Inconsiderate Driving

Kampala, Uganda
May 28th, 2009

Most of you have probably heard me brag about how proud I am of Karel’s driving, I’ve made statements to the extent of “Karel’s driving like a true African” where he navigates through traffic like locals without any obvious rules or regulations with confidence (thanks bulbar) and bullies through seemingly impossible traffic build-ups. Now imagine my surprise when we get stopped by a police officer for a ticket for none other than and I quote “inconsiderate driving”.

Let’s begin our story. Karel and I are driving back from enjoying a movie, at a cinema watching Angels and Demons which we both think is a much superior film to the Cyborg special we saw on route to Zanzibar. Anyways so we are driving along minding our own business following the GPS. No problems. Following along we reach a round about and slightly distracted we noticed we were about to go off on the wrong exit so Karel merged lanes and thus was slightly out of lane. Along comes one of the police officers supposedly “directing” traffic (although the only thing they direct are traffic jams!). Ok, not a problem. We unwind our windows. The officer asks us what we are doing. We say we are from out of town, new to Kampala and we got a bit mixed up with what turn off we needed to take. He tells us that what we are doing is inconsiderate. He then asks if he can come into the car to explain to us what we are doing wrong. Karel and I exchange looks. Next thing we now the police officer, who I should say is armed with an AK47, opens the car door by manually unlocking the door from the open window and climbs into the passenger sit. We are then informed that he is taking us to the police station.

As we aren’t new to Africa anymore and slightly unfazed I figure, now how can I get us out of this. I first started my strategy by trying to appeal to the fact that we’re foreign and weren’t sure what we were doing, surely this is some sort of misunderstanding and I am cared of not knowing what is happening. Many minutes pass and no luck. I then up the anti and bring on the tears. Still no luck. Karel then starts with a strategy of his own and asks what exactly is happening, are we under arrest because we need to let our embassies know what is happening. Karel also says at this point that we need to let the embassy know that the officer entered our car without permission. The police officer gets a little nervous at this stage. Bring on the grand finale…we are now quite close to the police station. Stopped at a light another officer notices that there is a police officer in a car with mazungas (whities) and wants to know what’s going on – just curiosity. This is the point where I unleash massive waterworks and between tears say that we were lost in Kampala and the officer stopped us, unlocked our door and got in, and we don’t know what’s happening, and we’re very scared, and he has a gun, and we’ve called our embassies, then cue major tears. The other police officer says something to the guy in our car, who responds by jumping out of our car. Alas ticket free we were safe to go home, mind you a ticket for inconsiderate driving would be the ultimate souvenir from Africa

Winnie's Winning Combination of Kew Gardens + Zoo*

Murchison Falls, Uganda
May 24th & 25th, 2009

Our next stop was Murchison Falls, a National Park which was frequented by the likes of Teddy Roosevelt, Sir Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway. This of course was before the massive fighting occurred- the park is now in a period of regeneration. The main reason I especially was keen to go, was because of the boat safari you can do.

We spent the night of the 23rd just outside of the park gates at a camp site with a brilliant view of the river, and headed inside the next morning. Our first stop was to see the falls from a viewpoint. Off we drove seeing men with machetes cutting the grass in the ditches of the road. We arrived and made our way down a trail leading to the view. It was noting short of amazing. The waterfall has been described by some as the most exciting thing to happen to the Nile and it certainly earns that reputation. The roar of the falls was spectacular and the foam you could see below was stunning.

After we finished ogling the falls we made our way to the ferry port where we could take our cruise. At 2:00pm we boarded. Deciding we wanted to avoid the German tour group sitting below we climbed up a small staircase to the top deck. After standing for a few minutes I had a brainwave and thought we should get our camping chairs for ultimate comfort. Karel asked the park staff if he could quickly get something and off he ran to collect our chairs. Sure we looked like hill billies but we had the best seats in the house and had the feeling like we were the only ones on the boat.

The cruise was great. Along the way we saw buffalo, elephant and buck along with tons of hippo and some Nile crocodile. We also had great views of the falls and saw amazing amounts of foam beaded along the river.

