We're still in Kampala, without many new adventures, and so I thought that I could tell you about how to make a trip around Uganda in a couple of weeks; but I'll do it bit by bit, you know, no hurry in Africa.
Since Zuzana had finished her contract and her brother Tomáš came to visit us, we decided to take a round trip around Uganda for a couple of weeks. Holidays. And besides, it's also a way to get to know the country a little and see places where I'll have to return for a longer time.
We were planning to make the first part of the journey on our own, travelling by public transport, and then we would meet with Óscar, a Spaniard who lives in Uganda and who has a travel agency (with which I have an agreement to do some promotional pictures) and with whom we would travel the second part of the trip until Kampala.
We could start at the beginning of the journey, from Kampala up to the Mgahinga National Park.
A) Kampala
B) Lake Mburo National Park
C) Kabale
D) Lake Bunyonyi
E) Mgahinga National Park
F) Kisoro
G) Mt. Sabinyo
Everything is ready, let's go.
Day 1.
Our plan was to take a bus from Kampala, the Postbus, which is a bus you should try to take whenever you can, better than any other company. The majority of buses here are “high-speed” buses, but the Postbus takes it easy, takes longer, but is safe(r). Fortunately my friend Amos had to go to Kabale on the same day by car, and because the Lake Mburo National Park is on the way, he took us until the crossing where you have to take the road to reach the park.
From the crossing we took boda-bodas – with the backpacks on our backs – to cover the 23km of dirt road up to the park (if you come this way, it's around 10.000UGX).
Already from the motorbike, as you are coming closer to the park, you can see some warthogs (like Pumbaa in The Lion King), antilopes or buffalos… We arrived to the park, put up the tents in the camping next to the lake, and decided to leave the walking safari for the following day and spend a calm day next to the lake, resting after the trip and after getting up at 5 in the morning. And so we sat on the terrace of the local restaurant to enjoy the view.
In a while a school “bus” appeared, bringing a few children to visit the park and see from a boat the hippos, or the birds which are in the park.
And afterwards… well, let's say we weren't very lucky in this park. In the afternoon a group of nice Ugandans arrived, with one convertible and one Mercedes. Probably they were a bit confused and went to the park thinking they were going to a bar, and that's why they enjoyed the nature by listening to music at full blast and drinking until something like 2:30 in the morning. Lucky Tomáš and I had that small siesta in the afternoon... sorry for Zuzana.
Here I am going to send a small reproach to UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) so that it improves this aspect and makes sure that this type of incidents don't happen again, because the pak is worth it and this kind of things can ruin your experience.
And because we couldn't sleep, while we were waitng for a hippo to come and eat our lovely neighbours, we decided to watch the stars and take pictures of them.
Day 2.
The following morning we got up early for the safari. Lake Mburo National Park is one of the few parks in Uganda where you can do a walking safari. You go with a guide and an armed ranger with a gun, just in case a buffalo gets too friendly.
One of the reasons why we went to Lake Mburo is because, together with Kidepo, it is a place where you can see zebras. But to continue with the lucky streak in the park, and because you know that animals can't be booked on the telephone, we hardly saw anything during the safari. I don't know if it was partly because of the loud music of our nice neighbours, but the fact is that we had to be content with seeing a few buffalos, antilopes, warthogs and birds. Not a trace of zebras, of course.
In any case, don't let this discourage you from going to the park, this is not usual, both Óscar and other friends told us that they saw herds of zebras and antilopes from close up. We will have to wait until the next time.
After the safari we took again boda-boda to return to the main road, and there we took the first bus which was passing in the direction of Kabale, the city where we were going to spend the night. We weren't lucky enough to take the Postbus (which would probably still take time to pass by) and we took the Jaguar Executive Coach which goes to Rwanda. The bus is comfortable and much better than what you could expect in Africa, but we could really experience in person that the buses are high-speed.
