My Kenya and Uganda Adventure

By Reshma Deva | November 12, 2010

I personally believe over landing is a great way of traveling through deep Africa as you get to see the best and worst of countries that you travel through. My African Adventure begins to explore the land of Kenya and Uganda with a well established South African owned over landing tour operator, Nomad Adventure Tours. Excitement builds up for me as I start preparing what to pack…what not to pack… thoughts that spring to my mind when I hear Kenya – are the mystical Masai warriors and Uganda – the majestic mountain Gorillas; these will surely be my highlights of my journey for the next 14 days. I join a self participation 14 day camping Masai Mara & Gorilla tour that departs and ends in Nairobi. It is known to be the most challenging tour out of all of Nomad Adventures tours.

I embark on a domestic flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg and catch an international flight with Kenya Airways. Kenya Airways have daily direct flights from Johannesburg to Nairobi. The flight to Kenya is delayed for 15 minutes which was not too bad. Flight is pleasant with friendly staff and food is good. The time difference GMT +3. I arrive at 17h00pm at the Jomo Kenyatta Nairobi Airport. The flight duration is four hours from Johannesburg.

Being South Africa, passport control is a swift process as no form is needed to be filled out and no visa fees are paid.Passport official, smiles and welcomes me to his country; ‘’Karibu’’ he says. I hand my passport and am asked to look into a small camera mounted on the counter and then place firstly four left-hand fingers onto a scanner and then the thumb and the same process for the right-hand. Technology these days…amazing! I then proceed down an elevator to collect my luggage. I look around for my name on a board where an airport transfer is arranged for me. No name board with my name. Oh well TIA (This Is Africa) …no stress, I find a young gentlemen who offers me a good price for the transfer of 20 USD to the Meridian Court Hotel. Gregory takes my luggage and escorts me to his clean A/C vehicle. He asks me where am I from and we have a good conversation. Traffic starts to get congested as Kenyans leave for home after work. On route to the hotel, Gregory tells me roads get busy from 6h00am and from 18h00pm.

Roads signs and rules are not adhered to here. Cars, trucks, Matatus (mini-taxis), bicycles and motorbikes all flow in one direction all eager to get to their destination. It can be quite a shock at first when comparing it to 1st world countries where roads are in good condition and traffic flows in an orderly direction compared to East Africa where the opposite is seen. Quite amusing! We move snail pace and slowly approach the city of Nairobi. On the Savannah trees in the city there are Marabou storks that watch over the traffic and hover over the city. These huge scavenger birds can reach a height of 150 cm; weigh over 9kg and have a wingspan of at least 3.5m. The appearance of this birds is quite scary and sinister, people often refer to them as the ‘’undertaker bird’’. They are known to eat a variety of animals, whether dead or alive. They also fly over areas where their potential prey can be found and this can be very daunting but good to know they prefer small mammals and reptiles so humans are not included on the list. They are apparently beneficial to the environment as they help in the decomposing process by feeding on rotting carcasses.

The roads become so congested that I only reach the hotel after two hours. The airport is situated 20 km away from the city center. On arrival at the Meridian Court Hotel, I am welcomed with a refreshing fresh juice; friendly staff and a porter who takes my luggage to my room. The room is spacious and clean. I settle down and order room service that is available 24 hours. The menu offers a selection and I opt for Indian cuisine, my favorite. The food is delivered in time and the meal looks; smells and tastes divine. A good shower and rest are followed.

The departure time for the Nomad tour is 08h00am. Breakfast opens at 06h3am at the hotel. I am seated and the buffet breakfast looks wonderful with an array of fresh fruits, cereals – a typical continental breakfast layout. I eagerly wait to meet the Nomad crew and the group at the reception area at 07h30am. I start to see other eager adventurers and the smiling faces of the Nomad crew. I meet Mike, our guide and our cook, Cassidy. Some of the travelers have been on the Nomad tour from Johannesburg already and others started from Dar Es Salaam and extending to Uganda. The guides check us in on the passenger list where we complete missing information and they collect the local payment that is due for the tour.

We all gather and then introduce ourselves to each other and to the other silent Nomad crew member called Elvis. Elvis, a smart strong looking overland truck gleams outside. We are briefed inside Elvis where we are introduced to another two gentlemen named David and Alfred. Our guide informs us that these two men are going to take us in their 7-seater 4×4 vehicles into the Masai Mara Reserve for the next three days. We would meet up with Elvis and Mike on day three of the tour. Mike informed us we should pack one bag for two nights three days and not forget to take our sleeping bag and leave our large bag in the truck.