The next morning we took a ferry over to the other side of the park where the highest concentration of wildlife live. It was stunning scenery with palm trees and lush grasses. We saw tons of buck,giraffe, elephant and buffalo. More interesting though, was seeing some fisherman who came across from the Congo. They were using simple netting and dhow boats. Karel and I spent time speculating on what their lives must be like on 'the other side' and what do they think about seeing white people or any people really in game vehicles taking photos. What a different world they must live in.


a.k.a. The “Pearl of Africa” as coined by Sir Winston Churchill himself upon visiting Murchison Falls which he described as Kew Gardens and the London zoo of infinite scale

Chasing Chimps

Mabale National Park, Uganda
May 22nd, 2009

We arrived early at Mabale National Park, a park known for its vast numbers of primates, and headed to the Park Headquarters. Once there we enquired about the Chimp Habituation Experience (oh, yes every capital is needed- it's quite the experience). Essentially this experience involves making an early start at 6:00 am and tracking chimps in hopes of seeing them rise from their nests and following them throughout the day until they make their new nests for the night. Extremely excited we set up our camp and signed up for the next day's tour.

Arriving promptly at 6:00 am we met our guide, Austin, a man who has been tracking chimps in this rainforest for the past twenty years. He was a lovely man who led us on our epic journey. It was amazing to see a proper tracker in progress. Every little thing which we were essentially oblivious to was an important clue to where we needed to go. A few seeds here, a smell there and faint,an almost non-existent sound led us to four hours later finding the chimps. Apparently chimps spend 68% of their lives on-the-go scavenging and socializing, they even make new nests in trees every night.

After those four hours sweating in the humid forest, avoiding huge ants (not to worry our trousers were stylishly tucked into our trousers), walking through some steep inclines, and jumping over small river crossings we made it. High up in the canopy were a large family of chimps. We strained our necks for ages staring up at them, it was a Sistine chapel kind of moment- well except for the fact that the chimps frequently pee and spit out seeds and pieces of fruit! Luckily we weren't hit.

Sitting down and eating our lunch, Austin told us that soon the chimps will be coming down. We packed up our belongings and the chase began. It was amazing to watch the chimps navigate themselves down the tall trees with such ease, it was something like a fireman sliding down a pole. As soon as the chimps hit the ground (which they did in quick succession) they ran off. And so did we. The rest of the day was spent catching up with a small group and watching them either groom or eat. It was an exhausting and exhilarating experience as once the chimps were satisfied with whatever they were doing off they went deep into the thick forest and off we went stumbling along to find them.

Lake Kivu

Rwanda
May 17th, 2009

After enjoying the gorillas and the Parc des Volcans we decided to go on the lake route (as recommended by Alex) and follow the eastern side of Lake Kivu. It was definitely worth it. Beautiful views of lush tea plantations on rolling hills were abundant. It was definitely a fairy tale atmosphere.

Meeting the Susas

Parc des Volcans, Rwanda
May 16th, 2009

We were lucky enough to meet one of Rwanda’s most prestigious families- the Susas. The Susas first came to fame thanks to Dian Fossey who originally habituated them several decades ago. This family is the largest of the gorilla families in East Africa and has 40 members. It is also the only family to have successfully raised twins (usually at least one twin dies).

In order to meet them you have to hike in the forest alongside a guide and tracker. You also have armed guards. We were told that these guards were in case we met some buffalo along the way leading Karel to ask “Does that make them Buffalo Soldiers?” – no one got the joke. As it is bamboo shoot season the gorillas head to the lower part of the mountain so luckily we didn’t have to trek very long before we reached the family as it’s very humid and steep in the forest.

Two hours of walking later we spotted them. It was nothing short of amazing. The first one we saw was still in his nest on the tree top and as we rounded the corner we spotted four more. It was brilliant. There were two younger gorillas that were super curious about us. For health and safety reasons (I know health and safety in Africa?) we weren’t allowed to touch or let the gorillas touch us. We share 70% of our make-up with gorillas and apparently that means any disease is contagious, although it can manifest with different symptoms. Anyways these two small gorillas kept creeping closer and closer so our guide had to keep shooing them away by moving branches to scare them off. The curiosity behind those gorillas’ eyes was intense.

We trekked another hundred metres and came across the rest of the group. It was brilliant timing as they were having their ‘social time’. Everyone was on the ground. We saw the gorillas eating, grooming each other, playing with each other, banging their chests- it was amazing.