi and have photos taken with us.

Could it look any more like an African safari??? This was our accommodation at the Buhoma community, just inside the main entrance to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

Comparisons with Arnold Schwarzenegger have been drawn…

Our porter, Romina. The porters all live in the local villages and are optional to hire – we were all encouraged to use them because it helps the local community and encourages the indigenous people to look after the forest rather than cutting it down. I couldn’t quite work out whether we were being blackmailed or not…

Intrepid adventourists.

Big grandad silverback

And here’s the dude chilling, the “player” as was described by our guide. He’s definitely too cool for school.

This gorilla could’ve charged me if he was feeling wild – we were told that in that event we had to eat the surrounding foliage to show them that we aren’t a threat. Luckily it didn’t happen.

We got as close as 6m to the gorillas - the tracking was the most amazing experience ever!

And we couldn’t resist a bit of clowning around.

We saw baby gorillas tussling, then rolling down a hill to their mother who began to groom them.

Wouldn’t want to meet him on a dark night…

Overall, the experience was awesome and totally worth the money.

Our next stop was the Lake Bunyonyi to R&R for a few days and experience some culture…

The lake was really beautiful, and we really got to see it from all angles after spending one night on an island out in the middle of it and one night on a shoreside resort. Bushara island (where we stayed) was just like something out of Swallows & Amazons or Swiss Family Robinson, with lush vegetation, towering trees and canoes to hire out and paddle yourself (we spent a good half hour just spinning around in circles before getting the hang of it.)

This was the local market down at Rutinda jetty.

And these kids were jet set to watch a 3D movie (although I don’t think they quite realised that).

Having spent time in their midst, I felt at one with the gorillas, as you can see from my accurate facial expression and typical body language often seen in these majestic giants.

Does what it says on the tin.

This shows the town centre of Kabale.

And we were glad to see that progress is being made on the Ugandan roads after spending 4 days being jolted around and having our brains bashed out by the innumerable potholes that plague the road network.

When we stopped at Lake Mburo National Park we saw Impala, monkeys,  and a multitude of birds.

Wild cattle (???) at Lake Mburo NP

Then on our way back to Jinja we crossed the equatorial line, and had to stop for a few snaps.

So although it got off to a rocky start (what with mom’s flights being delayed by 28 hours and her journey spanning 3 days) our safari was exciting, intriguing, and relaxing in all the right places, and I couldn’t have hoped for a better experience seeing the gorillas. Thoroughly recommend doing it if you’re thinking of coming out to Uganda, Rwanda or the DRC – the forest that borders these three countries serves as a habitat for around 273 mountain gorillas – over half the worldwide population of these powerful and mysterious creatures. We booked through “Advanced Tours” – more details can be found on their website at www.advancedtours.ug