Our cook would be by our side during the Masai Mara excursion. We have a nice small group of 11 so we make use of two of the 4×4 vehicles. Our guide for the next three days is David and in our vehicle is Slevnia, Nena, Ilke, Silvio and Marcelo. The other vehicle has Ramona and Peter (the honeymoon couple), Walter, Lucy and Dana. We depart Nairobi at about 11h00am and stop first at a mall where we can change our US Dollars into Kenya Shillings. I change 50 US Dollars. The guides inform us we need to buy water and snacks for the next three days. After shopping we head off towards Masai Mara territory through the Great Rift Valley. We stop for a photo and curio stop. The Great Rift Valley is 6000 km in length. The Rift Valley name was given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory. The Rift Valley extends from Lebanon in the north to Mozambique in the south. In East Africa the valley divides into two, the Western Rift Valley and the Eastern Rift Valley. The Western Rift is edged by some of the highest mountains in Africa namely the Virungu and Ruwenzori range that we would visit in Uganda. In Kenya, the valley is deepest to the north of Nairobi and is home to the Africa’s great lakes. It is a long drive through to the Masai Mara National Park.

The road conditions are terrible with potholes and construction taking place and this extends travelling time. We pass many Masai villages and reach our overnight camp, the Masai Mara tented camp. It is a good basic camp site with okay toilet and shower facilities. There is no need for us to set up of our tents as the camp has tented camps with a twin bed inside which was lovely. We leave our luggage and have quick lunch before we head out. We visit a Masai Mara Village where the chief’s son introduces us to the people of the village and educates us on their customs and way of living.

The men are then pulled out of our group to join the tall Masai warriors in a dance in which they impress the ladies by jumping high. They start singing and each warrior has a turn to come forward and display his jumping skills. The higher they jump the stronger and better stamina they possess. They never let their heels touch the ground. The men in our group did quite well and we all had a good laugh. It was our now our turn as the elegant Masai ladies take all the ladies and we join them in a straight line while they sing and dance by simply moving side to side – much easier than jumping. We are divided into pairs and taken into a hut by a Masai who welcomes us into his home and we sit inside while he explains their daily routine and life as a warrior. Our Masai was well spoken in English which was quite impressive. He and his brother live in this home. They offer us local beer made from sausage tree and honey and it tastes great like a cider in South Africa we call Savanna. They sell us ornaments and other souvenirs. The Masai are strongly independent people who still value tradition and ritual. They regard themselves not just as residents of this area but they feel as much a part of the life of the land as the land is part of their lives. After the Masai village, our guides take us to the Masai Mara National Reserve.

The Maasai Mara, known by the locals as ‘the Mara’ is a large game reserve in south-western Kenya, which is the northern continuation of the Serengeti National Park game reserve in Tanzania. Named after the Maasai people and their description of the area when looked at from a viewpoint – “Mara”, which is Maa (Maasai language) for spotted: an apt description for the circles of trees, scrub, savannah and cloud shadows that mark the area. It is famous for its population of big Cats, game and the annual migration of zebra, thomson’s gazelle and wildebeest from the Serengeti every year from July to October, a migration so immense it is called the Great Migration.

It is amazing when driving through the reserve how untouched the landscape is still in some places of the world – untouched by technology – untouched by western influence. Quiet, serene and beautiful. The landscapes are dry and vast. We immediately see other safari vehicles and then see a pride of lions lazing in the bush veld. It is a lioness and her playful cubs. The cubs jump around playing fondly with each other as the patient mother watches over them. It is magical watching the family interact. It is getting dark so we head back to our camp. Our dinner is prepared by our own Nomad chef, Cassidy. We sit down for our first dinner and introduce ourselves to the rest of the members of the group.

An early morning wake up for a game drive…yay… we all get out of our tents…half asleep; get some breakfast and pack our luggage into the vehicles. The guides open the pop up roof making game viewing excellent with 360 degree views. We head straight to the point where we last saw the pride of lions and we find them still there lazing around as the sunrises over the hills. I do not want to leave the lions but we have to see more of the park.

We see in the distance thousands of small black specs on the horizons stretching for miles…it is wildebeests. The spectacular wildebeest migration is an annual migration of 1.5 million wildebeest and 300,000 zebra is almost everyone’s dream to witness. Their journey for food and water stretches a distance of around 1800 miles. It’s known to be a difficult journey with all the predators and every year an estimated 250,000 wildebeest do not make it. I have always dreamt from young to see this much talked about and watched movement of wildlife from place to place and seeing it in front of you is another unforgettable experience.

