Packing up after a late breakfast we were sad to leave Ishasa so soon, but had to keep moving as the northern part of the Queen Elizabeth National Park was calling us. The distance isn't too far (about 200km) but it can take forever on the unsealed and often very bumpy road that leads through the park. Our backs would take their revenge later, but at the time we were too pre-occupied with game spotting to worry (turned out we didn't see much - a few elephants in the distance and a large number of baboons on the roadside).
We arrived in Mweya late afternoon, and headed straight to the campsite. Although it's a little more built-up than Ishasa, we'd heard reports of lions wandering through at night, though the ranger assured us that the guards on duty would scare the cats off if they came visiting.
Dennis and Lesco got another campfire going and after a quick beer run to the nearby lodge, we were soon happily ensconced around the flames eating another freshly-prepared meal. The next morning we were off on a game drive as the sun rose, but although the colours were beautiful at that time, the animals didn't show themselves until we were heading back and had a fabulous close encounter with a family of elephants strolling down to the lakeside.
We grabbed some lunch (and a quick game of badminton with Dennis) and then set off on our boat trip, supposedly the highlight of the national park (though we preferred the remoteness of Ishasa). The boat trip didn't disappoint in terms of wildlife, plenty of hippos, elephants, birds, crocs and more. En route we disturbed a bathing elephant who got out and indignantly trumpeted at us before talcing himself down with dried mud.
After an unsuccessful attempt to see the chimpanzees in QENP, we decided on the spur of the moment to head up towards Fort Portal and the nearby Kibale forest. This meant another long drive which Dennis undertook without a word of complaint, even though it meant he was left to drive the final hour or so in the dark. We arrived late at our chosen lodge (can't remember the name), and decided to camp. What a great decision this was, as we awoke the next morning to fantastic views of the tea plantations stretching out below us in the misty dawn. We hadn't booked the chimpanzee tour and were a little concerned it'd be full. We needn't have worried as it turned out to be just us and two other tourists.
As we entered the forest, we spotted a couple of monkeys, and then within five minutes the ranger
found some chimps, but unfortunately high up in the trees. We spent an hour or so on the ground craning our necks looking up at them, watching the younger ones playfighting and hearing them being reprimanded by the elders. The view wasn't great, but the noise was incredible at times, filling the forest with their hoots and screams (obviously arguing over a box of PG tips).
After an hour our guide decided that they weren't going to join us at ground level, so we headed off (a little disappointed), but before we knew it we were running through the forest trying to keep up with a chimp about fifty yards ahead. We dashed behind the ranger to keep pace with the chimp, and were rewarded by spending the next hour observing this juvenile and a few of his male and female friends up close in a little opening in the forest. They groomed, they played, they swung from trees, a couple had sex! The original chimp was very comical in his increasingly courageous mock charges at us. Mistakenly they think we’re stronger because of our height, when in fact they’re easily more powerful.
That night we took a guided walk through the forest, and although all we saw was some bush baby eyes way up in the trees (and various insects a lot closer), just being out in the forest in the pitch black was exhilarating.
Another glorious morning at the tea plantation saw us spring another surprise change to our route on
Dennis, which he took in his stride. This time rather than heading back south, we wanted to take the difficult roads up to another national park, Murchison Falls. The bonus was we'd be able to drop in on Dennis's boy Jordan on his first birthday for a couple of hours on route. The journey on shocking roads was arduous, taking all afternoon and all of the following morning, but Jordan was gorgeous.
We did another boat trip, which was not as animal-packed as Mweya but did involve getting close to the bottom of the falls and seeing lots of crocs basking in the sun. We camped at the Red Chili which had pretty good facilities but lacked the remoteness we'd been enjoying. An early morning game drive the next day gave us our first sighting of giraffe, plus lots of amazing birds. We packed up and set off east to spend a fun hour at the top of the falls taking photos, getting soaked and checking out a campsite that we all wished we'd been able to stay at. Dennis then did us proud with an eight hour drive on pot-hole pitted roads, mostly in the dark, to get us to the capital Kampala the same day.
Rather foolishly we hadn't booked a room, wrongly assuming a budget place was bound to be available somewhere, and yes, you guessed it, we ended up camping yet again, this time in a hostel's grounds. Dennis and Lesco softened the blow slightly by helping us set up in super quick time. We had a few beers to celebrate the end of the long journey, then it was time to bid a fond farewell to our travelling companions.
We can't recommend Dennis and Lesco highly enough for a flexible, independent budget safari. You can contact Dennis via his community project at www.ugandalodge.com (or try his mobile on +256 752536197). He'll meet you anywhere within Uganda and take you on whatever itinerary you want . If you have any questions we'd be happy to answer them via the comments section below, or you can contact the charity's UK representative, Ann McCarthy at ann@annmccarthy.co.uk
