Uganda Rwanda border crossing

We left Uganda today and crossed into our ninth and final African country, Rwanda. The border crossing was our longest yet but thankfully despite all our fears of it being extremely difficult, it went relatively smoothly.  The roads were a little crazy and often seemed far too narrow for more than one car, let alone when two trucks pass each other. The day was long but the scenery in Uganda and Rwanda was beautiful. Even though Rwanda is known as the land of 1000 mountains, Uganda is also mountainous and green dotted with the occasional lake, absolutely stunning. 

Uganda - Queen Elizabeth NP

This morning we spent on an early morning game drive in our truck. There wasn’t a great deal of action on the animal front especially because this park is known not to have any Cheetah’s, Zebra’s, Gazelle’s, Impala as they were all killed by humans a number of years ago. It also only has a few Lions, so you can imagine our excitement when we spotted a pride of seven Lions not too far off in the distance. We sat and watched this pride for a while which was fantastic, especially when they got up and wandered towards a group of grazing Cob’s. Unfortunately we believe they all looked pretty full when they were lying around so they weren’t too interested in the Cob’s, so no, we didn’t get to see Lion’s hunting... oh well. 

After a couple of relaxing hours at the campsite we went on a lake cruise on Lake Edward and its natural connection with Lake George. This cruise was great. We saw a phenomenal number of Hippo’s that were within metres of the boat including quite a few babies.We also spotted a male and a female Lion on the bank who were apparently separate from the pride to mate. The park and its lakes are also famous for the number of birdlife they are home to, this was interesting as well. 

Uganda - Queen Elizabeth NP

Another early morning this morning, although not quite as early as yesterday, because we had a long day in the truck again bound for Queen Elizabeth National Park. 

The drive was relatively pleasant as the scenery was very picturesque.

We arrived at our campsite late in the afternoon after a short game drive from the entrance of the park where we saw our first Ugandan Cob (part of the Antelope family, similar to an Impala). 

Today we also crossed the equator.

Uganda - Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary

Another 4.20am start this morning as had to be at Lake Victoria’s shoreline at Entebbe by 10am to catch a boat across to the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary.

Ngamba Chimpanzee Sanctuary is the home to 44 Chimpanzee’s who have been rescued from either traps, illegal “bush meat” sales (yes some people do eat them), or other illegal activities eg sale for export as pets. Each of the Chimps are individually named and have their own personality. They are in the process of rehabilitating them with the hope that one day they will be able to release them back into the wild. However, first they must be sure that the Chimps have recovered from their previous trauma’s. We learnt a lot today about Chimps and their abilities to learn but also to hold on to traumatic memories much like humans. The reason Chimps behave a lot like humans in both personality and biologically is that we share 98.7% of our DNA with them. It was really interesting to see the group dynamics and to learn that they even have political systems within their group... except for chimps it is all about which male is more attractive to the females that determines who is the dominant male of the group... interesting :-).

We returned by boat across the lake to our truck and drove a short way to our campsite for the night in Entebbe.

Uganda - Jinja

A lazy morning this morning as we had nothing planned for the day. Some of the group went white water rafting but we decided that once in a month is probably enough for the moment :-).

We spent the day relaxing around the campsite making the most of the free wifi and just generally chilling out.

Uganda - Jinja

We set off this morning bound for Uganda. A long day in the truck broken by a brief stop in Kericho for Henry (our new cook) to do some shopping which we utilised by finding a great internet cafe that served fabulous coffee, and then the hour or so we spent at the border... thankful to our guide with some handy financial incentives to the border gate people that this was only an hour and not 3-4h.

Our campsite for the next 2 nights was in the Ugandan town called Jinja which was located on the banks of the River Nile.

Kenya - Lake Navusha / East Africa Mission Orphanage

Our morning started with school. We were invited to sit in class with the children for their first lesson - it was so beautiful to see their little minds at work and interesting to see that their lessons are taught in both English and Swahili depending on the subject. 

After this first lesson came the sad task of saying good bye to our new friends... it was very sad. The only saving grace is knowing that they are all extremely happy and well cared for at EAMO.

We had only a short drive today for about 3h to our next campsite at Tea plantation in Kericho which is in the highlands of Kenya. We spent the afternoon relaxing as the tropical rain storm set in for a short while.