We drive through the Masai Mara National Reserve and see a pack of hyenas cooling off in muddy waters and various types of different birds. After a great game viewing morning we have a healthy lunch and head to our next camp site near Lake Naivasha.

Lake Naivasha, a freshwater lake covering 13kms across, waters are shallow with an average depth of five meters. From the campsite there is a view point where we watch white pelicans swim out into the lake that is fringed by thick papyrus. We start the morning off with a boat cruise along Lake Naivasha. Our guide takes us pass the banks where he shows us an African Fish Eagle perched on a high tree overlooking at the lake. He takes out a small fish and says watch carefully (we all focus our cameras)…he throws the fish into the lake and the fish eagle spots this from meters away and all of a sudden swoops over with such elegance over the lake and grips the fish with his feet….wow…such an amazing site.

There are pools of hippos lazing around watching us as we avidly take photos of them. The boat cruise lasts for about one and half hours where we all take in the beauty of this lake and the many bird-life species from Kingfishers eagerly awaiting to catch their pray to Cormorants drying their wings on rocks. The lake is known to have about +200 bird species and is a true heaven for bird lovers.

We disembark from the boats onto an island called Crescent Island Wildlife Sanctuary which is actually a submerged rim of an immerged volcanic crater that forms a bay which is the deepest point of the lake. The island is a preserved sanctuary where we walk among Giraffe, antelope, zebra, waterbucks and other mammals; no predators thankfully. Our guides explains to us that Meryl Streep and Robert Redford shot the famous movie ‘’Out of Africa’’ on this island. After a gentle stroll we meet up with our guides and we head off towards Lake Nakuru.

We arrive at the Lion Hill campsite and start to prepare lunch before we enter the Lake Nakuru National Park. The Lake Nakuru is one of the soda lakes of the Rift Valley. This park is a UNESCO World Heritage and a RAMSA site. The lake attracts a large number of flamingos; a breath-taking site. Back home, I see many photos of Rhinos and in the background a line of pinkness in the background which seems unbelievable now believable.

The many flamingos are attracted because of the abundance of algae on the shoreline. We drive through this beautiful park and see different types of birds to antelope. The roads are quite good making game viewing great. After a productive 2 to 3 hour game drive we set back to the camp for dinner. The Nomad tours are self participation tours so we wash our hands to help the guides cook. Steak, potatoes and a healthy salad dish is on the menu. The menu caters for the vegetarian travellers as well. With our stomach full, we sit around a table and chat till the late hours…

We leave the Lake Nakuru campsite at 05h00am with the Nomad vehicle and head excitingly towards to the Uganda border. Our passports are ready and the 50 US Dollar visa fee is given at passport control. After a long drive on the East African roads we reach the equator to have lunch. The Equator, an imaginary line that divides the earth in half with the north on one side and the south on another…it is a strange feeling to know you at the center. There are souvenir shops here where we buy great items from bottle openers to necklaces and lovely bracelets. Kampala, our destination is reached at 18h00. Kampala is the largest city and the capital of Uganda. We enter the Red Chili Hideaway hostel and set up our tents. The bathroom facilities are refreshing, hot and cold showers to cool us down and we then help prepare supper. Mike briefs us about Uganda and the following day’s optional activities. We could either go the Chimpanzee Sanctuary or have a relaxing day. The cost of the sanctuary I would have loved to visit but it was expensive at 70USD entrance fee and 100USD for transport so all of us decided on the relaxing option to do laundry and go to a nearby mall to shop. In the evening, we went to an Indian Restaurant to enjoy hot curry and spiced rice (which was like home food for me).

Queen Elizabeth National Park is a 5 to 6 hour drive from Kampala. Before we enter the park, we stop for a loo break at the entrance which was an adventure on its own. The photo explains it all. We drive through the park to our beautifully located campsite. The area of the park extends from Lake George to Lake Edward and includes the Kazinga Channel that connects the two lakes. The park has one of the highest bio diversity ratings of any national park in the world, over 500 different bird species and about 100 mammal species. The campsite is serene and rustic. The open air showers are refreshing after the drive in the heat. We set up our tents and then help Cassidy prepare our bush camp fire and surprise meal. We sit around the bon fire, full moon shining, sharing stories and singing African songs.

