I know, you can’t believe it can you, going back to Uganda again. Oh, you meant Emma reaching the ripe old age of 50! Well it was a couple of months off but we used the Easter break as an excuse to visit one of our favourite countries on a luxury tour to celebrate Emma’s half century. We wanted a mix of old favourites and some new experiences. It had been quite difficult to visit the far north of Uganda when we lived there due to conflict and awful road conditions, so now that was a possibility, Kidepo National park was high on our list. We contacted a tour company we had used several times, Kjong safaris ( www.kjongsafarisuganda.com ) , and Stephen, the owner, organised a personalised tour for us after several changes of itinerary.
The trip didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. We had tickets booked on Rwanda Air from Addis to Entebbe via Rwanda. We arrived well in advance at Bole airport at 2 am to find no check in or evidence of Rwanda Air. We spoke to staff from Ethiopian Airlines and they seemed to know the situation and told us to wait and we would be transferred to an Ethiopian flight. After 5 hours of waiting we were told to go away. Ermm, what to do. Couldn’t contact Rwanda Air or the 3rd party I had booked the ticket through. Basically we had to book a new flight on Ethiopian at a much higher cost. No other option as we had the whole safari booked and paid for, we were not missing out on that. So off we set much later that afternoon but at least we were back on track.
We had a guest house booked in Entebbe and our mood improved as we arrived just before dark to a lovely room, a lush garden, some tasty food and cold Tusker lagers – let the holiday begin.
We were supposed to go on a trip the afternoon we arrived to Mbamba Swamp in search of shoe bills. Our late arrival put paid to that but the owner of the guest house organised a guide for first thing the next morning. I’m not sure why we never got round to this trip when we were living in Kampla as it was fantastic. Our lady guide collected us and we walked to the shores of Lake Victoria to get a ferry across. Once on the other side we got boda bodas (motorbike taxis) through the villages and banana palm plantations to the wetlands area. The tour then started as we were punted around the narrow channels in search of the elusive shoe bill. We looked for ages with no luck but the scenery was lovely and we there was plentiful of other birdlife. We were beginning to despair that we would ever see a shoe bill in the wild when we went down an even narrower slip of water, the boatman pushing reeds out of the way and there was this incredible creature. We were glad that we hadn’t missed out on this experience and the full morning trip was great.
After calling back at the guest house to collect our bags we were in a taxi on the way to kampala. The new highway between Entebbe and Kampala was a revelation to us and we were dropped off at our digs in Kisimenti in 45 mins. We have taken 3 hours to do the trip previously on the old road! Unfortunately, the place we had booked didn’t have our room but they found us suitable accommodation over the road so that was fine. We headed into Kisimenti in search of beer, food and football. Now we knew that our favourite bar, Just Kicking, had relocated but we could not find the new place. Kisimenti had changed a lot and the place was buzzing. It used to be an expat place but it was great to see locals thronging the shopping centre and restaurants. As kick off was approaching in the City v Spurs game we gave up on Just Kicking and went into Arena One Sports Bar and Grill. I think it used to be called Iguana when we lived there and was a bit of a dark drinking den. Now it is a fantastic bar with open terrace, food, cold beers and loads of tvs for the football. Phil Foden scored the winner in a close 1-0 win to keep City’s title challenge alive, so things were going well.
We had an early start the next morning and Peter was waiting outside with the safari van way before first light as we had a long road trip ahead. We had hoped we would get Peter as our driver as we had been lucky enough to be escorted by him before and he is a great safari guide, driver and person. The van had been upgraded too, it had the pop up safari roof but an added bonus was the plug in cool box for water (obviously) and charging points for phones and camera. We were travelling in style – well you are only 50 once. It was a lengthy trip up north to Kidepo but travelling in Uganda is always easy on the eye and it didn’t seem such a drag. The road was really good all the way to Kitgum where we broke for lunch before hitting the dirt road for the last 2 hours to our accommodation. We arrived at Kidepo Savannah Lodge early afternoon and what a fantastic place. We had a luxury safari tent overlooking the savannah of kidepo towards the mountains in South Sudan. We had an amazing few days staying at the lodge and going on several safaris in the park. We saw heaps of wildlife but for us it was the stunning scenery and the vast remoteness of Kidepo that made it so very special.
All too soon it was time to move on. The rest of the trip would see us visit some of our favourite places in Uganda. Next stop was Murchison Falls, a park we had been to many times but this time we were going to stay within the park but north of the Nile which we had never done before. Pakuba Lodge is situated in an amazing location with views across the Nile. When we arrived in the afternoon we had the place to ourselves and we relaxed by the pool. We had a sunset safari and of course we were falling over the wildlife. Only the elusive leopard managed to keep himself, well, elusive. Next morning we were up early before sunrise and on safari as we drove down to the jetty as we had a boat safari organised down to the delta. Most boat trips head up to the falls which is incredible but we had done that excursion many times. The delta trip would be a new experience for us. What we didn’t realise was that we would be on a private tour on a small boat. We headed towards the delta as the sun rose behind us on the Nile, special. This is an area where you have a chance to see the rare shoe bill but we were not to be lucky twice. At least we had seen one in Mwamba so was the pressure was off and the trip was great with lots of birdlife, hippos and crocs.
We broke up the long journey to Queen Elizabeth National Park in our favourite Ugandan town, Fort Portal. We enjoyed our umpteenth stay at the Duchess and wandered around town getting supplies for the rest of the trip. We even met up with some friends from Addis for a drink. They were relishing their time out of Addis just like us. At QENP we had a boat trip and safari which as always was fantastic. We were not staying inside the park but just outside it at Park View Lodge, it did what it said on the tin, we had an incredible view looking down onto the plains of QENP. It was a bit of shame that we arrived as it was getting dark and had to leave in the morning as it is a beautiful lodge.
The next day we had a long road trip to one of our favourite places, Lake Mburu National Park and we were staying at Rwekobo Rock – yah. This small lodge is fantastic and we have stayed there on numerous occasions. The staff, food and rooms are brilliant and they now have a pool. The view is unbelievable but we dragged ourselves away for a sunset safari. Another change from our previous visits is that they have reintroduced the endangered Rothchild’s giraffe and we were lucky enough to see them.
We had to drag ourselves away from Rwekobo Rock the next morning as we had a flight to catch back to Addis – urgghhhh. We had time for one last meal and Tusker in Phase 3 overlooking Lake Victoria while we waited for our flight. Stephen the owner of Kjong safaris joined us to see if all had gone well. We said it had, brilliant driver/guide in Peter and great accommodation and experiences. We highly recommend them if you fancy a tour around Uganda. Stephen and Peter were asking about Addis and Ethiopia. They were under the impression that Ethiopia was a much more advanced country than Uganda. We tried to explain to the contrary but they didn’t believe us. That was until we asked them to stop at Shoprite in the mall in Entebbe and they watched in amazement as we filled 2 empty suitcase with food to take back to Addis!
We had a truly incredible trip back to Uganda and well worthy of a celebration for Emma’s 50 not out.
Ps. After several weeks contacting Rwanda Air, it turns out that they were supposed to start flying the Addis – Kigali route but the start date had been put back. They didn’t think to tell us though! We finally got our money back and an upgrade to business class next time I fly Rwanda Air – I think not.
