Life on Earth - Uganda and Rwanda

Jinja

Green. Uganda greats me with lush fields and the scent of rain. 

Countryside on way to Jinja

I follow the shore of Lake Victoria around to the top of the Nile at Jinja. From Alexandria, I have finally made it from one end of this great river to the other. Only took me 7 months.

I head downstream and camp by some rapids at a tranquil spot called The Haven.

Rapids on The Victoria Nile at The Haven, downstream from Jinja

I wander the nearby village and buy vegetables for my dinner and eat them by a camp fire listening to the tree frogs make a hypnotising noise, like a giant glass bead curtain in a breeze. When they are done, I listen to the no less magical Aretha Franklin, who died today.

Shop near The Haven, Jinja

near The Haven, Jinja

Feeling restored after 3 days, I head for the hills and Sipi where there is a famous waterfall. After the soaking I get on the way, I am expecting an epic torrent. A guy called Dennis befriends me when I need to refix my windscreen. He takes me to a little shop that smells of oil and smoke where there are hunts through coffee tins filled with random tiny objects until a motley assortment of half-rusted nuts and bolts is assembled. Although Dennis's eyes are already bloodshot and he smells of booze, I buy him beers and his slurring increases. He tells me that age is not real. He shows me the scars from a knife fight defending his aunt from his uncle. He tells me how he was born in Kitale, Kenya and came here when he was 5. That the president is killing his opponents. As it happens, the president is here in this little village today, opening a new road that leads to Kenya. A convoy of land cruisers sweeps past us.

Dennis, Sipi

I trek up the 3 slippery levels of the waterfall, through coffee bushes.

Coffee beans, Sipi

Sipi Falls

Sipi Falls

Chameleon, Sipi

I have a delicious lunch of Matoke (banana mash), a perfect avocado (Uganda has amazing avocados), beans, chapati and a dish of eggplant in peanut sauce.

Abdul's eatery, Sipi

and spend an evening at the local pub, drinking Adjan, a millet beer drunk from a communal bucket,  via long straws, that is topped up with hot water from time to time. A very similar taste to Chakka that I had in Ethiopia and it has a similarly pleasant relaxing effect. It turns out that the people here all have their family roots in Eastern Ethiopia and migrated here via Eastern Kenya. I sit and listen to them exchanging ideas and jokes and plans for the following day.

Drinking Adjan, Sipi

I get myself a SIM card but can't figure out why my WhatsApp won't work until someone explains that President Museveni has put a tax on "lugambo" (gossip) I pay my 200 shillings per day easily enough, using the phone payment system that is so much more advanced than back in the UK, but for many locals, 5 cents a day is more than they can afford.

I head for Karamoja. This is the Northeastern region and until just 3 or 4 years ago was a no-go area due to banditry by the Karamajong tribe. But their 40,000 AK47s handed-down from Idi Amin's defeated army have now been confiscated and this stunningly beautiful region is somewhat accessible. 

Petrol Station, Cheptui - on road to Moroto

Pian Upe Game Reserve, Mbale-Moroto Road

Pian Upe Game Reserve, Mbale-Moroto Road

I spend a night in Moroto and meet two German filmmakers who know Father Florian, the benedictine I stayed with in Ileret.

Along the route to Kidepo via Kotido and Kaabong, I see a lot of Karamajong who dress a bit like the Turkana tribes I saw in North-West Kenya with a feather stuck in their little can-shaped felt hats.

Buying Sambusas, Kotido, Karamoja

Near Kaabong, Karamoja

Near Kaabong, Karamoja

More rain. I carefully avoided the Ethiopian wet season but now discover that, having headed back north of the equator and gained some altitude, it is lying in wait for me after all.

approaching Kidepo, Karamoja

I slither around and gain more cuts on my legs but finally make it to Kidepo National Park which stradles the South Sudan border.

Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

Uganda is the only African country that allows motorbikes to enter its national parks and I take full advantage, gliding around some of the most beautiful landscapes and encountering an amazing variety of animals.

Jackal, Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

At one point I take an unwise shortcut through some boggy ground and end up simultaneously battling muddy tracks and tsetse flies - which are like mosquitos on crack - I nearly call the rangers to come save me when my front wheel is frozen with mud and all I have to free it is a tiny screwdriver - but somehow I break on through.

Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

Sausage tree, Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

Buffalo, Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

Kidepo National Park, Karamoja

Another petrol stop where the fuel comes in half-litre fanta bottles. I buy a whole crate which impresses the crowd.

Getting Petrol, Karenga, Karamoja

All the talk is about Bobi Wine. He is a pop star who spoke out against President Museveni, calling for more democracy. Museveni had him arrested and riots among the youth ensued. It's a volatile atmosphere and people warn me not to go to Kampala. A prominent MP speaks out for Wine and is himself arrested. Wine is released and then rearrested. Then he's off to exile and medical treatment in the US.