After the wildlife stories around the bonfire I had dreams of strange creatures near and around the tents and the following morning I woke up to thesounds of an animal nearby the tent grunting…pumba – not the king of the jungle but his sidekick from The Lion King, the strange looking warthog and his family. My tent mate, Slvenia and I watched the sunrise through the mosquito netting and the warthogs rummaging through the dustbins and walking near the burnt out fire to find any left overs from the dinner the previous evening. We needed to be up early for a morning boat cruise so I unzipped the tent and headed to brush my teeth and freshen up for the day. Surrounding the Nomad truck was two huge Marabou storks that walk stalking predator like around the tents and eating area to find any scraps to feed on. Personally, this was my favorite camping site – so basic and rustic – making it perfect setting for an African Experience.

We have a good breakfast while being entertained by the warthogs and storks as well as a lurking hippo that apparently came near our tents in the night but was backed away because of the fire and our guides alertness. We packed up tents and made our way down to the channels embankment to start the two hour boat cruise along the Queen Elizabeth National Park Kazinga Channel. It is known that most wildlife is seen on the channel banks than the game drives which was proven true. On the boat cruise who saw a prolific amount of birdlife, pools of hippos and it was fascinating to see fishing villages where the fisherman go about their daily routine on the banks of the channel. Elvis was waiting for us as we ended the cruise.

Today was the day we moved closer to meeting the highlight of this trip – the majestic Gorilla. Our guide informed us that we were going to be split according to our Gorilla permits. Six of us were told to pack one bag as some we were staying at a different camp to the rest of the group. At the town of Kabale, Nomad hires a mini taxi to take us to the Bwindi campsite. The other four stay with the Nomad vehicle and head to the Lake Bunyoni campsite. Three of them trek nearby the site and one of them trek in Rwanda.

Nena, Lucy, Dana, Peter & Ramona and myself (Mike called us the ‘Big 6’) head with our cook Cassidy to the campsite. The drive is bumpy and slippery with the rain and typical road conditions but the mini taxi was 4×4 and so it was able to handle the steep uphill’s and the turns around the mountain passes. To reach our camp we pass through narrow valleys and steep hills. The air is fresh and the vegetation through the region is grass green and lush. We head up higher and higher, the views are spectacular of the villages down under. Altitudes range from 1,190m to 2,607m above sea level. Apparently 60 percent of the park has an elevation of over 2000 metres.

The Bwindi Impentrable National Park is located in south-western Uganda. The park is part of the Bwini Impentrable Forest which is situated along the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and on the edge of the western Great Rift Valley. The park is 331 square kilometres of jungle forests therefore we can only access and view the gorillas by foot. The park is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The forest is known to have half of the world’s population of endangered Mountain Gorillas. Gorilla tracking became a tourist activity in 1993 and the park instantly became a popular tourist destination. Did you know that gorillas in greek mean hairy women.

Three days are allocated to gorilla trekking. We have time to walk around the curio shops thatsell wooden gorilla families, T-shirt saying I have trekked the Gorillas and other small memorabilia of Bwindi National Park. We overnight for two nights at the Buhoma campsite. On the day of our trek, we meet at 07h30am in a room where a gorilla video is shown of the various families in the area. We are briefed by the park official and then taken outside for more briefing where he informs us of the do’s and don’t when viewing the gorillas. We are then split further to a certain gorilla family. There are seven gorilla families that can be trekked. Only eight trekkers are allowed per group to view the gorillas for a maximum of only one hour. The distance between us and the gorilla must be nothing less than seven metres. The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) officials are very strict about these rules and regulations.

I have the opportunity to trek the Mubare group. Our lead tracker is Sunday and we are accompanied by two military men with AK47 rifles. Sunday briefs us about the gorilla family we visit; the size of the gorilla group is five members including one silverback. Mubare is the oldest habituated gorilla group in Uganda. It was found in the Mubare hills, deep in Bwindi forest, and was fully habituated in 1993. The group started with 12 family members, led by the dominant silverback. In a few years the group grew to 18 individuals. Unfortunately, due to fights with wild gorilla groups and loss of members, Mubare has lessened to a family of only five individuals. The dominant silverback in the group is named Ruhondeza. The Blackbacks are Kanyonyi and Muyambi and the Adult female is Kashundwe and their baby, Malaika.

The guide informs us about the importance of porters on the trek. They are tipped 15 US Dollars to carry your bags and help you along the route. There are also tracking sticks made available which cost 10 US Dollars to buy and 5 US Dollars to hire. I initially hesitated to buy but do not regret the purchase as it was extremely useful during the trek and now stands as a stunning souvenir piece at home. The sticks are made out of the tea trees by the local craftsmen around Buhoma. The project has helped the income of the communities around the park and has no negative impact on the forest as the raw materials are from the over-grown tea plantations.

