Uganda = AMAZING!

Uganda is amazing!!  But before I get to that, I should probably back up and start with how I got there. This deployment allows for an opportunity to take a 96 if you are deployed for more than 179 days.  A 96 is a 96 hour pass to do whatever you like.  You can go anywhere or stay in your CLU for a “clucation”.  I opted to book a 96 through the Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) to go to Uganda for mountain gorilla trekking and white water rafting.On Wednesday our flight left Djibouti around 7:00pm.  We had a connection in Addis Abba, Ethiopia.  While here, we grabbed some dinner and I opted to try a traditional Ethiopian dish.  This however, turned out to be not such a good choice as I really didn’t enjoy whatever it is I ended up with.  We landed in Entebbe, Uganda after midnight.  Our tour guides picked us up from the airport and we bagan the hour or so drive to Kampala.  We had two vehicles, and unfortunately one of them got a flat tire on the way to the hotel.  After a tire swap we were back on our way.  By the time we finally got to the hotel and settled into our room it was almost 3:00a.m.  Not a lot of time to rest before our 6:00a.m. wake up call!

After very little sleep we were on our way to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest where we would do the mountain gorilla trekking.  We were told the drive would take 9-10 hours.  We stopped at the Equator and enjoyed taking pictures and watching a demonstration of how water twirls down the bowl depending if you are in the Northern or Southern hemisphere.  A couple of hours from the Equator we stopped and enjoyed a buffet lunch.  After lunch it was all car ride until we got to our lodge at around 7:30p.m.  It was a very long day in the car!!  The last 4 hours or so of the trip were all on dirt roads, which our driver affectionately called our “African Massage”.  The countryside of Uganda is stunning!  It is super green and hilly.  We also really enjoyed waiving to all the children who were walking along the dirt road.  They would get so excited when they would see us.  After awhile, I felt like I was in a parade and waving all the time.  The children brought such joy!  After we finally arrived at our hotel, we got to our room which was very nice.  No glass windows, but it was surrounded by screens. The temperature is very cool at night which is a great difference from what we’re used to in Djibouti.  Dinner was a fixed course of a stuffed tomato appetizer (super yummy), fish and mushroom soup (also very good),beef, potatoes and vegetables for the main course (amazing), and lemon pineapple pie for dessert (delicious)!  All in all the meal was outstanding and then it was time to hit the sack after an extremely long day.

After breakfast it was time to begin our mountain gorilla adventure.  We had a briefing by the rangers and our group of 11 was broken up into a group of 8 and 3 of our other people joined another group.  Only 8 people are allowed in each group.  I was with the 8 from our MWR trip and along with our guide, 2 armed rangers, and a porter that one of our people hired, we began our hike.  The hike started nice and flat and felt like I was about to go geocaching.  We came to a creek where we crossed a bamboo bridge and then began the climb up the mountain.  The climb was steep and difficult in some spots, but doable.  I was so glad that they had given us walking sticks to use.  That helped a ton!  The vegetation was thick and our guide and ranger used a machete to help clear the way.  After about 2 hours of climbing our guide heard the news on his walkie talkie that the trackers had found our family of gorillas.  So onward and upward we went and as I

looked down I exclaimed “Whose poop is this?”  Our guide informed us, it was in fact the gorilla’s poop and we had found their nests from the night before.  Gorillas make a new nest every night and then poop there the next day before they leave so nobody else will use it.  We were getting closer!!!  When we finally met up with our trackers we put down our bags and walking sticks and move a very short distance where I got my first glimpse of the Silverback gorrilla!  Nothing short of amazing!!  I can’t believe how close we were and how much the gorilla didn’t seem to mind.  He was busy stuffing his face with leaves and would glance over to us from time to time.  As he moved, we moved with him.  At one point he got up and climbed a short distance up a tree.  He was so close to some of the people in our group I was afraid he might lose his balance and land on them!  After spending several minutes watching him and taking pictures and videos we moved on to find other members of his family.  They were

relatively close by and in total we saw 7 of the 9 members of the family.  One of the female gorillas had been lying still for some time so I turned with my back to her and asked someone to take my picture.  As I was getting set up, she moved and came and passed right behind me.  The looks on people’s face that were watching were funny.  I guess I didn’t realize how close she was!
 We spent 1 hour with the gorillas and enjoyed their peaceful, docile nature.  I can see why Dianne Fossy (Gorillas in the Mist) fell in love with them.  After our time with the gorillas we sat and ate our boxed lunch then were back on our way down the mountain.  Going down was easier then going up and probably took just little over an hour.  I was surprised that we didn’t see any birds or other wildlife throughout the day.  Although exhausted when we were done, after a quick shower several of us went into the town close by to watch the orphanage children give a song and dance show.  So much energy!  The children sell some of their art and I was very happy to buy a drawing and sculpture to help support them.  Dinner was again in the lodge and was very good.  It consisted of avocado with honey mustard dressing appetizer, tomato soup, chicken, rice, and vegetables, and chocolate something or another (very good) for dessert.  The lodge had WIFI and try as I might to get connected to my email to send a message home, but I just couldn’t get on. After an hour I gave up and went to the room to type this blog entry and go to bed.  What an amazing day!