The road to Kitgum is heart-breaking, all wreathed in clouds. People smile big smiles when they see me coming on the red mud roads.

Then suddenly it's smooth tar all the way to Pakwach.

I'm just 20 clicks out and a gigantic storm cloud appears over the National Park. It's like the hull of a ocean liner looming over me. A crack of lightning and within seconds I am soaked to the skin. It's like I'm made of water and I fight to control the bike and avoid aqua-planing. An elephants stands stoically by the roadside. I arrive at Allelujah guesthouse like a monster emerging from the swamp and spend a long time carefully peeling off my clothes and separating all my belongings to dry.

Pakwach

In Murchison National Park I cruise around the little tracks and enjoy the animals

Giraffes, Murchison Falls National Park

Waterbuck, Murchison Falls National Park

Oribi, Murchison Falls National Park

Washed-out bridge, Murchison Falls National Park

Elephant, Murchison Falls National Park

Out of the blue, literally, there is the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard. It's like being inside a cannon. A lady near me actually screams. This is in bright sunshine. Then 10 minutes later, intense, torrential rain that feels like it could raze the jungle. I love a tropical storm.

Sunrise, Murchison Falls National Park

Murchison Falls

I head back to the Delta, via a ferry which is stuck because a minibus driver has locked himself out. With the aid of my leatherman and a suitably shaped stick I find in the undergrowth, I get the door open and myself across.

Hippo, Victoria Nile Delta, Murchison Falls National Park

Jackson's Hartebeest, Murchison Falls National Park

Waterbucks, Murchison Falls National Park

I bribe the guard at the exit to the park and avoid an extra day's fee and head on down towards Fort Portal and the crater lakes south of it. The journey is though more pretty tea country.

near Hoima

Kagadi

I camp on Lake Nkuruba, one of several little crater lakes. It's an idyllic setting with my mornings greeted by troupes of often mischeivous monkeys. The vervet monkeys pick up my phone and nearly make off with it. The black and white colobi are more reserved and just sit in the trees looking ornamental with their beautiful long white tails.

Vervet monkey, Lake Nkuruba

Black & White Colobus monkeys, Lake Nkuruba

Lake Nkuruba

Black & White Colobus monkeys, Lake Nkuruba

In the evenings, the tree frog chorus is intense and I run around with my audio recorder trying to capture the evocative sound. I have a film project in November that I have earmarked it for. Up until now I have been assuming it was insects but I finally get to see the tiny creatures who have been making this 'pinking' noise - they are smaller than the tip of my little finger and I marvel at their own miniscule fingers. It takes me back to the wonder I felt when watching David Attenborough's "Life on Earth" when I was a child.

Tree Frog, Lake Nkuruba

I breakfast on my favourite Rwandan dish, Rolex, which is an omelette rolled-up in a chapati, and after a long morning obsessively cleaning my chain with a toothbrush and kerosene (it's been making an ominous grating noise), I wind my way through the mountains to Kasese passing the local banana market

Banana sellers on their way to market, Rwaihamba, near Lake Nkuruba

and then to Queen Elizabeth Park. I make the boat with seconds to spare and then sit back and enjoy the myriad animal and birdlife on the Kazinga Channel, which links Lake Edward with Lake George.

Pied Kingfisher, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Weaver bird, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Hippos, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

One disrespectful hippo uses his colleague's face for a toilet. There is a 5 second pause and then an almighty roar and a vicious fight breaks out.

African Fish Eagle, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Mycteria Ibis, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

The local kids put on a dance display for us as we pass

Kids dancing, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Crocodile, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Marabou Stork,Yellow-Billed Pelican & White-Breasted Cormorants, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Locals out to fish on Lake Edward, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

and as the sun goes down, a flotilla of local canoes pass us on their way to fish in Lake Edward.

Locals out to fish on Lake Edward, Kazinga Channel, Queen Elizabeth National Park

After dark I go for a beer at a little eatery on the channel banks. There is some kind of party going on around the fire and I get talking to Michael, who explains that everyone here is an MP and they are on a research trip to amend a new Act concerning wildlife and local tribes. They all get properly drunk and form a conga line.

Business Card of Ugandan MP at party in Queen Elizabeth National Park

In the morning, nursing a minor hangover, I stumble into a toilet block only to be almost bowled over by a family of stampeding warthogs that have spent the night there. I get a rolex, jealously shielding it from the marabou storks who strut around like evil butlers.

I head along the track that Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip took in 1954. This nearly ends in a bad fall as the track is slick from the overnight rain.

Slippy mud, Royal Circuit, Queen Elizabeth National Park

I take the road to Ishasha, which in its second half is one of the most beautiful stretches yet

Elephants, road to Ishasha, Queen Elizabeth National Park

Tea Plantations, near Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

And by dark I am at Buhoma, one of the gateways to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, famous for its mountain gorillas.

