Uganda

Entebbe, Kisoro, Kibale, Jinya

From March 10th to March 19th, 2025

Day 1

• Left midday from Mauritius direct to Uganda on Air Kenya and landed in Entebbe around 10pm. By 11pm we made it to our hotel, next to the President of Uganda’s house, The Karibou Guest House. We quickly went to sleep but had to wake up the next morning by 5:45 for our 7:30am flight.

Day 2

• By 6:45am we were on a bus to a plane at the airport in Entebbe on our way to Kisoro for our gorilla adventure. Landed at 8:15am in Kisoro and within an hour we were at the Chameleon Hill Lodge, our place for the next few days.

• Max went to the room to catch up on things while Hailey went for an African foot massage (very strong). Lunch consisted of kebabs, rice and vegetables.

• We went for a walk into town, about 45 minutes from our hotel. From there we had an adventurous day, watching kids come down the hillside after school, yelling hello to every corner of the street where we could hear young kids voices reaching out, and we even picked up a shadow of about 7 young school children who were peppering us with questions and laughing at our answers (mostly just hearing us speak english made them laugh). We unknowingly made our way to their schoolyard playground where there must have been 200 kids playing all around at all different ages and all different games. It seemed that the boys mostly played with the boys and the girls played with the girls. A bit overwhelmed with the stir we were causing and with how our entourage was growing, we decided to head back to the hotel. Before making it back to the hotel, we passed another small group of girls who did some dances with Hailey. It was a cheerful and fulfilling 1.5 hour walk around the village.

Day 3

• This morning we were up at 6am to head to the park for our gorilla trek. We were greeted with a traditional song and dance inspired by the Batwa people, and then heard the good news that we were not going to be trekking with any other groups. We would have the mountains, guides and gorillas all to ourselves! We quickly learned however, that our trek would be a more challenging one and we persuaded our guide, Wilson, to come with us.

• It took about an hour and a half trek down the mountain, through an expansive tea field, past local farmers plots, across a few brooks, through the Bwindi Impenatrable Forest, further through the thick brush and stinging nettles before we came to find the Posho gorilla. The Posho gorilla family consists of 17 members and the silverback that leads them is 22 years old. During our hour long visit with the family, we probably saw about 10 of the 17 members, the highlight of course was seeing the silverback, watching him call to his family members (encouraging them to come closer since there were “outsiders” around), and watching the smallest of the gorillas play around on the silverback’s back and beat his chest; mimicking the main leader silverback. Collectively we have thousands of pictures and videos. It’s impossible to not film every second.

• After our entertaining hour with the primates of the mountain, we started our ascent back to the main town… 90% uphill. In total the hike was just under 3 miles, but an elevation gain of 1,500 feet, at an altitude of 6,000 feet). The rest of the day was rest and relaxation!

Day 4

• At 9:30am we made our way down from the lodge to the lake for a boat ride, a local community visit and bird/wildlife watching.

• The community visit was our favorite, visiting the school children, watching them sing and dance, going in the classroom with them, answering their questions, writing on the chalk board, letting them show off their english, giving high fives and fist bumps, and generally just having a fun time. We stopped by the ladies market to take a look at their crafts and picked up a few. The ladies of this village were especially cheeky and although we couldn’t understand the words they were saying, we could tell they were joking around with us about all kinds of things.

• A stop at the skeleton cave was obligatory before we headed back to the hotel and sat for lunch. Posho, metoke, rice & beans were on the menu.

Day 5

• We were up at 6:45am to head back to the airport in Kisoro to head to Kibale. The morning dew and haze over the volcanos and mountains was mystical.

• We took off at 8:15am and were in Kibale by 9:45am. We drove past their massive Friday market in town and saw hoards of people walking to the market with their items to sell or trade with others. It was a spectacle to see.

• At 12:30 we had lunch at the Primate Lodge, and then rested before going out later for a walking tour to see monkeys and birds: red tail monkeys, hornbill bird, black and white colobus, olive baboons, lines of army ants, a few other birds, and many more insects. It was hot and we were overheating.

Day 6

• By 8am we were at the Kibale National Park to spend our morning with the chimpanzees! We walked about an our with our small group of 4, picking up all the burrs along the way, until we found a group of chimps. Moving fast on the floor, we had to move swiftly to keep up with them - very different than the gorillas. The highlight of the chimp trekking was hearing all the chimps communicate with each other, loudly, making all kinds of noises, sometimes ear piercingly loud, and then watching them all scramble off to a new spot.

• At 4pm, we went out for a walking tour of Kibale. We walked by a field of kids playing soccer, stopped to spend time with ladies working on local hand made crafts (we picked up some Christmas ornaments!), stopped at a lady’s house and watched her make local coffee, walked past some locals making clay bricks, then the final stop of the day was at a banana distillery where we tried banana juice, banana beer, and banana gin. It was hot and tiring, but very worth the visit.

Day 7

• By 11am we were about ready to take off and head to Kasese. Once landing the drive was about 3 hours to the Nile River because it had just rained and the street mud had all turned slippery and cars were sliding down the hill.

• We finally made it to the Lempala Wildwaters lodge by 2:45pm and were blown away at the property and the view, resting on an island in the middle of the Nile River with water rapids rushing by. It was one of the most impressive hotels, from an adventure standpoint, we’ve stayed at - anywhere. A glass of wine on the deck overlooking the water was a must.

Day 8

• By 8am we were on our way to our excursion of rafting rapids down the Nile River. In total we rafted about 13 miles, swimming, floating rafting, and rapid-ing through class 2 rapids up to class 5’s. We were on the boat from 8am-1pm, having a snack of pineapples and watermelon as we floated down the river alongside fishermen and locals washing their clothes and their bodies.

Day 9

• After a 3 hour journey back to Entebbe, we had a quick lunch then hopped on a boat on Lake Victoria to take our chances at viewing the elusive and infamous shoebill bird. We headed out to the Mabamba Swamp and took a smaller moccoro/canoe style motor boat through the swamp, until we had to start paddling ourselves through the thick muddy brush. Finally, we made our way to the back of the brush canal and laid eyes on this prehistoric looking bird as it sat in it’s nest.

• The bird didn’t do much other than clean itself, yawn a few times (that was the highlight), and seemingly have a staredown with us on the boat. Like with the gorillas, we filmed every second hoping to catch some kind of action on film. After about an hour watching the bird, learning that it was about a year old, and there are only 15 or so of them in this area, we headed back through the swampy maze on our way back to Entebbe. While sorting through the swamp, we did see another shoebill flying above us, and that was a sight to see.

Day 10

• Up at 6, car by 6:30, flight to Johannesburg by 9:30am via Uganda Air.