Jul 29, 2017 - Eagles Nest Lodge, Lake Mburo National Park to Kampala

Saturday 29th July 2017 Eagles Nest Lodge, Lake Mburo National Park to Kampala Left the Eagles Nest Lodge around 8:15am today, down the steep hill towards the village. We then drove back into the national park on a morning game drive, spotting vervet monkeys, zebras, giraffes, waterbuck, Impala and warthog together with a number of bird species. We drove for about an hour and three quarters and then headed towards Kampala on the main road. At first there was not much traffic and we reached the Equator and stopped for lunch at a restaurant...

Jul 28, 2017 - Kisoro to Eagles Nest Lodge, Lake Mburo National Park

Friday 28th July 2017 Kisoro to Eagles Nest Lodge, Lake Mburo National Park After breakfast today, we set off at about 8:00am from the Travellers Rest Hotel in Kisoro and drove in a northeasterly direction along good roads through absolutely spectacular mountain country with steep sided hills entirely cultivated with every type of crop. We drove through many small towns and a couple of very large towns like Kabale (population 600,000) which is where you turn south to go into Rwanda, until we reached Mbarara (population 1 million) where we...

Jul 27, 2017 - Mountain Gorilla Tracking in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park

Thursday 27th July 2017 Mountain Gorilla tracking in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest National Park This morning we were up at 5:00am for an early breakfast in the hotel. The day was fine and cool as this town is in the hills. After breakfast, we set off just after 6:00am in the dark to drive about one and a half hours towards the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. The road up to there was very poor and as the day slowly dawned, we were travelling on bumpy roads with precipitous drops off, but everywhere, no matter how steep the hillside, there...

Jul 26, 2017 - Ishasha Jungle Lodge to Travellers Rest Hotel, Kisoro, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest N. Park

Wednesday 26th July 2017 Ishasha Jungle Lodge to Travellers Rest Hotel, Kisoro, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest N. Park This morning we woke up at 6:15am for a 7:00am breakfast. We left the lodge about 8:15am and headed off on a morning game drive to search for the elusive tree climbing lions. This National Park has only been in operation since 2010 and hasn't yet had time to build up a big lion population so it was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack! We saw some elephants, antelopes, vultures and then at around 9:40am, the...

Jul 25, 2017 - Katara Lodge, Queen Elizabeth National Park to Ishasha Jungle Lodge, QE N.P.

Tuesday 25th July 2017 Katara Lodge, Queen Elizabeth National Park to Ishasha Jungle Lodge, QE N.P. Slept outside on the open balcony all night and awoke at about 6:45am to a beautiful view of the valley. We were situated on the escarpment and had a view over the whole valley. Very beautiful, although no time to sit and savour the view. After breakfast we drove into the southern part of the Queen Elizabeth National Park for a game drive, looking for the tree climbing lions that inhabit this area. We didn't see any lions, but saw mostly...

Jul 24, 2017 - Kibale National Forest Park to Queen Elizabeth Nationa

Monday 24th July 2017 Kibale Forest National Park to Katara Lodge, Queen Elizabeth National Park This morning, we had breakfast and left our hotel at about 8:30am. Today was overcast looking showery but not raining. We drove through small villages and green countryside, heading west then south. Past huge, deep (2,500 metres) volcanic craters filled with water and surrounded by green hillsides. Passed through a company town Hima where there is a huge cement manufacturing industry. We arrived in Kasese, a bustling market town, around 10:30am...

Jul 23, 2017 - Chimpanzee Tracking and Bigodi Wetlands, Kibale Forest National Park

Sunday 23rd July 2017 Chimpanzee Tracking and Bigodi Wetlands, Kibale Forest National Park Up early today, had breakfast at 6:30am and were ready to leave at around 7:00am, but our guide Adrian had slept in so we were about 30 minutes late leaving. We arrived at the Kibale Forest National Park and signed in the guest book and were allocated a guide, Jennifer, who was armed with a semi automatic rifle. We also were accompanied by Thomas who was a work intern. We were driven round via the road and dropped off at the start of the chimpanzee...

Jul 22, 2017 - Murchison River Lodge to Kibale National Park

Saturday 22nd July 2017 Murchison River Lodge to Chimpanzee Forest Guest House, Kibale National Park Today was a driving day as we headed away from the lodge south towards Kibale National Park. We drove through beautiful green countryside with lush vegetation and many small holdings where vegetables of all types were grown. Uganda is remarkably fertile looking being in the tropics with regular wet seasons. At present it is the dry cooler season, so no rain and very pleasant temperatures. There are, as always in Africa, many people walking...

Jul 21, 2017 - Murchison Falls NP

Friday 21st July 2017 Murchison River Lodge, Uganda Up very early today. Breakfast at 6:00am then on the truck at 6:40am for a drive to the ferry then a game drive in the Murchison Falls National Park. On the game drive, we saw many animals including lions, giraffes, hippos, elephants, buffalo, antelopes, warthog, hyena and many birds. We were out on the game drive until nearly 12 noon criss crossing the park in order to catch sight of as many animals as we could. After we had finished the game drive, we drove back to the ferry and mingled...

Jul 20, 2017 - Kampala to Murchison River Lodge

Thursday 20th July 2017 Kampala to Murchison River Lodge, Uganda Today we were up at 6:30am, breakfast at 7:00am in the hotel. Left Kampala at around 8:00am, drove through the suburbs to the countryside. Kampala has a population of about 2 million people and is very busy. Once we left the city we drove north through many small and medium sized towns. It is very green and there are many crops, people also seem to have their own allotments where they grow veggies etc. We stopped at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary where we tracked white rhinos....

Jul 19, 2017 - Dubai, UAE to Entebbe Airport, Kampala, Uganda

Wednesday 19th July 2017 Dubai, UAE to Kampala, Ugsnda Connecting flight from Dubai to Kampala left at about 9:45am and we landed in Uganda at about 1:30pm. After a long wait to get our passports stamped, we met our guide Adrian, in the arrivals hall. There were 4 others on the trip, a couple are from Melbourne, a single lady from Brisbane and a single lady from the Central Coast. They all seem very pleasant. After we had all arrived we drove to the hotel through very busy traffic and the usual sights of an African city. It was a long way...

Feb 21, 2017 - First meeting of 4th degree with Mountain Gorillas

Feb 21-22: Travelled later towards the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest – five hours but unfortunately no tree-climbing lions enroute. Bwindi Lodge another excellent property from Volcanoes Safari. Rustic and authentic, big, well decorated rooms. The showers were a fun part. Expect same in Tanzania but basically a canvas type bag with hot water with a watering can spout. Worked out well and did the needful (as they say in India). One night R&R and wake-up call at 05:15 to head off to the purpose of our trip – trekking the mountain gorillas....