The trek is steep at first but once we reach the top of the hill at about 1500 metres it is flat and then the slope slightly declines. We trek for two hours before our trackers spot the family hidden in the lush vegetation. How do they find the gorillas? Well they simply locate the gorillas by the GPS marking points made from previous day trek. The gorillas do not move too far away from this point and if they do you can easily find them from the flattened bushes and their knuckle prints.

The military men one in front of the group and one at the back of the group are there to protect us from the forest Elephants or any other encounters that may occur. Our porter, Jackson is a great help and friendly. We are told to leave our luggage with the porters and only take our cameras as we move closer to the gorillas to get a better view. We spot the blackback called Kanyonyi who immediately jumps towards us and growling, it was scary but Sunday tells us he is just showing off. Kanyonyi then heads into the dense bush and finally sits down to munch the vegetation. We all start snapping away and then stop and take in this amazing once in a lifetime 505 US Dollar moment. The silverback, female and baby head into the bush and we try to get closer to have a better view. This is truly the faster hour in my life. The guide informs us we have only one minute left and we take in the last seconds of the experience.

We slowly head back to the starting point and suddenly it starts pouring heavily; luckily I had my rain jacket so it helped my keep slightly dry. The rain made the trek down slippery and this is where the stick came in handy and the porter. At the end we make our way to the meeting point where our guide hands us our Gorilla tracking certificate and he congratulates us on being a gorilla ambassador. It is a proud moment that I will not forget and the certificate is a great endorsement after the trek.

Cassidy warmly welcomes us back with a lovely pasta dish which is mmm yummy. We needed to meet the rest of the group and Elvis at the Bunyoni campsite. The ride from Buhoma to Bunyoni is a five hour loonnng drive especially after the trek. On arrival at Bunyoni campsite, Mike who was with the other part of the group has dinner ready for us. This campsite overlooks the beautiful Bunyoni Lake. We have dinner discussing our treks and enjoying the full moon over the lake. Interestingly, the Buyoni Lake appears on the 5,000 Ugandan shilling note under the title ‘’lake bunyonyi and terraces’’.

We head back to the city of Kampala, where we overnight at the Red Chili Hideaway. We decide as a group to visit Lake Victoria for the day to relax at the beach. We relax at the beach outside the Imperial Hotel Resort where they are hosting the Miss Uganda Pageant that night. Lake Victoria is the largest tropical lake and second largest freshwater lake in the world. What is amazing is that this lake is shared by three countries namely Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania giving you an idea of the size of this lake being 400km long and 320km wide. In the sky we see aeroplanes taking off from the Entebbe Airport. We end of the night eating out at a pizza place in Entebbe.

Jinja, Uganda’s second largest city and is famous for being the source of the Nile River (officially the Victoria Nile) which flows out of Lake Victoria and begins the 6695 kilometre journey to Egypt and the Mediterranean, making it the longest river in the world. There are loads of activities to do in Jinja from Nile River Rafting to guided village walks. The Nile River Explorer campsite is another wonderful campsite overlooking the Nile River. The night ends with a delicious meal cooked by Mike & Cassidy; fish braai and chapatti’s (indian bread). After the meal we head to the bar to chat and enjoy our last night in Uganda.

Returning to Kenya, we have lunch at the border. Children run to us selling bananas and adults wanting to exchange money surround us as we prepare the lunch but kindly leave us when we sit down on the camping chairs to enjoy our sandwich. We spend a night at the Naiberi River campsite in Eldoret. A great ending to an adventure tour as this campsite has a huge swimming pool; a great pool and bar area and the bathroom facilities are excellent.

The last day of the tour arrives too soon and we need to say farewell to our newly made friends. We exchange contact details and pass around snacks and biscuits that need finishing before the tour ends and we all depart to various places around the globe.

Looking back at my experience, I am very fortunate to have been able to join this tour with Nomad Adventure Tours. Every single moment on tour has been an enlightening moment. I realised that we generally take the luxuries in life forgranted like a simple clean toilet seat; a home with a comfortable bed and roof over our head; a car to get to work or to a mall; a cellphone and internet to keep in contact with our loved ones; our clothes that protect and keep us warm during the rain and the harsh sunlight; comfortable shoes that protect our feet from getting blisters and the list continues from necessities to luxuries. After an experience like this you can truly say you have experienced Africa. One thing I can say is being open minded on this tour is essential to take back home good memories and helps with being thankful for your life.

I love Africa and would like you to experience this journey and other adventures with Nomad Adventure Tours as you will be left with unforgettable memories and snapshots of Africa.

“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan

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