Gorilla tracking is stupidly expensive. In Rwanda, people pay $1500 to spend an hour with them. Here the going rate is $600. I go and plead with the head ranger but he says no. I go stand by my bike and wait a while on a hunch and sure enough a young ranger comes over and says he can make a call for me. He is clearly in view of the supervisor and it's obvious to me that it all happens with his nod. I end up paying a little less than $400.

We trek up into the rainforest. I am prepared for several hours of tracking. In some places we have to cut our way through the dense vegetation with machetes.

Fig tree, Bwindi National Park

Ranger, Bwindi National Park

and after only about 45 minutes, the rangers get a message on their radio that the trackers have located our group, Rushegura.

Silverback Gorilla, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

The gorillas look at us with mild interest and then return to eating, playing and picking insects out of each others fur. We keep our distance to 3 metres or so but at times the gorillas do not and at one point I am nearly knocked over by a female carrying her baby past me. The only other time I have had such an intense and intimate encounter with animals was in the Galápagos

Silverback Gorilla, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

Silverback Gorilla, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

One female guards her child especially carefully and when the silverback pounds past her, she draws him close protectively. Our ranger, Rita, explains that she escaped from another group whose silverback killed all the babies, because they were not his.

Exiled Female and Baby gorilla, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

The group includes a blackback and his face and back show bites inflicted by the silverback in a recent tustle for supremacy.

Blackback Gorilla showing injuries from fighting, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

The best fun is watching the babies play with each other, as they shin up trees and noisily crash through the undergrowth.

Baby Gorilla, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

It's hard to convey the sense of fellowship that you feel in the presence of these creatures. When you make eye contact there is a ineffable sense of understanding.

Gorilla, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

After our all-too-brief hour is up, we are lucky to run into one of the UWA vets who explains how they stitched-up the wounds of the blackback we saw earlier. They had to put him to sleep using a dart gun but, because the gorillas use sticks as weapons and the gun resembles a stick, they had to go though a whole pantomime of hiding it in between two rangers, allowing the gorilla to go to sleep without making any reaction and then choosing just the right moment to move him. He reminds me in some ways of my inspiring friend Verné, a vet I met in Cambodia and later Colombia, working with the endangered freshwater dolphins there.

Gorilla medic and rangers, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

Ranger, Rushegura group, Bwindi National Park

The next day I go for a trek, with a couple of fellow travellers. This forest really is a special place and impossible to capture its play of light, dimension and complexity in photos.

Bwindi National Park

Red-Tailed Monkey, Bwindi National Park

Bwindi National Park

Max and Olivier, Bwindi National Park

We end up straying a bit from the small 'self-guided trail' and into some areas that really we should have bought a new permit for. Later the rangers give us a bit of a talking to..

I head on to Ruhija, where Max has told me to stop and get a Ugandan taco from Patience, who runs a little stall there. After the winds and curls of the little tracks I am ready to eat well and she doesn't disappoint. I never forget a good guacamole. Also eating there are some Batwa who are the local pygmies recently evicted from their forest homes in Bwindi. In the evening I watch the very 80s Sigourney Weaver film "Gorillas in the Mist", complete with fake gorillas. She plays Dian Fossey, the famous american gorilla researcher who lived with the gorillas in the sixties and seventies until being murdered in 1985 for her militant conservationist views. The Batwa are depicted as evil gorilla murderers and she tries to freak them out by pretending to be a witch. These ones are scared enough just by my motorbike.

Buhoma-Ruhija road

Buhoma-Ruhija road

Black & White Colobus monkey, Buhoma-Ruhija road

  

Patience's taco stall, Ruhija

Patience's kids, Ruhija

Then onto Lake Bunyonyi and a boat trip out to Itambira island and the paradise of the Byoona Amagara Project, community-run lodging. I relax in the tranquility, rousing myself for a bit of paddling in a dugout at one point. These things have the handling characteristics of a shopping trolley and I find myself doing the mzungu corkscrew at times.

View from my bedside, Byoona Amagara, Itambira Island, Lake Bunyonyi

Byoona Amagara, Itambira Island, Lake Bunyonyi

Dugouts, Byoona Amagara, Itambira Island, Lake Bunyonyi

Byoona Amagara, Itambira Island, Lake Bunyonyi

Then on to Rwanda. A nice easy ride and straightforward border crossing, albeit with a naughty moneychanger who gives me some 100 coins and convinces me they are 1000s..

In Kigali, as usual with capitals, I just mend all the things that I have broken. A bit of welding in a muddy yard in a rainstorm (inexplicably no electrocution involved thankfully) and a visit to the heart-wrenching genocide memorial. Something else I have no words for.