We had another early start and were back in the vehicles at 7:00am to start the long ride back to Kampala.  We took a different route back and was able to drive through the Queen Elizabeth National Park.  Our driver pulled over and lifted the roof of our vehicle so we were able to stand on the seats and be on the look out for lions, elephants, water buffalo, impalas, monkeys, and other animals.  We ended up seeing all of these animals with the exception of a lion.  The grass was really tall, so they probably were out there, but just not for us to see.  It was really beautiful and a different landscape then what we had been driving through as this was flat grasslands.  I was excited that we were able to go on a mini-safari and see some of the animals I envisioned in Africa!  After driving through the park we stopped at a hotel to eat a box lunch that we got from our lodge in Bwindi.  The views were stunning!!

We were looking out over miles and miles of African countryside and the national park that we had just driven through.  After lunch it was back in the car for more driving.  I really enjoyed watching the beautiful Ugandan countryside go by.  We once again stopped at the Equator for a break.  I tried looking for a geocache that was there, but couldn’t find it.  I even asked the children who were sitting right where the coordinates led me if they new where the “treasure” was, but when the started digging in the ground with a machete I knew they didn’t really know what I was talking about.
 I asked one of the adults at the nearby restaurant if he knew if it was still there.  He said he knew others had come searching, but wasn’t sure if it was found.  Oh well, at least I tried!  Once we arrived back in Kampala the traffic became very busy.  I would have been so stressed out with all the motorbikes, people walking between cars, goats and what not creating driving obstacles.  We got back to the hotel around 7:45p.m.  After checking in we got a call that the other vehicle was stuck in traffic and that we should meet them directly at the Italian restaurant we were going to for dinner.  The restaurant was very nice and felt like we were in the U.S.  I had an excellent mushroom risotto.  Those that ordered steak were very disappointed.  Still hard to get a good steak in Africa.  The service was slow and we didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11:00pm.  I was so exhausted and our wake-up call for the next day was for 5:45!  This trip has been go, go, go!

So yesterday after another early morning we were on a bus that would take us on a hour and half drive to Jinga, Uganda to go white-water rafting on the Nile River. After the safety brief I was a little nervous as we would be rafting class 4 and 5 rapids (6 being the roughest).  During the safety brief we even practiced tipping the raft and getting back in.  Should have figured that my chances of staying in the raft were going to be slim!  The first rapid was right away and it was pretty intense!  No baby rapids to get the feel as we started with a class 5.  One of our guys fell out of the raft but he was ok!  The next rapid was a class 4 and wasn’t so bad and

really enjoyable.  There were many kilometers of calm water where we enjoyed the nice flow of the river and the beauty around us.  I was surprised at how many pine trees lined the banks of the Nile.  I wasn’t sure if I was in Wisconsin or Africa!  At one point I asked the guide what kind of fish were in the river, but before he could finish telling me we got distracted by something.  A short while later we saw a baby crocodile!  I told him he didn’t tell me that, but he said he didn’t get the chance!  A couple of rapids later we experience our first raft tip.  It wasn’t that bad and actually felt refreshing! For a mid-morning snack they served fresh
pineapple and cookies.  After a while we all got out of the raft to swim.  I guess the crocodiles weren’t a threat in that part of the river.  Before we knew it we were approaching our last rapid.  The guide said it was pretty intense and if anybody wanted to go in the guide boat and not do the rapid they could.  One of the ladies on our raft took this option, but I was all in. We made it through the first rapid, but tipped on the second!!  It was all good though as this was the last rapid and a few strokes later we were getting out of the river.
They provided us lunch and the best kind of beer. Free!  Actually it was Nile beer and it was quite good.  Around
4:30 it was back on the bus for the long ride back to Kampala.  We had only an hour to shower and pack before we were meeting for dinner and going to the airport. We ended up eating dinner at a hotel restaurant on the patio.  I was excited to see burgers on the menu and ordered one hoping that it would meet my craving.  The galley does not serve a good burger ever.  It was pretty good.  The meat tasted a little different, but good.  Soon we were rushing out of the restaurant to get to the airport.  Once at the airport, we went to check in.  8 of 11 people got boarding passes all the way through to Djibouti.  Unfortunately I was one of the three that did not.  This made me a bit nervous, but the agent told me I would get it in Addis Abba.  For some reason he said all the seats were filled or blocked or something.  I was just hoping that they wouldn’t want to charge us again in Addis Abba.  Turns out, it didn’t seem to be a big deal because when we finally tracked somebody down he took our itineraries and after a few minutes came back with boarding passes.  Not sure why that couldn’t be done in Uganda, but oh well.  As I write this final paragraph I’m waiting to board our flight back to Djibouti.  I hope the next 45 or so days goes by as quickly as the last 4!  This trip was an unbelievable opportunity that I’m glad  I was able to take advantage of.  So good to see another side of Africa!