In Kabale we also took it easy, we left our things in our hostel and we went to spend the afternoon at the terrace of Edirisa hostel, a very pleasant place with quite good food. One thing deserves a special mention: their very generous portions of home-made freshly baked sponge-cake for 1000 UGX (less than 30 Euro cents). It's a sponge-cake, nothing very special, but soft and spongy, and it's worth trying.
Day 3.
The following morning we got up, had a long breakfast at the terrace of Edirisa and left for our next destination: the Lake Bunyonyi.
The Lake Bunyonyi was formed when lava from one of the volcanic eruptions which ocurred during the formation of the Rift Valley closed out one valley, which then filled with water, creating a lake with several islands. It is not one of the main attractions of Uganda, but it's a nice and pleasant place where it's worth spending a few days, if you have the time. Maybe it's more of a backpackers destination, and it is more left out by the big tourism packages.
We spent two days in a place called Byoona Amagara, very recommendable. It is on one of the islands, and it is a perfect place to relax and do some activity in the area. To go there you take a canoe and you enjoy the lake while you paddle between its islands.
If you feel a bit lazy and you don't want to paddle, you can also get a canoe with a motor.
When we reached Byoona Amagara we decided to do one of the main things you should do there: chill out, and we spent the evening playing cards, eating and talking with people there until we decided to go to sleep.
Day 4.
Our plan was to rent a canoe to go from one island to another, stopping when we wanted and swimming in the lake (because there's no bilharzia in the lake Bunyonyi), but the day wasn't sunny enough to feel like swimming, so we decided to go hiking to find a place with a nice view of the lake. And this is where we arrived.
Photo: © Zuzana KazdováI didn't take my camera, because I had taken my running shoes and clothes to go running around the area aferwards, and thought it would be mean to leave Zuzana and Tomáš the 5 kilos of my equipment to take back. The run a little bit too much, especially one part up the hill, which after a curve turned out to be much longer and steeper than what I could do with the pace I was running until then. Than night I ate and slept really well.
Day 5.
The next day we left towards the Mgahinga National Park, where we were planning to climb the Mt. Sabinyo. On the peak of this volcano the boarders of Uganda, Rwanda and Democratic Republic of the Congo come together.
So after having breakfast, we took a canoe and then a taxi back to Kabale, did some shopping for the hike of the following day, and we started to look for transport to Kisoro.
The options to move between Kabale and Kisoro are limited. There are some odd buses (which probably won't fit with your schedule), and it seems that the matatus don't run here, so your options are reduced to a special (a taxi just for you), or a shared taxi, which is the same as a special but with more people. And that was the option we chose. Do you know that joke: How do you put 4 elephants in a Mini? – Easy, two in the front and two in the back. So this shared taxi thing is the same: How do you put 8 people in a taxi?
Easy…
It seems that we were lucky because sometimes they put even 5 people at the back.
When we arrived to Kisoro, we took another taxi (this time just for us) to the entrance of the Mgahinga National Park, where UWA has a community campground with a few bandas (huts/cottages), which is where we were going to spend the night.
It's a very quiet and pleasant place, I remember getting out of the banda to go for a dinner in the small bar-restaurant, and enjoying the sound of the trees moving with the wind (which was the only thing you could hear). I stayed for a while watching the trees while listening to them… and of course, I took a picture to make sure the moment would stay in my memory for years to come.
We had a tea… and some local food for dinner enjoying the warmth from the fireplace…
… we ordered breakfast for the following day and, because we had read in several places that the Mt. Sabinyo hike was tough, we went to sleep to be fresh the following day.
Day 6.
As we had agreed with the park guards the day before, at 7:15 in the morning of the following day we had already had our breakfast and were ready to leave, as it's common with the schedules here, it was already 8:00 when we managed to start our hike towards the peak of the Sabinyo, with a guide, another guide who was being trained, and a ranger with a gun. The park office is approximately at 2.300 m above sea level, and the peak of Mt. Sabinyo is at 3.669 m, and so we had something like 1.300 m of altitude gain on 7 km of distance ahead of us, going there and back in the same day.
