Photos

Uganda Photos

Uganda has been called the "Pearl of Africa" by quite a few people, well it really is. We spent three weeks exploring, and even though it is the smallest country on our trip so far besides Tunisia, it was certainly not enough.

The Nile. We have followed this great river for over half our journey through Africa. This is the source at Jinja in Uganda.

The mist rising off the Nile in the early morning. This picture is taken from the campsite run by the Nile River Explorers. What a great campsite it is too.

About 380km North of Kampala is the Murchison Falls National Park. The Nile river is forced through a narrow gap and forms a huge, roaring waterfall.

Camping at the Murchison Falls Park is right at the top of the water fall. It is very loud but peaceful. It is a very remote campsite and we were completely alone here.

The Nile river is full of crocodiles and hippos so don't go swimming. This is a few km downstream from Murchison Falls , but they are everywhere.

Fishermen on one of the Crater Lakes just East of Fort Portal on the edge of the Kigali Forest. Look for the community campsites rather than those written about in the travel books, they are far quieter.

Uganda is famous for it's batique art. This teacher supplements his income through his art. Here is Renee negotiating a deal (not too hard to do).

In the far Southern corner of Uganda is a chain of Volcanoes shared with the Democratic Repuiblic of the Congo and Rwanda. This is where the Mgahinga Gorilla park is.

Camp at the community camp site. It's great.

While we were waiting for permits to go and see the gorillas we went on a visit to the village blacksmith. In a small 92m diameter) grass hut, the blacksmith makes knives and fixes ploughs on a small, hand blown, fire. We were very privileged to get a demonstration of his knife making skills and were presented with a small knife usually used for harvesting wheat. It took two hours and were amazed to see how he took a lump of metal and turned it into a very sharp knife, including handle, using nothing but rocks and a hot fire.

We were not able to "Trek" gorillas at Mgahinga so we went to the impenetrable forest at Bwindi. It really is hard going and we trekked for three hours before seeing the gorillas. This is our group, only six visitors a day, heading into the dark world of rain forests. Bloody hard work it was too!!!!

Did I say hard work, well forget all about it, when you get to see the gorillas then it is all irrelevant. This is one of the highlights of the trip, to see these incredible gorillas is fantastic.

When trekking the gorillas you go with a guide and, recently, an armed escort. The tragic event of Americans being kidnapped a few months before by DRC rebels and mercilessly marched through the forest and hacked to death brought the Ugandan army down to this region in force. Even so they were a very friendly bunch and taught us about the vegetation and how they live. Luckily the rules still apply, only six people and a guide at the gorillas, so the soldiers lay low when you approach the family.

Not only is the walking hard work, the driving is too. This is the route out of Bwindi to Kabale in Southern Uganda. Very slow going.

Uganda cows are bred for their large horns. This is one of a herd seen near Mbarara, one of the only times I had to pay for a picture. To see a whole herd of the huge beasts with horns like towers is amazing.

Having decided not to leave Uganda through Kenya we went looking for a ferry. This one leaves Port Bell, 35km South of Kampala, every Monday, and arrives at Mwanza in Tanzania the next day. But beware - it's not a RORO (Roll On Roll Off), though when we saw this we thought it may be a Fall Off. Scott's underneath with his arms spread out ready to catch.