Before starting the guide gave us bamboo poles as walking sticks, and offered us the possibility to take a porter. Here it is fairly common that you are offered porters to go to the mountains, but we reached the conclusion that we didn't need one.
At the beginning the path goes through a relatively flat area which had been recovered for the park after being cultivated for some time, it's a swampy part which must be quite difficult to cross during the rainy season, but in July it was in good condition.
After a quarter of an hour walking we stopped for a while in front of the Mt. Sabinyo, and the guide offered us again to hire a porter, saying that there are people who can't reach the top and that my backpack was heavy even for him.
We looked at all the way ahead of us (we were going to climb the mount from the left side, until reaching the third peak, which is where the border between the three countries is). At that moment the memory of the Pinnacles in Malaysia passes through my head, while a few drops of cold sweat ran down my temple. And because two days before I overdid it a bit when running, and I was carrying in the backpack the food and water for me and Zuzana, some clothes and, apart from my backpack, I also had the 5 kilos of the camera and lenses… I decided it wasn't worth taking the risk and that maybe it was a good idea to take a porter. The guide called the office, and five minutes later he told us that the porter is on his way, so we decided to wait for him.
After 15 minutes waiting the guide calls the park office again, and after talking to them for a while he tells us that today no porter is available… ??????????
Anyway, it doesn't matter, I already know you have to keep your own pace, walk slowly if it's necessary and without getting obsessed. I take my bamboo stick and the one of Tomáš, who is not going to use his, and we continue our hike.
We follow the trail until we reach the primary bamboo forest, the path is still quite flat.
Further on the trail starts to go up the hill and our pace slows down, at least mine, but we keep on going up without problems, stopping now and then. We thought that we were going slowly, at least compared to other hikes we had done, but during one of the stops the guide tells us that we're going fine, that our pace is good and that if we continue like this we would easily reach the top and return before it gets dark. Great.
The path up to Mt. Sabinyo is very beautiful, passing through a forest with trees full of moss and lichen which give it a feel of a magic forest. It is good to stop once in a while and just look around.
Bit by bit the trees start to disappear and mountain vegetation with thicket takes their place. After a while we reached the first peak, where we stopped to rest, eat something and enjoy the views of Rwanda on the left and Uganda on the right, looking up at the second peak which we were going to climb in a while.
Because the trainee guide was going to stay on that first peak, we left with him everything we didn't need and we continued our way.
We quickly descended from the first peak and (not so quickly) climbed the second one, from where, looking back, you can see the first peak of the Sabinyo and the other two volcanoes, Mt. Gahinga and Mt. Muhavura, the highest of the three.
Without stopping we made the second descent and we reached the climb towards the third and last peak, leading to the border between the two countries. This climb is a little more complicated, and the most of it is through ladders.
Finally we reached the peak of Mt. Sabinyo, where of course we asked the guide to take the obligatory picture: Tomáš is in Rwanda, Zuzana in Democratic Republic of the Congo and I am in Uganda.
We ate something enjoying the views of the three countries, though the sky wasn't as clear as we would have liked. In any case we can't complain, anywhere you read about somebody who climbed the Sabinyo, it seems that it always rained, before or after, while we had the perfect weather, sunny during the whole day.
After a while we started the way back, I went first because I wanted to take some pictures while the others were climbing down. We reached again the first peak, where we picked up the guide who had stayed there, and we continued the way down without problems until the park office.
We expected it to be more difficult. We didn't have the impression that we walked fast, we stopped quite often to take pictures and to rest, and even like that we did the whole hike in a time which is considered normal.
After the whole hike, when we reached the camp we got some hot water to wash in (fortunately, because it gets quite cold in the evenings), and we enjoyed the evening and the dinner while resting our feet, again around the fireplace in the dining room.
And that is how we finished our mountain day in the Mgahinga National Park.
We were ready to continue the next day our journey towards the Queen Elizabeth National Park, our next destination.
You have just read the first part of the trip. You can also read:
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